The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for May 2007

Songs That You Have To Sing Along With

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It is no secret that I love music. Every couple of weeks I write another post in which I refer to song lyrics or list the last dozen songs that graced my stereo. Music is passion. Music is feeling. Music is emotion. Music touches you in places that are hard to reach. Music is a snapshot in time. Turn on certain songs and the memory parade makes an immediate appearance.

It is a universal experience. One of the most popular posts I have written is:

What Are Your Favorite Song Lyrics? Not a day goes by in which it doesn’t receive traffic. Music has that kind of power and influence. To me it is not a surprise that there are some songs that you just have to sing along with.

Initially when I was writing this post I thought that I would share five or six songs with you and that these would represent the songs that I have to sing along with. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that I cannot limit it to so few. There are too many good songs that catch my ear and hold me.

Instead I am going to try and come up with a slightly different angle. Here is an incomplete list of songs that are virtually guaranteed to make an appearance at campfires, parties and random gathering of people.

Hmm… I wonder if this is going to date me.

Your Song– Elton John
Rocket Man– Elton John
You Have Got a Friend– James Taylor or Carole King
Great Balls of Fire– Jerry Lee Lewis (If there is a piano this is a gimme)
Pinball Wizard– The Who
Cat’s In the Cradle– Harry Chapin
You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling– The Righteous Brothers (Thanks Top Gun for killing this tune)
The End– The Doors (Obviously this is an end of the night, slightly inebriated tune)
Brown Eyed Girl– Van Morrison
Wonderful Tonight– Clapton (How many times have you seen some guy try to sing this to his date. It can be painful to watch.)
Piano Man– Billy Joel
Forever Young– Alphaville (I included this because of one of my little sisters. How many times did she and her friends cry listening to this song. Oy.)
In My Life– The Beatles
Down On The Corner– CCR
Simon and Garfunkel– (It is getting late, so I am just throwing everything in. Sorry, the screen is a hazy shade of winter.)
Do Wah Diddy– Manfred Mann
Thank God I am A Country Boy– John Denver
Hotel California– The Eagles

As I said this is incomplete and it is too late to keep typing. What am I missing?

$10 Airline Ticket

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For the cost of a burger and beer, I bought an airline ticket.

That’s right. I flew 667 miles, and it cost me only $10.

I am always looking for a good travel deal, and when I heard about Skybus Airlines, which offers at least 10 seats on each of its flights for $10, I went online and booked a ticket.

And that’s the only way to buy a ticket. Skybus takes no-frills flying to a new level. Self-service is the theme here. The airline has no phone number. Passengers are encouraged to check themselves in online or at airport kiosks. About the only thing I didn’t have to do was pilot the plane.

First Day of Flights

I decided to fly on the airline’s first day of service. The airline is based in Columbus, Ohio, and all flights go through Columbus. I bought a ticket from Portsmouth, N.H., to Columbus, and then back again the next morning.

Both flights were comfortable, but unfortunately, the first one was not on time. The plane left 71 minutes late. Not a great start for a new airline.

Skybus’ departure was big event. Most of the airport staff came out onto the tarmac to watch the flight. Even some Transportation Security Administration screeners came up to the windows to watch.

The plane — one of two new Airbus A319 jets leased from Virgin America — was roomy and quiet.

Skybus plans to lease 15 planes by the end of the year as it adds capacity. The planes have 144 seats, a few more seats than the typical Airbus A319. Skybus has a contract to buy 65 new jets from Airbus. Those planes will seat 156 passengers, making for an even tighter ride.

We’ll see if this catches on. They are hampered by being based in Ohio, not to mention their food policy.

And like in movie theaters — which also count on food sales to help their bottom line — don’t plan on brining your own food.

The airline’s witty “rules of flying” state: “Oh, and don’t sneak food onboard unless you brought enough for the whole plane.”

“We’re discouraging that because that’s part of our profit model,” Diffenderffer said. “But we’re not food Nazis. Nobody’s going to take away their sandwich.”

I don’t know about that, but if you are interested you can check them out here.

Basketball As A Metaphor For Life

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Basketball As A Metaphor For Life. I like the way that sounds. I’d like to say that I deserve credit for coining the phrase but I am fairly certain that it has been used before. For that matter I can guarantee that there have been numerous statements that use that line. We could create a Madlib.

___________ As A Metaphor For Life. My inclination is to come up with several examples, the more ridiculous the better. In this case I am going to ignore the inclination and share a simple conversation I had with my son in which I used the phrase that adorns the top of this post.

The big guy and I were enjoying a father/son moment over the weekend. One of the ongoing components of our conversation is that I ask him if he has any questions for me. He always does. I can’t help but smile as I think of the look he gets on his face as he tries to decide what to ask me. Some questions are more serious than others. I can’t say that I remember exactly what led to the basketball as a metaphor for life story, but I can share how that went.

Little Jack wanted to know what I like best about the game. I told him that it is a hard question to answer, but that parted of it is because basketball is a game of desire, a question of will. Success in basketball is more than talent and more than luck. It is a question of imposing your will and desire to succeed upon the other team.

And in my opinion the best example of that is rebounding. Anyone can shoot. If you practice long and hard you can become a decent shot, but not everyone can rebound. Rebounding requires effort. Rebounding is more than being in the right place at the right time. Rebounding is about tracking the ball, anticipating where it is going to fall and then finding a way to get it away from all of the others who are trying to do so too.

I love that. I get off on out working and out hustling the other guys. Rebounding is one of those places in which you demonstrate desire. Hard work is the hallmark of a great rebounder. Oh sure you can find holes in the theory. You can mix great players with bad, tall with short etc.

But all things being relatively equal it really comes back to who is willing to work harder and that is a good life lesson.

There are a lot of ways to measure success. There are a hundred methods we can use to try and say why one person is more successful than another, but why complicate it.

If you want to make it. If you want to be successful you can follow the same path as the great rebounder. Dig, dig, dig. Hustle, push, grind, pull, push, hustle and dig. Get to the ball first. Use your body to block others. Find ways to play smarter so that you do not exhaust yourself. Use the angles to shorten the court.

Work hard.

That is the simplest way to put it and that is essentially what I explained to him. It is nice to be talented. It is even better to be lucky, but in the end the one thing that we can control is ourselves. And that means that we can control how hard we work. We can outwork the others by taking that extra step.

I am not sure that the big guy followed all of this. In fact I am sure that some of this went over his head, but that is ok. It is a good life lesson and if this helps it sink in than I am happy.