Thursday, October 1, 2009

Odd Mojo Bits - Rapidly Aging Edition

I wanted to get a post in this week, plus my usual Mojo preview, but as I’m going to Pittsburgh this weekend for a wedding and to attend the Steelers game, I’m combining both into this one utilitarian posting

Today is my birthday and I’m sort of blasé about it. It’s kind of like watching the odometer on your car roll over to say, 48,000. Ho hum. Not like it’s 50,000 or anything…

They had a cake for me at work… a “rainbow cake”.
Not every day you get to have blue food and it’s that good. They had the cake for me, unfortunately, at the same time my mom always calls me… 1:30 pm, the time of my arrival. I was a very convenient baby… except to the doctor. Mom says they had to call him off the golf course and he delivered me in his golf spikes. Needless to say, the call came first. My cake-happy co-workers could wait…

I got a very timely birthday present from Ginny at That’s Church. She had a
post earlier this week about a couple of ladies that crochet reusable tampons. Yes, really. And in that feature, there is a point about how they also do them in Steelers colors. So I commented, among other things, that they should have a “Marketing slogan: For those that bleed black and gold.” (Comment #16, if you care to look.)

I looked back later and found that a couple other commenters got a kick out of that, but then this morning Ginny posted the following as #7 in
Random n’at:
I almost spit my water all over my monitor. Nice pub!

Then later, in the Baltimore Sun TV critic’s blog,
Z on TV, I got some love from David Zurawik for my take on Fox News and the idea of the press keeping an administration honest:
Nice to get some love from the next commenter as well. I’m always amazed when anyone listens to what I have to say, especially when I’m apt to forget how to spell words like ‘journalism’. But it was a nice way to celebrate a birthday.

The Mojo Boogie – Week 4Just in case you’re wondering, I didn’t make up this phrase. “The Mojo Boogie” is a song by hot shot blues guitarist Johnny Winter. I just love the ring of it. See for yourself:


I always thought Johnny is one of the underrated guitarists. His best songs are similar… some brief unintelligible lyrics, a couple of yells, and a 4-bar solo. Now to the business at hand…

After the debacle that was the last two weeks, some changes are in order. So Monday morning, I took down all the championship material and photoshops from the prior football and hockey seasons from the outside of my cube. Remember what I said about celebrating championships into the next season? I should have listened to my own self. We’ll try this again.

My company has this thing where if you donate $20 to the cause du jour, you can wear jeans every Friday. Further, if you donate $25, you can also wear a game jersey. I had to think long and hard about that because there could be major mojo implications. I decided to go for the jerseys… Coming off a 2-game losing skid, it certainly can’t hurt. Plus, if we continue to lose, I can always switch to hockey jerseys.

So now it comes down to which ones to wear when. The last 2 games I went to at Heinz Field, I wore my black Polamalu authentic jersey and we won. (In fact, I’ve only seen the Steelers lose at Heinz Field once… the 2004 AFC Championship Game vs. the Patriots. (AKA: the 11 Goddamn Degrees at Kickoff Game. That was the coldest game I’ve ever been to, although I didn’t really get cold until the 4th quarter, when it became evident that there would be no more miracles that season.)

So if I wear the black Troy jersey to the game, I don’t want to also wear it on Friday. It’s a home game, so the white jerseys are out, so I believe I’ll go with my black Hines jersey. It’s an old Eric Green jersey that I had renamed ages ago, so it still has the old block numbers. I’ve seen a lot of wins in that one…lots of good mojo there.

As this is a night game and I’m laying all this out in advance, I’m going to bring an array of things to choose from as under-garments. Unless it’s brutally cold, I always try to put the game jersey over whatever else I’m wearing. So for the purpose of this exercise, I’m wearing the following: Black 43 authentic, over pull-over Steelers V-neck insulated windbreaker, over striped Steelers sweatshirt, over Steelers turtleneck, over Steelers T-shirt, with a Steelers ball cap and bling. Any or all of the sub-layers may be omitted depending on game-time conditions.
Let the festivities commence!

9 comments:

one-eyed dick said...

OK, Bluz (if I may call you Bluz), this endless fretting about gameday apparel just isn't working out too well for the Stillers, is it?

Here's what you have to do: you show up for Sun. night's game against S.D. wearing NO shirt, with something like "Unplug The Chargers" written on your chest. Although that's a lot for one chest, unless you weigh about 400 lbs. You might have to take a friend with you. Or two.

Show 'em how to "bleed black and gold," brother.....

bluzdude said...

Definitely call me Bluz...

Oh ye of little faith... the quest for mojo is a season-long activity. The mojo is not always apparent early... the challenge is to identify it as soon as possible. It's the chase that makes it all worth while! That and I think the world has seen enough dudes (bluz or otherwise) with painted chests.

The crazy shit we do for our teams, huh?

Gina said...

1. Happy Birthday!

2. Johnny Winter is definitely under-rated. And as long as I only have to listen to him and not look at him, I like him. And speaking of under-rated guitarists, the Rolling Stone top 100 list gets me all riled up every time I look at it. Buddy Guy at #30? Girl, please.

3. Your mojo prep cracks me up. My husband (who is older than you, by the way) does the same thing.

bluzdude said...

1. Thank you.

2. No kidding. The guy is a freak show... lol... but can he ever play. I love Buddy Guy too. He's a legend, and still has some wicked chops. I saw him for the first time last summer, opening for George Thorogood. 70-some years old and still smokin'.

3. We all have our goofy ways, don't we? I'm glad you're entertained by it all. If only I were exagerating about it all... lol... My friend think I'm certifiable for keeping a spreadsheet on it all. But then I keep spreadsheets on everything. If Kevin Costner made a movie about me, it would be called Dances With Spreadsheets.

Cher Duncombe said...

Hey Bluz, belated Happy Birthday! You are rapidly becoming one of our favorite sites. I got to see Johnny Winter here in Pittsburgh a few years ago and he was amazing. Thanks for the video.

Glad to see you got some well-deserved recognition from FOX. See? You just never know who's reading you!

Cheers, Bluzdude!

bluzdude said...

Thank you, and how sweet of you to say.

I got to see Johnny twice...
The first time was about 1988 in Cleveland... he was wild and hoppin... Great show.

Then I saw him in Baltimore in 1999 and he seemed like a mere shell of himself. He just kind of stood there with his eyes closed and played... his roadies would have to take one guitar from his hands and put another one it. The song selection ran to mostly the slow ones... Only uptempo number I remember was when he opened with Hideaway. Normally, that's good, but he played it for about 8-9 minutes without changing the solos.

It was very disappointing... that was the only concert I've ever left early.

But boy do I love those records he did... when he's on, he's brilliant.

Carly (sisters from different misters) said...

Happy Birthday! How fun to get a shout out from That's Church. We love her blog, too. I'm extremely jealous you get to be at the Steeler game. The only Pittsbugh sporting event I can afford is a Pirate's ticket, but who wants to see them, right?
Hope your birthday is magical...or something like that. :)

bluzdude said...

Hey, if I lived in Pittsburgh, I'd see the Pirates all the time,even if it's just to spend a pleasant night at the best park in the land. Hell, I see about 5-6 Orioles games a year at Camden Yards for the same reason.

But the Steelers are special, aren't they? We try to make at least one pilgrimage a year to Heinz... Nothing like being among 65,000 friends all screaming together.

Thank you for the birthday wishes! Yeah, Ginny is an inspiration, and if it wasn't for her, A) I wouldn't be blogging, and B) I never would have found YOUR blog. So... Group Hug!!

Cassie said...

Group hug indeed! happy belated birthday!!!