Penn State

This is a tough post for me to write. There's no real easy way to talk about any of this.

Let me describe why this matters to me so much. Beyond the disgust of all of it.

Penn State was/is my school. I would of gone there if I was accepted into main campus. I grew up on Penn State. I believed in Joe Pa. That's Philly's college football team. Every year I would play NCAA football as them. So even though I didn't go there, I had a close connection. I have plenty of friends - best friends - who went there. It's part of me.

So with that in mind, there's a million emotions going through my mind. I'm trying to maintain a relative calm, because I was beyond angry reading the indictment last night. Angry isn't the right word. You can't classify a word for this, because its so awful we're not supposed to have a word for it.

Before we get too far into this, it's important to note that nobody knows the whole story with regards to the cover up. We only know bits and pieces, and I wouldn't be shocked to see if there is more behind that. And I'm sure there is more to the perverted old man too.

The bottom line is the overall: The kids involved. Again, words cant describe how horrible it is. You read that indictment and your stomach ties into a knot. How how how how how did this ever happen? What in the hell was going through anyone's mind? It's awful.

The crime here is life-changing. And any type of "justice" that this old bastard gets is truly far from justice. He'll go to prison for the rest of his life. That's still not fair. These are one of the times when I don't believe in the justice system. Our legal system failed these boys several times, and could have saved more from these acts. I can't say my suggestions for true justice. But it's not good. And I don't want to just kill him either. I rarely get truly angry. This was one of those times. Jail is not fair. Jail is an easy get away. No way.

As far as Joe Pa: He's like everyone's grandfather. Always high in spirits. It's been sad seeing the slow decline, yet he still flashes brilliance every now and again, making him so lovable. I never met Joe. I've seen him. It's hard to hear this and think that he knowingly ignored what happened. I can't justify it. The only possible thought I can have is: He never saw anything (to the best of our knowledge.) So to make an accusation on behalf of McCreary, that's not totally on him. That's an easy out though. It still should have weighed on his conscience. It weighs on me, and I wasn't told about it.

It's tough for me to say what should happen to Joe. He's probably been with the University longer than anyone else (and I don't just mean the football program). He's built the reputation of the school, the program, etc. Penn State is much bigger than football, but that's what most everyone associates with the school. It's hard for me to bring the hammer down on Joe, but I think his time has come. I'm hoping they let him ride this out. I believe in mistakes - if you correct them. Clearly the disgusting man made the mistake more than once - and there are rumors it could be as high as 20.

The school's name will be dragged through the gutter because of this asshole. He was in a position of power and abused it. I honestly don't even want to say his name, because it makes me sick. The onus will fall on the program. It won't truly ruin it, but who knows if it will ever become what it once was. And that's a damn shame. This man was so selfish and acted with complete disregard for these kids, his peers, his employer, and the millions of fans who live and breathe for this university.

It's amazing that at a University that prides itself on their academic and athletic excellence, something entirely different brought the team down. It wasn't boosters. It wasn't money. It wasn't anything anyone would expect. Instead it's one of the worst stories you'll ever here.

It's hard to find any positive in any of this. Penn State has handled it awfully. They don't know what to do. Nobody looks good. Everyone is just upset and distraught. I am too. I honestly had a hard time sleeping last night, thinking about how angry that indictment made me.

There's no easy resolution to this. There's no way to look past it. It will fade away with time, but never truly disappear from the legacy of Penn State and Joe Paterno.

The Throne

I went to Kanye West / Jay-Z's show last night in the Meadowlands. Was very much of a last minute thing, but man I'm glad I did.

Rap concerts are weird. Because their shows can go two ways. It's either a live band in the background playing the beats, or they play a loop of the tracks. So literally the entire show the performer has to be bringing the energy. That's the genre. But when there's a track you can't do a random song. You can't take requests. So in that sense, it's not like music the way I see it, but it's still music. Does that make sense? It's not my definition anyway.

Anyways, so the show felt just on an epic scale, but the thing is that it didn't really sound like the album at all. And that to me is always a good thing. The voices just felt more ummmph. Like they were angry, but not Eminem angry. Like they wanted to be louder than each other. And that's great. It ran through the building and made it sound awesome.

Part of the excellence of the show was that they scripted it to have an excellent balance between Jay and Ye, and both at the same time. They touched on the hits (although let's be honest, between both of them, if they played all of their popular songs it would of taken over 8 hours).

I know I've written on Kanye before, and I think he's excellent. He's annoying. He's cocky. But he is damn talented. And he's always trying to be new, better, on top of everything else. And I love it. Jay is calmer, cooler, got more swag. He's more talented lyrically, but also more reserved. He just loves life. Whereas Kanye is tortured. He wants to be perfect but his instincts pull him other directions.

Something I realized around the last MTV VMA's, there are those artists that a super popular right now, but then there are always those artists that are truly larger than life, even if they're not in the spotlight right now. Jay-Z is like that. Beyonce. Hey pregnancy blew up Twitter. Like Gaga and Rihanna are extremely popular, but Beyonce is trumps them. Britney trumps her, even though she is a blow up doll and on enough drugs that she's not really there. (I really don't listen to much from either of them, but that's one of the better examples I can think of.) It comes with time. It comes with being the best. Kanye isn't there yet. He's on the cusp. But Jay is there. Coldplay is kind of like that too. Respect your elders. Whatever you want to call it.

So anyway, these guys are at the top of their game, and it's sweet to see them tour together. Because we forget how tough touring is - we don't do it. It's probably lonely. Especially when you are a solo artist. Yeah you have your groupies and you've got your posse and you're not really alone, but you're on the road alot. Living literally in a tour bus. So for them - both friends/mentors/etc - to go together, and then perform, is awesome. You can just tell they're having fun. It makes the show that much more fun. It's annoying that they haven't varied the setlist much.

That's another thing (clearly I've got some ADHD tonight) about concerts - part of the fun is seeing something truly unique. Bringing it to Bruce, his catalog of music is so large, one night he can play Jungleland and the next play Thunder Road. He can do whatever he wants. He's the Boss. It feels special when the concert you see perform a song that's rarely played, hasn't been performed in years, whatever. It makes it feel more awesome. I have that feeling with Bruce. Again, Kanye and Jay don't have quite as extensive track list, but it would be cool to see Kanye all the sudden decide to play Chain Heavy. I dunno, it's still early in the tour, there's room for it.

I'm rambling. Show was sick. I suggest going. Go. Watch. The. Throne.