So much of the film industry is based off of handsome people.  The cleft chin, dimples, strong jaw, and abs … or big boobs, big boobs, and even more big boobs.  Exhibit A: Robert Pattinson.  Exhibit DD: Anna Nicole Smith.  But I tell you, faithful readers, that it is more often than not the Ugly People that make Hollywood’s most memorable films sparkle.  It is the character actor or quite simply the troglodyte from the mail room added as a last minute extra that adds realism, depth, and visceral resonance.

So here then is next edition of Who the Hell is This Guy? [Read Column]

I’m 33 years old, very close in fact to 34.  I have a wife, two sons, and a dog named Bingo.  We have an SUV with two child seats and a plastic insert in our luggage area to protect our upholstery.  We are planning on adding a second car, smaller, sensible, fuel-efficient.  We don’t drink.  We don’t smoke.  We don’t go out after 8pm unless we’re on a mission for diapers or formula.  We have a mortgage, a growing collection of Wiggles DVDs, and a Winnie the Pooh growth chart.  When we watch the nightly news, we grumble about the teen drivers and global warming.  In every way, I would seem to be a normal, well adjusted person.  But … beneath this facade of suburban utopianism I have a little secret.  Back in the day …

I was a hellion.  A week smoking, beer guzzling, fist fighting, stealing, shoplifting, vandalizing, self-destructive hellion.  And I was in 5th grade.

[Read Column]

MLS is a tightly managed league with particular attention to holding teams accountable to a realistic salary cap.  They have learned from all of the  failures of the NASL and their spree of signing major players before they had a viable income stream (Pele, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Chinaglia).  Major League Soccer has now been around for 15 years and have a stable base of fans.  To help grow the game and bring in star talent, the league introduced a salary cap exception known as the Designated Player, where only a portion of their salary counts towards the team’s salary cap.

And that is how we got Thierry Henry in New York. [Read Column]

RobCast – 7/14/2010

Featured Guest: Johnnie [27:29]

Topics: Lebron James & the NBA

Another RobCast.

Now that we’ve had a week to reflect on such the historic moment – The Decision – I called up my buddy Johnnie to discuss it.  Along the way, he compares Cavaliers owner to an ugly girl, shares his feelings on the San Antonio Spurs, and triumphs the players taking over free agency.  As always my dog (Bingo) and two sons, Kirin & Michael, are playing in the background (Baby Einstein).  One apology – Johnnie’s audio sucks as he insists on chatting with me on his way home from work.  Sorry for that.  Not really.

Anyways Enjoy!

Download by right clicking and Save Link As or just press the play button below:

Robcast: The Decision [ 27:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (22)

For those people not in fraternities, there is a short list of things that they’ve gathered from the myth surrounding the Greek community – such as Bacchanalian orgies in the basement (false), underground tunnel systems throughout the Oklahoma State campus (true), secret handshakes (false), or hidden networks of rich industrialists all striving for world domination (true).  And perhaps the most notorious of all is the dreaded Black Ball.  Tradition has held that in secret societies, membership was decided upon a secret vote and voting against a candidate meant slipping a black ball into the voting cannister.

Ooh, scary.

Well, in truth, this was not how my fraternity (FIJI) decided who its new members were – we would just play Pledge Invaders with frozen water balloons until the losers quit (or were knocked unconscious).  Still as long as non-brothers still thought that the Black Ball was the primary means of determining membership, then why wouldn’t my pal, Glock, and I have some fun with it.

Enter Wes Reed.

[Read Column]