Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Color Purple, Clinton Rocks, Go Cardinals, Sooners-Volunteers, Anthony Again

It was been a week of entertainment diversity since my last post. Here is a quick list:

- Last night Thunder Game
- Monday night, attended Women's College Basketball Game
- Sunday, watched the Super Bowl
- Saturday, attended Heavy Metal Concert
- Friday, attended Jazz Concert
- Thursday, attended Musical "The Color Purple".



Who said there isn't variety in Oklahoma!! Last Thursday I went to see Oprah Winfrey's The Color Purple with 7 of my co-workers (Oprah is the Producer, she wasn't in it). I have to admit that I have become a fairly big fan of musicals over the last 18 months or so and wasn't sure if I would be able to find anyone to go with. I sent out an e-mail to everyone in my department to see if they were interested and I was pleasantly surprised to find that many were interested. The musical was outstanding and we had a blast. The next night about 30 of us went out to a local bar in Bricktown to watch one of our co-workers play in a Jazz band (same group I wrote about in my last e-mail).

Saturday night I decided it was time to have revisit my high school days and drove 95 miles to Clinton to see 3 of my favorite 80's bands: Dokken, Warrant and Ratt. Couldn't find anyone to go with so I drove to the Lucky Star Casino by myself. The concert was in a large tent out in the parking lot (guessing maybe 1500 people in attendence) and lasted for about 4 hours. As you might imagine, there were all types of people at the concert and people watching in between shows was almost as much fun as the concerts themselves. For the record, my favorite band of the 3 is Dokken but they were the least impressive performers. The other highlight of my quick trip to Clinton was that I got to have a Dairy Queen hamburger. Had not seen a DQ since moving so it was a nice treat. Also drove by the Route 66 museum which I didn't know was in Clinton until I drove by it. Will definitely make time to stop off there the next time I am passing by as I've got to think that they have some really cool nostalgic stuff.

Watched the Super Bowl alone. Normally I will try to find a party to attend but I was as eager to hunt one down this year as I actually had a rooting interest this time around and wanted to focus on the game. I am kind of a closet Cardinals fan (I would be a much bigger fan if they weren't in the same division as the Seahawks but I can't control that). The Phoenix area has kind of become a home away from home over the last 8 years since my Mom has spent so much time down there and consequently I like to root for the sports teams when I can. My favorite is the Coyotes of the NHL as I never had to worry about them playing the Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics or Thunder. I just heard on ESPN this morning that the Coyotes are having financial issues so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they aren't the next NHL team to relocate. They play in a great building and it would be a shame to have them go. Anyhow my Mom sent me a Cardinals NFC Champions hat that I proudly wore for a couple of days leading up to the Super Bowl and during the game. I also wore my Arizona Rock & Roll Marathon t-shirt on the day of the big game thinking that maybe it would bring them good luck (see pic). Exciting game and I talked to my Mom at halftime on the phone from Phoenix as we were both bummed about the interception for a TD on the final play of the first half. Thought they were going to pull it out but it wasn't meant to be. My Mom is happy that the game is now over though as she pointed out that it was the only thing that they talked about on the TV down there for two weeks straight.

Monday I got a day of game invite to go to the Oklahoma Sooners vs Tennessee Volunteers women's basketball game at the Ford Center. This was a huge game for a number of reasons. Going into the game OU was ranked #2 in the nation and TU was #15. The Lady Vols are catched by LEGEND Pat Summit how is the winningest coach in the history of either men's and women's college basketball. Summit had 999 wins coming into the game so she was trying to be the first to get the big 1000. ESPN aired the game and the broadcasters were Brent Musberger, Nancy Lieberman Cline (however you spell her name, I should know since she is one of the greatest female baskeball players of all time) and the winningest Men's coach ever, Bobby Knight. I sat 8 rows behind them and included a nice picture here of the backs of their heads. It looked good for her early as they had a 33-18 lead before OU woke up and scored the next 19 points to take the lead. OU pulled away in the last half and won 80-70. The other big news of the game was that OU star player Courtney Paris only scored 9 points which broke her NCAA record streak of 112 straight double doubles (meaning she had scored at least 10 points and grabbed at least 10 rebounds in 112 straight games). Everyone in the building knew she was one point away for the final 90 seconds and the crowd started going nuts every time she touched the ball. She finally fouled out of the game with 30 seconds to go and the crowd over around 15,000 gave her a standing ovation and started chanting her first name. Great game.

Last night was a Deja Vu moment for the Thunder. Last month Kevin Durant put us ahead of the Nuggets in the Ford Center on a 3 point shot with 3 seconds to go in a game but then Carmelo Anthony hit a 3 point shot at the buzzer to beat us. Last night Durant made a 2 point shot with 17 seconds left to give us the lead but Anthony came back down the court and made a basket with 5 seconds to go to give the Nuggets a 1 point victory. Fortunately we don't play the Nuggets again this season in OKC so there won't be any more Anthony heroics in our house for a while.

2 comments:

Pam said...

WAIT- there is a DQ in Oklahoma?!?! Dang - i've been going to Texas to get a blizzard. Good to know.

stevew said...

They have DQ in Texas??? Who knew?
Braums is no DQ.