I was sitting in my room, contemplating if I should replenish my Mountain Dew supply by making a trip to Kroger when I heard a peculiar sound. It was Incubus’s “Anna Molly” playing quietly and in poor quality—my ringtone. Being somewhat of a loner since my arrival at NKU last fall, it’s not too often that my phone rings, and being a foreigner to Northern Kentucky, its even more rarely that I see that “859” on my caller id. I answered excitedly wanting to know if I’d suddenly made a friend. However, it was Joe, the co-editor, asking me if I would cover the “iTalent. iRock. iLove.” homecoming event. Seeing how I was already itching to get out of the apartment, and that Joe and Jenn (my news editor) had asked me last week to take on the so-called “Tuesday beat” to alleviate their duties as they put the final finishing touches on your print edition, I accepted the late assignment.
I’ll have to admit I didn’t even know what this event was. (It’s a talent show!) And, as I walked to campus I realized I had no idea where was I going, either. Yeah, I’d never been to the Greaves Concert Hall before. I really haven’t been to many locations on campus. (It was almost the end of the fall semester when I discovered Ritazza. As a law student, all of my classes and basically my whole academic life are spent in Nunn Hall. Occasionally, I venture over to the University Center for a Veggie 7 burrito or a Northerner staff meeting.) I found myself standing in the middle of campus and then embarrassingly pulled out my phone to call Joe and ask him where the heck I was supposed to go.
After Joe kindly provided me the information without judgment, I entered the multiple layers of doors to see a crowd entertaining itself as it waited for the arrival of the celebrity emcee. I also picked one of the worst seats in the house. It was nearest to the booth, where I was nearly plowed down several times during the show by Stan, the green-shirted AV man who apparently had to fix everything during the show and make several speedy trips from the booth to the stage. I eventually moved.
Despite my distraction, the show went on. Now, being the completely and utterly objective journalist that I am, I offered no applause or emotional response during the show. Okay, that was a lie. I’m going to go ahead and admit that I enjoyed the wide variety of talents shared at this show as well as the crude and inappropriate humor of Loni Love. This was a fun assignment.
I was thankful that Loni Love, the emcee, was so welcoming to the students following the performances (whether or not that was because she enjoys student fellowship or was waiting on APB to write her the check). Because she seemed so welcoming, I decided that I would try and interview her for the article. In the end, she spent a few moments talking with me about her appreciation for the talents of the students and her frustration with the delay. Talking with her was an enjoyable experience. After all, she’s probably the most famous person I’ll ever interview. In retrospect, though, I find myself suddenly depressed. (I know many of you are like, “Who’s Loni Love?”) On that note…Hey APB, let’s collaborate on increasing my celebrity interviews.
Anyway, check out the article I threw together right here on the website, and write some comments about what you thought about the show. (Should Stan have actually plowed me over?) And for those of you not as akin to pop culture, you can learn who Loni Love really is.
Hey everybody! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and new year, now back to the action. While everyone has been enjoying spending time with family and friends, the Northern Kentucky University Basketball Teams have continued their winning ways, with the men’s side of the court standing on top of the Eastern Division in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Now that is not to say that the Women’s Basketball Team has not had a good season. I feel that the Women’s team after pulling off a stunning victory over the undefeated Indy team last week, was a focal point on where this season may take the team.
Most of you don’t know me personally, but I am a big fan of Xavier. In the 2004-05 season, the win over the University of Cincinnati was a turning point in the season as it later turned out propelled them to the Elite Eight. I’m just saying that with a coach like Nancy Winstel and players like Nicole Chiodi leading the point and guards Karen Brackman and Jessica Slack, this team can go along way once March comes rolling around., especially with a presence like Angela Healy averaging a double-double per game down low it helps open up the offense with these key components.
The Men’s team looks like it can take the punches and still pull out on top, which the team proved in the 58-55 win over St. Joseph’s. Gagai, the transfer from West Virginia has made a remarkable move becoming the key player coming off the bench. Look for Gagai to be a key role for this team for the next couple of years.
Well, that is all here from Norse Force and until then, this is Matt Birkholtz signing off till next week.
I know that the blog is to cover the sports of Northern Kentucky University, but last week I went back to a small rural town in Indiana, Milan.
Most of you don’t know me around campus, but last month I lost my Grandma Warren to bone cancer. She was 83 (God rest her soul).
When I was 12, my Grandpa Warren passed away. He has a book called “The Greatest Basketball Story Ever Told” sitting in his room. I decided to pick the book up and read what it was about. I fell in love with the story about this tiny high school in Milan (167 students in 1954), Indiana that won the 1954 Indiana High School State Tournament.
I went to my Grandma and asked her about the story and she told me that the movie “Hoosiers” was based on the Milan Indians.
Now, most of the people that lived during that ‘54 season, would tell you that “Hoosiers” doesn’t give the story of Milan justice. Bobby Plump who hit the game-winning shot against Muncie Central (school enrollment over 1,000 in 1954) to win the game 32-30.
To get back to where I am going with this is that I went back to Milan last Saturday with my girlfriend, Amanda. I had not been in Milan for almost four years. I could not believe it had been that long, but it had been. The Railroad Inn, a restauraunt in the downtown district of Milan which isn’t that big to begin with has shutdown. Amanda and I ate where my Grandma and I would go to every Sunday after church. The restauraunt where we ate is called The Reservation. It was nice to have the normal (ham and chesse hoagie and ice tea).
When we went passed the former Railroad Inn, I parked the car next to the building I went to countless times with my Grandma to talk Milan basketball with antique store owner Roselyn McKittrick, who also runs the Milan ‘54 Museum. What astonished me was that her store had closed.
I was sad at first, but had remembered that I had seen a sign for the museum before we came into Milan and Amanda had remembered seeing the sign too. I decided that I would shoe her the water tower that to this day still says “1954 State Champs” on the tower.
When we began to head towards the tower, I noticed a sign outside the old barbershop and the sign mentioned the museum and said to come on in.
As I walked into the former barbershop, my memories of my Grandma and I making the Sunday trips to McKittrick’s store to talk about the real “Hoosiers”.
Roselyn was not in the store at the time, but her assistant put me on the phone with her. She told me she would be right down to meet me.
It was nice to catch up and let her know that my Grandma had passed and her telling me how much she knew my Grandma loved me.
She showed me around to newer memorablia that was handed in to her from people all over the country. She gave me some Milan newspaper clippings that I already ahve, but don’t know what happened to them. She always seemed to hand things to me, because I am one of the few younger generations to appreciate Milan and the history of the real “Hoosiers”. Please take the time to visit the museum, because it is really a masterpiece and you can donate money to help renovate the old bank next door to have a bigger place to call home.
The trip was not done there as Amanda and I headed to Indianapolis to see Dane Cook. That was fun and enjoyable, but to revisit some of past memories that I shared with my late Grandma Warren and to share it with Amanda, really made my day. I am tearing up just thinking of the memories and putting them into words. I love you Grandma and I will see you in the next life.
This is Matt Birkholtz, signing off till next week
The Gold Glove awards were announced Nov. 6 by Major League Baseball and Cincinnati Reds second-baseman Brandon Phillips, was not on the list as the best defensive player at his position, losing to Arizona Diamondback Orlando Hudson.
I see why Hudson won the award, considering that every player that won the award was either on a team that was in the hunt for the playoffs, or was on a playoff team, which is true for the Diamondbacks (lost National League Championship Series to the Colorado Rockies).
Why is this the case?
Sometimes it seems that the officials that put in the votes for this award or any award that is handed out by MLB or in all cases, seems to go with the players that had good numbers but played for something more.
Let’s compare Hudson to Phillips.
Phillips playing for the fifth-place Reds cut his errors in half from a year ago, only commiting eight errors in 157 games (one game was at shortstop).
Hudson played in 20 fewer games (137) than Phillips due to injuries and committed 10 errors at second base. Phillips has more assists and put outs from the position than Hudson.
So where do the voters come up with the decision that Hudson had a better glove at second base? The numbers don’t lie that Phillips contributed more from the position. I rest my case.
This is Matt Birkholtz signing off …
Sheriffs in Naples, Fla., said that kids are interested in a new drug, called Jenkem, created from human fecal matter. No, I’m not kidding. Apparently, kids place the waste in jars with a balloon over its cap and leave it out in the sun for a day. This ferments a gas that, when inhaled, creates a hallucinogenic high similar to cocaine.
Someone needs to give these kids a smack upside the head.
Or maybe just some smack.
The country of Ethiopia in Africa sold more than 300,000 coffee-flavored condoms in its first week of sales, the UK Guardian reported Nov. 3. The country, which has a high rate of HIV infection, hopes the condoms will prevent transmission of the deadly disease. Coffee is very popular in Ethiopia, which is said to have invented the beverage.
A Virginia judge was fired Nov. 2 after the state’s supreme court heard testimony on how the justice used a coin toss to decide a custody battle and told a victim to drop her pants. After telling the victim to see the wound, he ordered her to drop her pants – twice. He allegedly told a court bailiff that the “black lacy thing … looked good.”
And a lawyer has blogged about some weird cases he’s seen, including a divorce where the judge ordered a drywall built to partition the three-story house on the second floor, including a barricaded kitchen door.
Although the temptation to write about one of the new Pringles flavors was strong (bet you can’t write just one) I think I’ll diverge from the snack food path this week and take a dip in the nearby carbonated stream; soda.
More specifically, what is with the lack of soda flavor ingenuity? Every year you can count on at least a dozen disgusting, and probably one genuinely good, new flavor of corn or potato chips, cheese puffs, snack crackers, or even some kind of artery clogging concoction to sprinkle over an otherwise healthy food (I’m looking at you Flamin’ Hot Peanuts, you abomination to the Flamin’ Hot name). But soda flavors, at least from the major brands are seldom anything to get excited about.
You know. If you’re one of those people who get excited about snack food.
The creators of soft drinks, however, seem to be stuck on adding cherry, lemon, lime, orange, grape, raspberry, or vanilla (sometimes disguised as ‘cream’) to every existing flavor of soda that they have. Mountain Dew? What about cherry Mountain Dew (Code Red. And let’s not even go into Livewire, or Pitch Black.)? Or Coke with Lime? And it’s a little older, but Vanilla Coke was no different, and to make it worse, people have been drinking that same drink for years. Just ask someone who works at Frisch’s, or anyone else with access to a Vanilla tap. And then ask them what it’s like to have such a blessing. Mmm… Vanilla….
What I’m calling for is a new flavor. Coke with Lime confuses my tongue. And Pitch Black was a sour soda. Sour. And Code Red…. Well, okay, Code Red is amazing. But how about a flavor that isn’t a mixture of the 7 Holy Flavors? If I can drink a vanilla soda, why not a chocolate? If fruit is meant to be carbonated, why not watermelon? These may be terrible ideas, but you need to take those ridiculous risks if you want to go down in history as a legend of soda. Have you seen those first planes, before they could get anything off the ground? They were ridiculous, but they lead to those commercial airlines we all enjoy today.
I want the stealth bomber of soda, and Berries and Cream Diet Coke is not cutting it.
The Northern Kentucky University’s Men’s Soccer Team is 19-0 on the season, yet the attendance for the games are very small.
The quarterfinal match versus Wisconsin-Parkside in the 2007 Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships was a domination by the No. 1 ranked Norse team, defeating the Rangers 3-0.
The attendance was horrendous with only 162 fans in the stands during the game. This is ridiculous for the No. 1 team in the nation to have this few amount of people at its games.
I am not the biggest fan of soccer, but when a team from your school is tops in any division, I don’t care that it is Division II, go out and support them.
The price for NKU students is zero. All you have to do is present your All-Card at the gate and can enjoy the game.
Don’t take this as me begging the student body to come out, do it for the players on the field that have put a lot of effort into being undefeated at this point of the season.
I also understand that the Bengals were playing the Steelers Oct. 28, but the semi-finals of the GLVC Championships is Nov. 2 at the Town & Country Sports Complex in Wilder, Ky.
NKU is primarily a commuter school, but if you are looking for something different to do this weekend, come to the Norse Men’s Soccer game against Rockhurst and support Braden Bishop and the rest of the team at 7:30 p.m.
If NKU wins against Rockhurst, the Norse will advance to the GLVC Championship game, which is also at the Town & Country Sports Complex.
Once again this is Matt Birkholtz signing off till next week.
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