Author: davegladow

Random Draft Thoughts 2018

I grew up a Cincinnati Bengals fan, ergo, Draft Day is like a holiday. Longtime Saints fans can relate to this, I’m sure.

For the longest time, I would sit there, writing down the players’ names & info as they came off the board, so that I would have a hard copy of each NFL first round and learn the basics on who these players were (though who am I kidding, I was already a big enough fan to know these guys already).

I’m not sure what the point of this was, or is, other than to say that yes, I’ve followed this almost compulsively for a very long time.

With all that said, I thought I’d continue my draft tradition of writing down some thoughts prior to the big event. Obviously, please take this with a grain of salt as I have massive blind spots.  For a great example of this, see my opinion, or lack thereof, on Lattimore last year (I didn’t like him because I thought he was a massive injury risk).

So, yeah.

But here we go anyway. Here’s one guy’s clearly flawed opinion.

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The soundtrack of Dave

I got pulled into one of those fun Facebook things recently, wherein you’re supposed to share something about yourself and encourage others to do the same.

So a chain letter, basically.

The upshot is this one was actually fun, as it was all about sharing “10 all time favorite albums that made an impact on you and are still in your rotation.”

Me being me, I chose to channel Rob Gorden from “High Fidelity” and do it autobiographical style, selecting and then listing musical albums that essentially told the story of my life.

Below, I’ve recreated that list for posterity … for anyone that wants to go on a musical journey with me through my life.

These are 10 albums that have a great deal of meaning to me. I hope you enjoy.

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Your Avengers movie cheatsheet

Did you know that there have been EIGHTEEN movies released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the past decade?

18. Do you know how many Star Wars movies there are? 10, give or take (depends on if you count that Ewok stuff from the ’80s). And that’s over 40 years.

18.

If you haven’t been trying to keep up, you’re probably already painfully aware that it was a ridiculous number like that. If you’ve been gobbling them all up like a sleeve of girl scout cookies, however, you might have lost track of the madness.

Never fear, however! If you haven’t been keeping up and don’t want to sit through 40 hours of movies (check out this absurd marathon, which I’m pretty sure would kill a normal person), but you still have an interest in checking out one of the newer movies — perhaps the cultural phenomenon that is “Black Panther” or the mega-hyped “Avengers: Infinity War” coming out in a month or so — I am here to help. As a handy reference point, I’ll attempt to break down the major characters/plotlines in as simple a fashion as possible.

Feel free to bookmark and return to this as you need a refresher.

Continue reading Your Avengers movie cheatsheet

Star Wars retrospective: A New Hope

There is a scene in the original “Star Wars” (1977) that is often cited as being most representative of the themes contained therein.  It is of the protagonist Luke Skywalker staring off into the binary sunset as John Williams’ epic score swells.  Thanks to the fantastical sci-fi imagery on display (two suns, not just one!), and of course Williams’ wizardry, the audience is meant to take a breath (or perhaps lose it) in a moment of pure poetry.  Thematically, this is where the renamed movie earns its new subtitle, “A New Hope,” for we are now all in on joining Luke on his hero’s journey from this point forward.  It is deeply relatable, this hope, wonder and ambition of youth.  And truly, the golden boy will end up saving us all (multiple times, in fact).

But this is never the first scene I come to when I recall the movie.  Likewise, I don’t immediately go to the film’s most awe-inspiring sequence, the Star Destroyer rumbling overhead to open the movie and blowing out our eardrums while simultaneously making us question: “How big is this thing, anyway?”*

* Appropriately, this question can be applied to the size of the ship as well as the overall spectacle contained within the movie itself.

I don’t generally go straight to my earliest Star Wars memory either, that of the shoot-out on the Tantive IV or the droids’ subsequent journey through the desert (these images are burned into my subconscious forever).  What about the phenomenal closing space battle winding over and around the Death Star?  Or Jedi mentor Obi Wan’s heroic self-sacrifice?  Or our first glimpses of the outlandish Cantina and all of the bizarre creatures inhabiting it?  Nope, nope and nope.

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The optimistic vs. pessimistic take on 2018 Kansas State football

Ah, Kansas State football.  Coming off a disappointing 2015 season full of injuries and disaster (when your wide receiver is taking snaps at quarterback, it’s a disaster), the program rallied around the athleticism and game management of quarterback Jesse Ertz to rebound to 9 wins in 2016. Naturally, Ertz went down to injury in 2017* to take away all of that positive momentum.  Playing a pair of young kids at quarterback transformed consistent performance into wild highs (such as crazy comebacks against ISU/Texas Tech and a win in Stillwater against a Top 15 OSU) and wild lows (KU and TCU … though in fairness the lowest of lows came with Ertz still in the lineup vs. Vanderbilt).  The end result was a somewhat disappointing 8 wins.

* Hmm, maybe all these quarterback injuries indicate a need for a re-evaluation of an offensive game plan that regularly calls for your quarterback to carry the ball 20 times a game.

In the offseason, Kansas State has suffered massive player and coaching defections, creating even more instability.

So what now?

Continue reading The optimistic vs. pessimistic take on 2018 Kansas State football

‘The Last Jedi’ provides new thrills … and a familiar feel

I think I’m done with the business of ranking Star Wars movies.  “The Last Jedi” has done me in.

I could make a pretty compelling argument for this being one of the three best movies in the franchise.

I could also make a pretty great case for it being one of the three worst movies in the series.

It doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me to spend time or energy trying to come up with a proper ranking at this point, especially with it still being so fresh.  There are probably better pursuits a person can engage in.

Such as ranking porg appearances!

Just kidding, but yes I wanted to put some thoughts about the new movie down for posterity.  And its capacity for keeping folks like me unsure about its place within the saga is as good a place to start as any.

Continue reading ‘The Last Jedi’ provides new thrills … and a familiar feel

The best Super NES games of all time

Ranking Super Nintendo games is basically an impossible task. Go through any “best-of” list around the interwebs and you’ll see an absolutely loaded selection of games, featuring some of the true all-time greats.

Looking through the selection of games for other video game systems, I have little doubt this was the greatest console of all time. There’s just so much depth.

So how do you sift through all of that?

After making my own list, I still don’t know.

I do know my inspiration came about in part because of the release of the Super NES Classic, a retro system release (featuring 20 games from the original lineup … and one new one) which I recently read has been outselling “new” consoles like the Switch and Playstation 4.

That it’s resonating in a major way is no surprise to me. I bought one myself!

Read on for a list of 30 reasons why Super Nintendo nostalgia is at an all-time high.

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Some fun holiday videos

Pretty happy with how these both turned out.  First up is a video on the holiday display at the Roosevelt which is an important piece of the Christmas tapestry in New Orleans.

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