Digital Ink Los Angeles

The abysmal Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball are at it again. With a record of 46-66, they are 20 games below .500.

That’s just 2009, so far. The Pirates are the worst franchise in all of professional sports, with even a close-second Los Angeles Clippers having had winning seasons in 2005-2006.

After the 1992 season, manager Jim Leyland was hoping to rebuild the team with younger, more hungry players. In a flummox to Pirates fans, their team has been unable to come up with a winning season since, accumulating a 16-year losing streak.

This current losing season streak has tied the Philadelphia Phillies, who had losing seasons from 1933–48, the longest in any of the country’s four major professional sports leagues.

Bring back Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Kent Tekulve, Phil Garner, Bill Madlock, and Omar Moreno. And Three Rivers Stadium.

Thirty Years since the “We Are Fam-i-ly” cheers, and the funny box hats.

Miss some Big Willie. And Three Rivers, of course.

Administrator 70s, Athletes as Artists, baseball America, athletes, athletics, baseball, champions, competition, courage, Major League Baseball, Pittsburgh, popular, soul, spirit, sports

John Hughes
(February 18, 1950 – August 6, 2009)

John Hughes created some of the most endearing films of the 80s and 90s, including National Lampoon’s Vacation, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Uncle Buck, and Home Alone.

Many, many, many lines of dialogue emerged from this man and his creative mind. Just a few here:

Breakfast Club (1985)
Andrew: We’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are just better at hiding it, that’s all.

Pretty in Pink (1986)
Blane: You couldn’t buy her, though, that’s what’s killing you, isn’t it? Stef? That’s it, Stef. She thinks you’re shit. And deep down, you know she’s right.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
Ferris: Hey, Cameron. You realize if we played by the rules right now we’d be in gym?

Sixteen Candles (1984)
Jake: Happy birthday, Samantha. Make a wish.
Samantha: Well, it already came true.

Thank you, John Hughes. An auteur of alternative imagination, and a kind soul.

Administrator 1%, 80s, Movies and Cinema, Stylio, writing 80s, character, cinema, culture, film, GOOD, imagination, movies, soul, writer, writing

The dude abides. Lance Armstrong is an exceptionally gifted athlete with an extraordinarily profound path in life.

As the world’s premier cyclist in 1996, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that spread to his lungs and brain. Advanced chemotherapy treatments stabilized the malignant cancer, and he’s been in remission since this time of recovery and rehab.

Lance’s LIVESTRONG Foundation has become an incredible institution in the battle against cancer, with the ubiquitous yellow bands now commonplace in work and school environments.

His “Ride for the Roses” event in Austin, Texas has created a place for his local riders to support and take part in his foundation’s ongoing efforts against cancer.

At 37 years of age, a cancer-stricken Lance Armstrong finished third at the 2009 Tour de France.

This is an otherworldly accomplishment with a perfectly healthy body, much less a 37-year old bag of bones.

Lance Armstrong is a great example of what it means to LIVESTRONG. For this, Lance Armstrong is my hero.

Administrator 1%, 21st Century Culture, Athletes as Artists, Heroes, New America, Social Responsibility, The Good Life America, artist, athlete, bike, cancer, caring, courage, cycling, global, GOOD, hero, heroic, philanthropy, power, soul, strength, Texas

Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing is happening this week at the always entertaining Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach, Ca.

Surfline forecasts are calling for a nice southerly swell of 4-6 feet to start Friday and continue through Sunday, apparently the latter end of a southern Pacific storm from last weekend.

The U.S. Open of Surfing has made its home in Huntington Beach, Ca. since the early 60s, beginning with the south pier competition in the 50’s. According to the Hurley website:

“Fifty years at the Pier began in 1959, when the West Coast Surfing Championships (WCSC) became the biggest surfing event in the country – if not the world. HB local Jack Haley won the first event while the legendary Linda Benson took women’s. This was the beginning of a long tradition of competitive drama along the 300-yard stretch known as the ‘South Side.’“

Good buds and tasty waves in the warm July, Southern California sun. Check out 18-year old, lady surfer Coco Ho as she rides her way into the weekend heats.

Administrator 21st Century Culture, Athletes as Artists, Stylio, The Good Life, Water action, athletes, beach, bikinis, California, competition, culture, extreme, fun, GOOD, goodness, Huntington, pier, popular, soul, sports, sun, Super Good, surf, surfing, waves

The recently released Soul Power documentary captures the state-sponsored 1974 concert in Zaire that set the stage for Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s legendary “Rumble in the Jungle.”

What a spectacle of soul-infused musical bravado. In the midst of Vietnam, Nixon, Civil Rights, and a miserable economy, Don King and James Brown pulled off the impossible, just like Ali, in the middle of war-torn Zaire. That’s some Soul Power.

Soul Power is produced and directed by Jeff Levy-Hinte, president of Antidote Films, who was also the producer-director of the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings (1996). Most of the Soul Power footage was uprooted after the production of When We Were Kings. All this gloriously funky footage has been waiting nearly 35 years to see the light.

Soul Power keeps your head bobbing by showcasing these historic performances from funk, soul, and R&B legends like B.B. King, Bill Withers, and the kinetic madman and self-professed Sex-Machine, James Brown, whose early-70s single of the same name lends the film its title.

Using notable cinematographers, Albert Maysles and Paul Goldsmith, to lend the documentary a gritty but stunning style verité, the footage captures the Don King-promoted Rumble in the Jungle’s political and personal spirits in all their vivid intensity.

Can you say, “Gonna have a funky good time…”?

Administrator Aural Pleasure, Movies and Cinema, The Good Life, The New World, boxing 70s, Africa, aural, boxing, cinema, documentary, entertainment, film, funk, GOOD, money, music, New World, songs, soul, spirit, sports, Super Good

Heroic displays of courage are commonplace in professional boxing. Arturo “Thunder” Gatti boxed in some of the most dramatically contested matches of all time, his fights nominated for the Ring Magazine “Fight of the Year” an astonishing six times — and won four times.

The most famous of all these fights is the Mickey Ward vs. Arturo Gatti war on May 18th, 2002.

To start the ninth round of this eventual Ring Magazine 2002 “Fight of the Year,” Mickey Ward hits Arturo Gatti with a left hook that breaks Gatti’s ribs. Ouch! But Gatti gets up, and just when Mickey thinks he has Gatti beat…

View the YouTube video of the 9th Round of Mickey Ward vs. Arturo Gatti – I.

The LA Times is reporting that Arturo Gatti was found dead in his hotel room yesterday, July 11, 2009, the victim of apparent homicide. Evidence at this time points toward his Brazilian wife, who he was seeking separation from.

Arturo Gatti was a man who knew no fear, who challenged himself constantly to be the best boxer and the best person he could be. He was human, full with flaws and imperfections.

A typical Arturo Gatti quote:

“I was feeling healthy, but you never know what’s going on inside your body. I just didn’t know what was going on. I was feeling good, but sometimes, because I have a big heart, my attitude is I always feel good. I don’t want to go to the hospital for nothing.”

But the “heart” of Arturo Gatti is something a boxer can never learn. Arturo “Thunder” Gatti will always be known — like Diego “Chico” Corrales — for having the courage and determination of a champion.

No man could break world-champion Arturo “Thunder” Gatti’s heart, but a woman did.

In the words of Charles Bukowski, “Many a good man have been put under the bridge by a woman.”

Administrator 1%, Athletes as Artists, Heroes, Uncategorized, boxing athlete, athletics, boxer, boxing, champion, courage, death, desire, GOOD, heart, hero, soul, sports, world

Ernie Barnes was an artist and a football player. His “Sugar Shack” painting to the left is famous from the TV show “Good Times” and as the album art for Marvin Gaye’s I Want You.

Born Ernest Barnes, Jr. on July 15, 1938, to Ernest Sr. and Fannie Barnes during the Jim Crow era in Durham, North Carolina, his mother worked as a home helper to a wealthy lawyer’s family.

Ernie got through college on a football scholarship to the all-black North Carolina Central University, majoring in art.

According to the Ernie Barnes.com website, “The Company of Art“:

He was drafted by the then-World Champion Baltimore Colts football team. He then spent the next five seasons as an offensive lineman for the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. In 1965, New York Jets owner Sonny Werblin recognized Barnes’ artistic potential and replaced his football salary for one season so he could devote himself “to just paint.”

One year later, Barnes made his debut in a critically acclaimed solo exhibition at Grand Central Art Galleries in Manhattan and retired from football. His autobiography “From Pads to Palette” chronicles his transition from athlete to artist.

Ernie Barnes’ first professional exhibition was a sell-out, beginning an ongoing, long relationship with the Grand Central Art Galleries, as well as the McKenzie and Heritage Galleries in Los Angeles.

Ernie Barnes: Born July 15, 1938 – Died April 27, 2009

Administrator 1%, Athletes as Artists, Stylio, The Good Life 70s, art, artist, athlete, athletics, black, character, football, NFL, painter, race, soul, sports, university, vision