The Enigma That is Jared Ross

I was flipping through the channels the other week and found myself watching the American Hockey League (AHL) All-Star game. Unfortunately, I did not see any of the action as the game was over. However, I was able to see the presentation of the MVP Award (sponsered by some fast-food chain, I believe). The recipient of the 2009 AHL All-Star game MVP was a man named Jared Ross, a forward who plays for the Philadelphia Phantoms.  Jared had seven points in that game (an AHL all-star game record), six assists (another AHL all-star game record) and one goal (not so much a record). That’s a pretty good night. I thought to myself, “Alright! Jared Ross, sounds like a Jewish name. It’s nice to see a Jewish hockey player!” Now, I am strictly going by his name, I do not know for sure that Jared Ross is Jewish. I tried to google this, but could not come out with a definitive answer. If you are not Jewish, then I sincerely apologize, Jared.

Now, being a Jewish professional hockey player, Jared is in the minority. However, while watching the game I discovered another fact about Jared that puts him in another minority. He was born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama! Seriously! So not only is Jared Ross a Jewish hockey, he is a Jewish hockey player from Alabama! According to an article on ahl.com, Jared played college hockey at the University of Alabama-Huntsville…who knew that the University of Alabama had a hockey team!? The article on ahl.com also stated that Jared ranks in the top three in school history in goals, assists and points. He led the team in scoring in each of his final three seasons, was a three-time College Hockey Association First-Team All-Star, and was the conference player of the year in 2003-04.

In the beginning of this season, Jared made his debut for the Philadelphia Flyers at their home opener against the Rangers of all teams (shows how observant I am). Jared became the first player born and trained in Alabama to play in the NHL. Congratulations, Jared! It’s about time someone broke that barrier. Was this the game where Sarah Palin was boo’ed when dropping the ceremonial puck?

I find this story quite interesting. Who knew Alabama was able to produce a NHL player? Who knew that there are Jews in Alabama (that is a GROSS generalization on my part…clearly there has to be a proud Jewish community in the state…just my attempt of being humorous…sorry if that offends any Alabama Jews). As Jack @ http://notaplumber.blogspot.com put it, what is more rare: a Jewish hockey player or a Jew in Alabama? I just wanted to share this to my readers as I think this is a random story and fun fact to learn. Maybe someone, one day, can win a bunch of money in a trivia game by knowing who the first Alabama-Native was in the NHL.

Ironically enough, according to the article on ahl.com, Jared was traded to Philadelphia for Niko Dimitrakos, A Greek-American hockey player. For those who know me, I am half-Jewish/half-Greek, so this intrigued me quite a bit. I bet this was the first time in professional sports history that a Jew was traded for a Greek.

Learn More About Jared Ross:

http://www.theahl.com/news/league/index.html?article_id=8957

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Ross

We Want Manny!

Mets fans want Manny Ramirez…it’s no secret. Mannymania is all over WFAN, SNY and the blogs. Mets fans are not worried about his personality or “Manny being Manny” because he is one of the greatest hitters of this generation that comes through when it matters. As I have stated in a previous post, I too want Manny. His personality did not stop the Red Sox from winning two championships or the Dodgers from winning the division (two things the Mets have failed to do in the past two seasons). There was a rally last week at the SNY studios of about 40 or so people for the Mets to sign Manny and apparently there will be another rally at CitiField on Saturday (or whatever it will called by then). I hope this rally will have a bigger turnout, not that 40 people is a bad turnout, but the more people to get the message out the better.

If so many Mets fans are calling for Manny, the Mets should listen. Mets management owes something big, like Manny Ramirez, to Mets fans after the way the past two seasons ended. It is unacceptable for the Mets to be raising tickets prices at such an astronomical rate just to keep their team salary the same from 2008 to 2009 (Metsblog reported that this season’s team salary is around $145 million, the same as in 2008). Where is this money going? The new stadium is finished…they will not need anymore money to finance it. Citigroup is apparently not backing out of their deal, so the team is keeping around $400 million dollars. I understand that Bernie Madoff screwed the Wilpons out millions of dollars, but the Mets claim that that money had nothing to do with the Mets’ budget. And do not think to say that it’s a recession and Wilpons cannot afford another big name player, they have not adjusted ticket prices for their new stadium, they do not seem to care how the recession is affecting their fans. What’s wrong with another $25 million dollar investment for the 2009 and beyond? That money will be chump change compared to the money the team will make off Manny (merchandising, national television deals, etc.). Just look at how Woody Johnson milked every single dollar out of Brett Farve. What will bring more money to the Mets than a World Series Victory? Nobody will argue that Manny will make the Mets the favorite in the National League. The team fixed their bad bullpen and now needs to fix their poor clutch hitting from last season. Manny is the clutch hitter, hands down. I have no problem with giving him two years and an option for a third ($25 for the first two and $30 for the option). Honestly, although I am hesitant to guarantee a third year, I will do it at this point. Manny is a hitting machine, and has been a hitting machine for the past five years. There have been no signs of a dramatic drop off. How much worse will Manny be in three years? I do not think it will be a huge regression. Nobody else seems to be close to signing Manny; the Dodgers do not want to give him what he wants and the Giants are just claiming to be interested so the Dodgers will outbid themselves. The time is perfect for the Mets to jump in. Let’s do this, Omar, Jeff and Fred. It’s time to give to the fans a big thank you.

PS: The additions of Orlando Hudson (who is waiting for either NY team to call him) and Joe Beimel…as well as the subtraction of Luis Castillo will also be welcomed by me.

DO THE RIGHT THING TICKETMASTER!!!

I’m sick of Ticketmaster. As I have noted in a previous post, they are pure evil, but we have no choice but to use them as they are the only source to buy tickets at face value. The last straw came on Monday morning at 9am as I went into work early to make sure I was at my computer to buy Bruce Springsteen tickets. As many know, Bruce is my favorite musician, so I was very much looking forward to buying tickets to his concert at Nassau Coliseum after his kick-ass halftime show and his great album just being released.

So, at 9am I went to buy tickets and waited in the “internet line” for about 15-20 minutes. When my turn finally came around I received ths message:

	Our ticketing system is currently unavailable due to routine maintenance. Please check back at a later time.
	(0×200111)

Sucks, right? I tried buying tickets again even though I realized that the show was probably sold out at that point. After waiting in line for the second time, I again received the same message. I emailed Ticketmaster about my problem but have not heard back yet. I noticed today that I am not the only person who had this problem (http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/02/03/ticketmaster-admits-springsteen-sale-wasnt-our-finest-hour/) and (http://www.newsday.com/iphone/ny-nyspring0204,0,5620915.story). I am calling for Ticketmaster, the personification of greed to DO THE RIGHT THING FOR IT’S CUSTOMERS! How dare they try to advertise their “used to be illegal” TicketsNow website and scalp tickets for way over face value on their website.  If those are Ticketmaster’s tickets (which I am not sure they are), they should let people like us, who were online at 9am be able to buy at face value. SHAME ON YOU TICKETMASTER. According to Rolling Stone, there are 697 tickets available on TicketsNow, enough to satisfy a lot of angry customers. The article on Newsday noted that Ticketmaster claims that only a few people experienced this problem. Well, if only a few people had this problem, then it will not be a burden to your company to fix your mistake and let us buy the tickets we earned by logging on at 9am! I doubt that this will be rectified or that Ticketmaster will even respond to my email (I am still waiting). Ticketmaster has been nothing but a disappointment. But what else should I expect, they cannot be held accountable for their actions. However, US Rep Bill Pascrell is calling for a federal probe on a conflict of interest between TicketsNow and Ticketmaser. I have no clue what could come of that but no matter what, it looks like I am stuck here without Bruce Springsteen tickets and will have to resort to trying to buy them for way over face value. Unless Ticketmaster DOES THE RIGHT THING FOR ITS LOYAL CUSTOMERS INSTEAD OF THINKING WITH THEIR WALLET. If you are a loyal reader to Mattisblogging I urge you to email Ticketmaster about this matter on their website. Annoy @ http://ticketmasterus.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ticketmasterus.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Flight of the Conchords….ARE OFFICIALLY BACK!

I was a little worried about it at first. The first episode of the new season was kind of lame. Plus, I read somewhere (last year) that the guys ran out of songs and were having a hard time creating new ones for the new season. It was also somewhat ominous to see that “Scrubs” took two characters from the Flight of the Conchords (the woman-player and the racist grocery stand owner), although they were not reoccurring characters. But this past week’s episode, the second of the new season, was great! Jermaine and Brett becoming male prostitutes to buy their guitars back…that they sold in order to pay the bills…all because they were short $2.75…the EXACT amount of money Brett used to buy a second cup for the apartment! That is CLASSIC Conchords! I really had a LOL experience watching the episode. But the best part about the episode were the two new songs, which is the real reason I wrote this post: to share those songs with you. The brilliant part is these songs is that they could actually be top 40 hit songs…where has mainstream music gone?? “Sugarlumps” is like the male version of “My Humps”…and Dave’s rap at the end is hilarious. As for, “You Don’t Have to Be a Prostitute,” is that Brett or UB40?!?!? That song should be blasting through college dorms while kids are getting high as we speak (isn’t that right Ras Trent aka: Andy Samberg?!?) Anyway here are the videos…can’t wait til next episode!

Sugar Lumps

You Don’t Have to Be a Prostitute

The Strangest Thing to Happen to Mattisblogging

Plagiarism. That’s right, plagiarism. I was thankfully alerted to this about a half an hour ago from Matthew Zellman (of Zehl Steen Think Pound fame), who “googles” his group 20 minutes after every waking hour (J/K!). He pointed out that the blog “I’m finally rockin!” copied my November 14th review of the Zehl Steen Think Pound show…WORD FROM WORD!

See my post @ http://mattisblogging.wordpress.com/2008/11/14/review-zehlsteen-think-pound-102808/

See their “post” @ http://im-finally-rockin.blogspot.com/2008/11/review-zehlsteen-think-pound-102808.html

Now, I am experiencing numerous emotions right now. First off, I am flattered that someone liked my work enough to steal it from me. Mattisblogging must be doing something right to be cited by a famous comedian (Mike Birbiglia) and be plagiarized from.

I am also very confused: why take this post? Are you trying to pretend that you were there? Are you using my blog as an alibi that you couldn’t be somewhere else that night (i.e., a date?). It’s just such a strange post to take. There are so many other post, that discuss much more mainstream, well-known topics. To take a review about a regional sketch comedy group? I don’t know…

But I am mostly outraged! Who does this man, James, think he is? Well I’ll answer that question for him as bluntly as I can (in a 4th-grade dialect)…he’s a copy cat! I was at that Zehl Steen Think Pound Show, and as my review noted, there were only about 10 people in the audience (and I knew five of them). I did not see James there. When I asked Matthew Zellman if he knew who he was, he could not recall knowing him.

Not only did he take my blog post, he also feigned on the fact that he attended the show! Zehl Stein Think Pound is a burgeoning group, they don’t need invisible fans, they need real fans! They need real tukoses in the seats, not people pretending they were there! Although, Zehl Steen is probably happy with the additionally free publicity, so I will leave that point at that.

My crack research team (aka: Jack @ http://notaplumber.blogspot.com) has also pointed out three more examples of plagiarism. Here’s one of them.

Original Post: http://djcnor.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/difference-and-sensitivity-to-it/

James’ “Post”: http://im-finally-rockin.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2008-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=15

Hat tip to Jack for doing the work!

However, I am not jumping to conclusions yet. There may be a perfectly good reason that James has used my review in his blog. Perhaps he just really liked the post. Maybe he really is a fan of Zehl Steen Think Pound and wanted to get the word out about the group. However, he was too lazy to create his own review or copy the videos. Or maybe his blog revolves around showcasing other blogs that he likes (but doesn’t tell the reader that).

Ironically, I have a had conversation just today about copyright. I learned that a musician can use a “poor-man-copyright” technique by putting their music on a CD and mail it to themselves and never open the envelope. At that point, whatever is on that CD is considered a copyright piece of work. What do blogs have to do copyright their work. Should I email the blog to myself and never open the email? I will have to consult my lawyer on this.

I will contact James now to inquire about the reason for which he made his blog look identical to mine. I will encourage all my loyal readers to also leave comments on James blog http://im-finally-rocking.blogspot.com to explain himself.

We Did It!!!

We have amassed 2,009 blog hits by the year 2009! In fact, we surpassed our goal by quite a lot! I discovered we accomplished this feat around 8:30 last night. Matt is Blogging has had a great week: Mike Birbiglia thinks we are reputable, Matthew Zellman (http://matthewzsucks.blogspot.com) wrote a nice piece about us (go check out the Think Pound at UCB January 15th!) and we reached our goal of 2,009 hits. I was a little worried on Monday night that we weren’t going to make it. I want to thank everyone who checked the sites multiple times per day, told their co-workers, friends and family to visit the site and for those first-time readers who made this all possible. Have a great New Year’s Eve and be safe! See you in 2009!

Love,

Matt

Is the Curse Finally Over?

I’ve been cursed since 2007. Being a big Mets, Jets and Rangers fan, I attend a lot of games over the course of a year. Since the 2007 Mets season, it appears that the games that I attend do not seem to go well for the team I am rooting for. Now, my teams didn’t loose every game I went to, but they lost a significant majority of them. For example, I believe the Mets went on a eight or nine game loosing streak at Shea Stadium during the games I attended for a while. Also, after a hot start, where the Rangers were undefeated in the beginning of the season, I of course was in attendance for their first loss against Buffalo. It was bizarre, my teams would loose seemingly easy games they were expecting to win (i.e., Mets versus Nationals). But now that 2008 is coming a close, can the curse be coming to an end?

Let me explain. It is well-known that the Jets had a horrific end to their season, it was pretty much a debacle. The head coach, Eric “Mangenius” Mangini, ended up being fired and Brett Farve played so bad, it looked like he was throwing games. Overall, the Jets went 1-4 in their last five games. That’s a pretty bad way to end the season. HOWEVER, the one game they won (against the Buffalo Bills) was a game that I attended! If the curse was still real, then the Jets would have totally lost that game. Instead, they won in my presence! Sure, it wasn’t the prettiest win, but they still won while my tukos was in the seat. OH REDEMPTION, IT FEELS SO GOOD TO KISS YOUR BITTER LIPS!

Yes, it is strange that I am happy that my favorite football team collapsed and lost their playoff position, but it means that the Jets, Mets and Rangers are no longer at risk for a disappointing loss for the games I attend! This is great news, considering that I bought a 15-game pack at CitiField this season. Maybe the Mets will will win all 15 games. Oh 2009, I love you already!

The Big Time!

I was at work today, checking on my blog stats to see how my “Quest for 2009″ was going (see the previous post), when I noticed that I had a referral source of sleepwalkwithmike.com/press. I thought to myself, “Is the site for Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me? No, it can’t be.” But when I clicked on the link, I was miraculously redirected to the Sleepwalk with Me Official Webpage, in their “Press” section. As I scrolled to the bottom, I was shocked to see that my blog’s review of the play was added in their website! I am stoked about this! I never would have thought that my stupid, little blog would be respected enough to be put on Nathan Lane-produced play’s website.

My blog was listed underneath pretty well-known blogs such as the Gawker and Comedy Central. And under newspaper’s reviews from the New York Times, the New York and Associated Press. I would have never thought in a million years that my blog would be in the same company as those. I sort of feel that the people in charge of the play’s site don’t realize that I’m not famous, or that my blog doesn’t reach thousands of people per day. As Mike himself would say about his trip to Iraq, “I was around people gone from the United States so long, they didn’t realize that I’m not famous.” Perhaps those running the website where abroad for a very long time and came back to see this blog saying nice things about to show to think, “Wow, look at this nice review. They have borders and fancy colors, they must be well-known. Let’s put it on the site.” I’m sure they are much more well-known and well-read pages out there,  who also gave the play favorable reviews. It’s strange that they chose my site, I hope they are enough positive reviews out there (the play really deserves all the free press they get, I really enjoyed it).

When I invited Mike to leave a comment on my blog, I had a feeling that he may actually do it. But this is much better! I wonder what those around the ‘net…the people who have no idea who I am or what I do, think about the review. Maybe they are sticking around and reading the rest of the site. That would be sweet!

If “Matt Is Blogging”…is on the sleepwalkwithmike.com website today…obviously the next step is my own section in the New York Times.

Thanks for the free press, people at Sleepwalk with Me! And you had anything to do with it Mike, thanks to you too!

THE QUEST FOR 2009 BY 2009

Hello my loyal readers,

Here is the deal. As can be seen on the left side of your screen, I currently have 1,901 “Blog Hits” (hopefully it has increased since this post). For my own selfish, egotistical reasons, I want my blog stats to reach 2009 but the time the clock strikes 12AM on Thursday, December 1st 2009. This is a reach, but I believe this is possible. However, I need your help. Please spread the word about “Matt is Blogging,” to your friends, family and co-workers. Perhaps there is something on the page they find interesting. Maybe they like the Mets, Jets or Rangers? Maybe they like music? Maybe they wan’t to read something humorous? Maybe they wan’t to recap the 2008 election? It’s all here, there’s something for everyone on this blog. So what do you say? Let’s make Matt is Blogging up to the date with the year 2009. Let’s start spreading the word.

Thanks,

Matt.

Update 12:04AM

Thanks to Jack’s comment (visit his blog @ http://notaplumber.blogspot.com) we now have a name and new plan: Mattrolling. We all know “Rick Rolling” when you send someone an appealing link they are interested in only to have them see a youtube video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Well hide http://mattisblogging.wordpress.com in your links. Tell your friends it’s porn, or new article about Mariah Carey’s and Nick Canon’s baby, do whatever you need to do. Let’s hit 2009!

Initial Reactions to the New York Jets’ Last Game

- Fire Mangini. Too conservative and unprepared. He gets outcoached way too often. Does not have a good handle on the lockeroom and is horrible with media. Tries to emulate Belicheck and has no identity. Dry as a cracker.

-New coaching staff.

-Don’t bring back Farve. I have no idea who can be quarterback next season that isn’t a quick fix. I would like a long-term solution. It looks like Cassell is going back to the Pats since Brady’s rehab is behind and Belicheck doesn’t want to see Cassell go to the Jets. McNabb is over the hill, so is Kerry Collins and others that were listed. I also don’t follow college football enough to know who the good quarterbacks in the draft are. Is Drew Hensen still around?

-I’m happy to see Pennington win. I still think the Jets made the right move getting rid of him. We all knew he was going to be a winner wherever he goes, but he wasn’t working for the Jets. He will always have a fan on this blog. I hope he wins MVP and a superbowl. Good luck to you in the playoffs Chad!!!

-SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE JETS?!?!