jimmy

i was on the toll lanes of the harbor freeway near usc just as they separate from the main part of the freeway and become the second level when i heard that joan rivers died. i cried.

after the fight with the writers union a couple of years ago, i stopped watching fashion police on e!, but it in no way diminished the way i viewed her. she’s a fighter and a trail blazer and somehow survived all the crap that life threw at her. well except for the last one.

it’s also a reminder that i have to get ready for my grandmother’s death. being with her everyday, i’m numb to seeing her deteriorate little by little every day. but joan’s death is a reminder to me that one day, suddenly, my grandmother will not wake up.

that’s not why i cried though. i will miss hearing joan rivers and watching her work. especially because it seemed like she was still plowing on.

and, now, i will continue to dread the day when i have to deal with my grandmother’s death.

Los Angeles Coliseum by Alex Ho, on Flickr

Covering games on Saturday nights, I would go home and find Bob Valvano on ESPN Radio for years. I think they moved him to a different time on weekends for some reason, but I thought of all the yakkers we’re accustomed to on the Four-Letter Network, he was among the more thoughtful and eloquent.

One of the best things he came up with was the Napkin Rankings. Rather than using strange algorithms on computers or even stranger tendencies of human nature, his rankings did their best to try and eliminate human nature. In a nutshell:

– Teams get 1 point for a win over a FBS team.
– Teams lose 1 point for a loss over a FBS team.
– Teams lose 2 points for a loss over a FCS team.
– Teams get 1 point for a win over a power-five conference (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC).
– Teams get 1 point for playing away regardless of result.
– Teams get 1/2 point for a win on a neutral site.
– Teams lose 1/2 point for a loss on a neutral site.
– Teams get 1 points for a “dominant” win. A dominant win is usually 30 points or more, but it’s subjective. If it was a 10-point game with 4 minutes left before it became a 30-point game, it probably won’t qualify. If it’s a 40-point win over a win-less FBS team, it most likely won’t qualify. Wins against any FCS team are not dominant.

A team can get a maximum of four points in one week. Like I said, it eliminates most of the subjectivity we’re used to seeing in rankings with the big exception of the dominant win factor. With that said, here are the rankings after Week 1. Ties are listed in alphabetical order.

1. Temple (4 points)
1. Texas A&M
3. Ohio State (3 points)
3. Rutgers
3. UCLA
6. Auburn (2 points)
6. Baylor
6. Boston College
6. BYU
6. California
6. Georgia
6. Louisiana-Monroe
6. Marshall
6. Mississippi State
6. Ohio
6. USC
6. UTEP
6. UTSA
6. Washington

I’m almost certain that Temple will most likely not be at the top of the rankings all season. Nor do I think Louisiana-Monroe will be much of a factor in the national championship debate. But it will be interesting to see how these rankings compare to our perceptions and to which teams actually make it to the two-game playoff.

because it’s a holiday and i knew traffic through the westside on the 405 wouldn’t be bad, i decided to head over to the san vicente mountain park and go down the mandeville canyon fire road. just over two hours, just over six miles and a more even all-over tan. well, except from my hips to right above my knee. i’m telling you, if i could hike nude i would.

it’s been a pretty eventful weekend, really. hung out with cousins saturday night, hung out with friends last night.

Thanks to writing sports on LAist for years and years and years, I became more and more of a dispassionate fan of sports teams if a fan at all. Eight months on, I’m getting back into it. Example: Chelsea FC.

I’ve been a fan of them for several years now. With what a great job NBC Sports has done in covering the Premier League, I decided to be a more hardcore fan of the Blues. It damn near killed me today.

With Chelsea travelling to Goodison, I figured it would be a tight first half with Chelsea pulling it out in the end as Everton waned. That’s sort of been the modus operandi for both teams. That was most definitely not how this one played out.

Just 34 seconds in, Diego Costa puts Chelsea on top. And just a couple of minutes later, Branislav Ivanovic made it a 2-0 lead. Hell, Chelsea’s got this match, got the three points and I can focus on which college football games I want to watch. But then Kevin Mirallas scored right before stoppage time in the first half to cut the Chelsea lead in half, and that’s when the anxiety began.

For years, I was dismissive of how irrational fans can be sometimes. Sure games can go back and forth, but it’s not life or death especially in the first three games of a 38-game season. But the second half of this game happened, and I damn near lost it.

This game had the appearance of being a very crucial game because Manchester City had just lost at home 1-0 to Stoke City. Chelsea could put some distance with three points here. As an unbiased observer, that’s ridiculous. It’s only the third game. There’s tons of time for City to make up ground. Chelsea isn’t going to win the league in the first month.

I felt better seeing Eden Hazard’s shot go off Seamus Coleman’s foot for an own-goal in the 67th minute. But two minutes later there was Steven Naismith to make it a one-goal game again. It was almost like I was watching a Kings game.

What was also disconcerting was how much possession Everton had. Chelsea couldn’t get the action out of their end. When Nemanja Matic scored in the 74th minute, yet again I thought Chelsea had the match in hand.

But Everton put Samuel Eto’o in the game, the same Eto’o who had nine league goals for Chelsea last year, and three minutes later he made it a 4-3 game. In a matter of nine minutes it went from a 2-1 game to a 4-3 game.

Matic showed some nifty footwork minutes later dishing the ball to Ramires for yet another two-goal lead in 77th minute. But still it wasn’t easy to watch. My heart was pounding. I could feel brain vessels pulsing and struggling to keep my blood circulating properly. It’s a good thing I have lost some weight this year or else I would be in a gurney heading off to an emergency room as a drooling mess.

I could finally breathe and feel at ease when Costa bookended the game with a 90th minute goal.

This game really had everything. There were some bad calls going both ways. There was some bad blood, of course focused on Costa. Hell, there was Costa deciding to flop after getting carded — this is going to be a fun season by the way. There was a woodwork save.

So I’m sorry. I have relearned what it means to be a fan, to live and die with your team game after game. I damn near died today, but my Blues are at the top of the table for now. That’s all that matters, right?

today was supposed to be the peak of high surf generated from hurricane marie that’s sitting about 900 miles south of los angeles. i went to the cliffs to take a looksie, and even from 125 feet up they look quite impressive. they looked like 5-10 feet waves, and they certainly stirred up the sand on the coast.

all along the coast there were waves as high as 30 feet. what was once a category 5 hurricane is now only a category 1 with 75 mph winds. i wondered what it would be like if marie was stronger.

from there i took off to the forrestal reserve and did a 4-mile hike. and here are a few words of warning. now that i am not completely obese anymore, just really fat, i have now taken to hiking shirtless to even out the tan. yes, i’m getting to a point where i am a little more comfortable with my body. somewhat. i’m fine with the jiggle as i’m hiking, but on a normal walk i’m still hesitant. but i’m telling you, the farmer’s tan has got to go.

I finally got off my ass to do one of these things. There are a couple of flubs, and the production value ain’t gonna win no Emmy. But here it is for better or for worse. I hope you like it. As the Trevor Project would say, it will get better.

I figured if I’m going to go all in with the Premier League, I’m going to have to do the whole waking-up-early bit. So here I am waking up at what appears to be 6:30 in the morning — who knew they made one of those in the morning? — to watch a bloody football match. And, of course, here’s the obligatory selfie of what I look like after I put myself together enough to create a selfie of myself after I wake up. Imagine Joan Crawford accepting her Oscar in her sickbed, in a nightgown with full-on makeup.

So I have an excuse not to be fully awake as the match started. It’s 3 pm over in West London. What’s Chelsea’s excuse?

Like they did this past Monday conceding the early goal against the newly-promoted Burnley, Chelsea looked lethargic against the also-newly-promoted Leicester City in their home opener. Sure, Chelsea has several good chances to get on the board in the first half, but the Foxes showed they could create just as many chances as well.

And this brings me back to what I mentioned on Monday when I highlighted all of the losses Chelsea suffered last year to the likes of Sunderland, Stoke City and Crystal Palace. The Blues tend to play down to the competition, and that’s ultimately what did them in last year.

Whatever Jose Mourinho told the lads during halftime worked. In the space of 30 seconds, Oscar hit a post and Branislav Ivanovic had a great header that required a good save by the Foxes. But that just seemed to fire up Leicester who had a three-on-two requiring a great save by Thibaut Courtois.

Speaking of Courtois, much has been made of Mourinho going with the Belgian over Petr Cech. In the 55th minute, David Nugent had a breakaway. As he felt Cesar Azpilicueta and John Terry starting to converge on him, Nugent shot the ball right outside the box. Courtois rushed out to challenge and just got a leg on the shot to send it harmlessly wide.

Diego Costa finally got a goal in the 63rd minute, and Eden Hazard sealed the deal in the 77th minute with some fancy bit of footwork.

After the 2-0 win, I guess we’ll see how they do with better competition next week against Everton. But now that it is 9 am, I think I’ll head back to sleep.

today is madd’s birthday. she’s __ years old. (it’s rude to divulge a lady’s age, don’t your parents teach you no manners, asshole?) here is a bad webcam picture of me in front of two of her paintings that hang above my bed. ok. there is an awful glare on the painting on the right which is a deep green background. sorry.

she has a lot of paintings that you could purchase, and it would make her day if you bought some. her website is MadPaintings.com. you can even commission her to do a painting!

i’ve known this bitch since high school. how we met is a bit confusing especially since we didn’t go to the same high school or have any afterschool classes or activities together. but she is one of the few people i’ve known for just around two decades or more. (how’s that for dealing with age?)

so happy birthday madd. moodle noodle. ha!

Last season Chelsea’s losses were against Everton (not too surprising), Newcastle, Stoke City and awful late-season losses to Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Sunderland, their only loss at Stamford Bridge. For a little while it looked like this game would be another one of those losses.

The league’s best defense from last season inexplicably looked like they were sleepwalking after a Burnley corner. Nemanja Matic cleared the corner directly to Dean Marney. A pass here, a pass there and there was Scott Arfield just inside the box to give Burnley the 1-0 lead just inside the 14th minute. Jose Mourinho wanted to address Chelsea’s lack of offense last year, and it looked like he sacrificed defense in the name of scoring.

Bloody hell, as the Brits would say. This was going to be worse than Swansea beating Manchester United in Louis Van Gaal’s first fixture as United’s manager.

But just three minutes later, the Blues were brewing up something of their own. A bounce off the woodwork saw the ball magically appear at Diego Costa’s foot who seems to always be in the right place at the right time.

And the game was all but decided just four minutes later thanks to this beauty by Andre Schurrle, what Deadspin calls the goal of the year contender.

Ivanovic made it a 3-1 halftime lead for Chelsea, and the second half was just a 45-minute game of Keep Away.

The big surprise of the game was Mourinho going with Thibaut Courtois in goal in favor the veteran Petr Cech. As he told reporters before the match:

I suppose we’ll see how this plays out throughout the season and if one of them gets sent out during this transfer window by the end of the month or the midseason window in January.

This was quite the start for Chelsea. Many folks have picked Chelsea to win the Premier League this season. As a fan that scares me. Whenever there’s any sort of consensus about these sorts of things, something will get fucked up along the way. But three points coming out of Turf Moor are three points towards easing my fears.

Now to Saturday where they host Leicester City, another promoted side.

i decided to try and meet my homeboy p-22 at griffith park, but he didn’t want to show up. in fact, i don’t think p-22 has ever shown himself willingly to humans.

i park at the entrance to the west end of the park off of canyon road (west of western ave.) and make the climb up. usually i head east to mt. bell and mt. hollywood to avoid the crowds heading westward to mt. lee and the hollywood sign, but i just said fuck it. i’ll go to the fucking hollywood sign. so i did.

the entire hike was a little longer than i anticipated. it was 6.41 miles and went from about 675 feet in elevation to 1,650 feet. fortunately the climbs in palos verdes trained me well since i was able to do the climb just fine. sure i was a bit winded here and there, but nothing too bad.

once i got to the top, it was amazing to see the view of los angeles on one side and glendale and burbank on the other. to think that this was supposed to be someone’s home until the crash of 1929. if i had more time, i would have gone over to cahuenga peak right next door.

in all it took me over two hours to do. i didn’t see p-22. i didn’t see any snakes. but i did get to see the hollywood sign up close, and i got to see a bunch of tourists make their trek in the summer heat. there were no jumpers (that i know of).

on the suicide note, i’m still a bit numb about robin william’s death. i watched insomnia last night and realized what a great actor he was. actually that movie was well made all the way around.

anyhow there’s a lot of hot air surrounding the news. the he’s-such-a-selfish-pussy nonsense and the we-need-to-get-serious-about-mental-health. blah blah blah blah. it gets better. we all love you. what do you have to be sad about? it’s a good thing i’ve avoided the hot-takes in recent days because i probably would have killed myself just to get away from it. (i know. tasteless.)

basically, can you people just shut up for a second? thanks.