Lebron James: Taking Heat

So LeBron's going to Miami.
Wonderful. Now we can carry on with the rest of our summer.

The whole dramatic hour "Decision" shindig on ESPN aside ...

Seriously? Leave it up to ESPN to promote something so small -- in the grand scheme of life -- to epic proportions, and then draw it out and analyze it to boring bits ...

This from USA Today ...

Long ago, this got out of control, a circus fanned by a communication age that can't pause long enough to tell the difference between perspective and endless prattle. Or understand that some people — a lot of people — don't live and die with where a basketball player's next $100 million will come from. Not live and die 24/7, anyway.

Pretty much.

As I watched my Facebook and Twitter feeds leading up to the decision, at least through the first half of the show, there was a sense that everyone was watching ... Seriously, everyone. My favorite quip of the night goes to my friend Emiko, who wrote in her Facebook status: "hey lebron, brett favre called. he wanted me to tell you to stop being so dramatic."

Back to my original point. Deep down I was rooting for him to stay true to his hometown and stick with the Cavaliers, although I would have loooved to see him move to Chicago. But once he announced his decision to head to Miami, I couldn't fault his reasons.

New challenge. New opportunity. Happiness. ... Not to mention he and his Heat teammates are going to be quite the team to watch next season.

Though I get the arguments that LeBron is trying the easy road to a championship, as Lebron talked about his reasons for the move and the discussion he shared with his mother, I looked at Kates, who was sitting with Phoebe on the couch, and said, We know that feeling.

Good luck, LeBron. I'll be watching.

Good reads (Updated 07.11.2010) ...
aCleveland is left at a loss
aJim Gray's LeBron James interview draws criticism for its soft questioning
aMiami Heat fans reach out to welcome new superstar trio of James, Bosh and Wade
aLeBron James's exit strategy leaves much to ponder
aMiami’s Hoops Cartel
aMeanwhile, Back in Cleveland...
aAwaiting the Call Outside an Unlikely Epicenter
aThe LeBron Angle to Everything

Independence weekend

I was watching Phoebe bite into her first cob of corn at lunch yesterday when it donned on me where we were a year ago …

We were in Toledo with Joel and Stephanie, and Sophia was tasting her first corn on the cob. The idea of moving to the Show-Me-State wasn’t a speck in any of our minds. Now all six of us, plus one, are living here, in much different roles. What a difference a year makes.

On Saturday night, we gathered at our new friend Kim’s house … with seven kids ranging from 7 years to 7 weeks old running and jumping and stumbling from one end of the yard to the other. With so many kids in that age range -- and so many toys to share -- there were meltdowns abound.

We downed burgers fresh from the grill. The kids jumped on the trampoline and played wiffle ball. We caught fireflies (At one point Phoebe, who was walking barefoot, accidentally stepped on one and suddenly was walking with a glowing heel).

It was a Fourth of July backyard barbecue at its best.

* * *

Despite our late night and having to deal with a crabbier-than-usual Phoebe, our church experience couldn't have gone better on Sunday morning ...

We ate lunch. And then each of us retired to separate rooms. I landed on our bed, and fell asleep as the Reds pummeled the Cubs.

In the meantime, it poured ... all ... day ... long. The weather forecast on Sunday morning gave a 90 percent chance of rain for Sunday and a 100 percent chance of rain for Monday.
For dinner, Kates cooked up some pineapple teriyaki burgers, which became a huge favorite of ours the night Joel and Stephanie served them up in Toledo last summer.

We had Phoebe in bed by 8. And then Kates and I settled in for a showing of “Independence Day,” completing the deal we made last year ... We actually made an emergency run to the video store Saturday night to get a copy of it because we couldn't find it in any of our moving boxes.

After all these years, I still think it's a classic. Watching the dynamic ensemble cast and the way the character relationships develop thrilled me from the first night I saw the film in a movie theater on its opening night. Ask Kates, I was like a giddy teenage boy all over again Saturday night ... It's the movie that made Will Smith a film star ... Jeff Goldblum's David and Judd Hirsch's Julius is arguably the best pairing of the movie ... Above all, the explosions, destruction and special effects actually appear real -- a far cry from today's money-for-nothing blockbusters. A musing Kates and I shared a couple times while we watched "Independence Day."

* * *

Today, we've soaked up a morning of sleeping in and a day away from work ... We also traveled to St. Joe -- or as Kates calls it, civilization -- for a day of shopping.

Traveling 40 minutes to shop at Target is going be an adjustment.

Old Movie Houses Find Audience

It's good to know people are keeping some of the old, historic movie theaters around ...

In an age of streaming videos and DVDs, the small town Main Street movie theater is thriving in North Dakota, the result of a grass-roots movement to keep storefront movie houses, with their jewel-like marquees and facades of careworn utility, at the center of community life.

From Crosby (population 1,000), near the Saskatchewan border, to Mayville, in the Red River Valley, tickets are about $5, the buttered popcorn $1.25 and the companionship free.

... During the last few weeks I've watched the old movie theater that stood on Main Street in The 'Ville for decades come down. I went there just once when I was a freshman in college -- for "Bean" -- before it closed, and a new, larger, more appealing movie theater opened.

I don't doubt that old theater was well past its prime (Once, in our University archives I came across a photo of students lining up outside the theater to see the premier of "Star Wars" in 1977.) ... But I'll sure miss driving down Main Street, seeing its marquee and waxing poetic about all of the cinema history it had seen.

Sweet

I couldn't stay awake long enough to watch them on Letterman last night. So you can bet I was thrilled when I saw the video pop up in a link on my Twitter feed this morning.

Ladies and gentleman, The New Pornographers. (If only ... )