Nurse the Hate: West Side Bowl, The Gods and NFL Week 9

 

We played a show last night at West Side Bowl in Youngstown, a fiercely independent venue that gets by with a combination of local beers, bowling, good pizza, and fucked up live bands like us.  It's not easy these days as post-pandemic people have become comfortable with nesting at home as opposed to venturing outside into The Great Unknown.  If you spent the last two years buying comfort items like fire pits, hot tubs, enormous screen TVs, and smokers, I get it.  Who knows what could happen when you leave the cocoon?  I appreciate the grass roots efforts of venues like West Side Bowl that work harder for less in places like Youngstown where it's tougher to make things happen.  Yet, probably because it's harder to get the ball moving, it's more satisfying when it does.  I appreciate all of the people that came out and gave energy to us so we could give it right back.  We have some stupid ideas about what music sounds good, and it's always refreshing when we see other people agree with our conclusions.  We appreciate you.  It's venues like West Side Bowl which keep creative music alive in a time of great uncertainty.  Kudos. 

When playing a bowling alley, I immediately think of my past as a pre-teen bowling scoundrel.  I was on a bowling team which we called "The Gods" as it immediately annoyed all the other league officials and participants.  It wasn't so much a bowling team as performance art.  We did everything possible to position ourselves as villains in the rough and tumble world of age 14-15 amateur bowling.  There were over the top celebrations when we did well that would get a flag in the NFL as "taunting", as well as psychological warfare on the opponents.  For example, I remember one of my teammates saying to a kid from a neighboring community as he eyed up a spare "You'll miss it kid, cause you're a loser just like your Old Man".  I don't think most of the other league participants were ready to hear "suck a dick loser" when their opponent got a strike, which clearly added to our aura of invincibility.  Kids cried to their parents and the parents yelled at us and we gave zero fucks. 

During the playoffs I was called for a phantom foul in the 10th frame of the third game that enabled our opponents to beat us by four pins.  It was rigged by the parents that didn't want to see us win.  It was absurd.  There wasn't a foul light that went off.  Two parents just decided to call it knowing we couldn't do shit.  At the awards banquet at the end of the season, full families rose out of their seats to boo us as we accepted our bullshit second place trophies.  It's hard to imagine a ballroom of Moms and Dads screaming at some kids, but that's what happened.  It does fill me with pride even now that as a 15 year old I was able to drive an entire community to insanity that allowed them to catcall boys accepting trophies.  I have a crystal clear vision in my head even now of a heavy set woman screaming at me "You are fucking trash!" as I stood up on the stage with both arms raised above my head holding #1 signs as we took our trophies.  My teammate Paul yelled out "We will bowl any of you hillbillies right now!  Let's fucking go!".  We were doing WWE and they were all frothing at the mouth in the false reality we had created.  It was really fun and maybe the first time I enjoyed being on a stage, which might provide some insight to some of the terrible things I say into a microphone now just to see what happens.     

That's the thing.  It's hard to know what is a legitimate narrative these days.  We live in a world of dis-information, especially when it comes to the NFL.  If you believe the hype, Tom Brady has righted the ship after a dramatic last minute drive over the Super Bowl champ Rams and is ready to take the spotlight in Munich in an NFL highlight show.  Here's the way I see it.  The Bucs sort of suck.  They can't run the ball.  They don't protect Brady well.  Brady doesn't have the tight end or flanker he loves to use in his offense.  Tampa is a team people that casually follow football bet.  Seattle is the real deal.  I was skeptical, but Geno Smith is playing as well as anyone.  He is the right guy in the right situation at the right time.  The Seahawk defense is a top 5 NFL defense in the last month.  Why is Seattle getting points versus Tampa?  They should be giving 2.5.  I absolutely LOVE Seattle with the points tomorrow morning in Munich.  This is free money.  Seattle +3.

The Bears aren't good.  Neither is Justin Fields.  However, Justin Fields is a fabulous athlete, and the Bears are living for today to see what happens if Fields runs around like RG3 II.  That story ends with Fields broken BUT not necessarily this week.  The Lions are terrible.  We can all like Dan Campbell as a high school coach motivator, but dude has shown no ability to out scheme anyone.  The Lions scored a ton of points early, but in the last month have scored 0/6/27/15.  It seems odd to eagerly jump on the Bears, but they seem slightly less shitty than Detroit.  It seems absurd to give points AND take the Bears, but I'm doing it.  What?  Is Detroit winning two in a row?  Chicago -2.5

Season Record: 16-10-1