Explore the Concrete Beach

So what is the real reason the Penguins have to win tonight?

Well, for one thing it spares all of the City of Pittsburgh from having collective heart attacks at the same time, but the real reason the Penguins must end this series tonight is it will stop Pittsburgh sports writers and bloggers from posting the same story tomorrow.

If you’re asking “what story?” You don’t know your Penguins history and you can just sit tight on the bandwagon and figure out 8787 ways to yell “Shoooooooot” during a Power Play. I know every sports writer has their little anecdote ready for a game 7 piece and it probably goes something like this:

The first game played by the Penguins 43 years ago in the then Civic Arena was played against a now familiar foe, the Montreal Canadiens, but unfortunately for the Penguins that ended in a 2-1 loss to the Habs. Will history repeat itself? Will the Penguins find themselves removed from another Stanley Cup run because of a building coming “full circle”? Could the Pens time at the Mellon Arena end just like it began?  Quite possibly, if the blah blah blah criticize defense, Malkin, Fleury, the earth revolving around the sun, pigeons, Disco Dan’s tie or some other non-sense…

Yep, you’ll all read that tomorrow if the Penguins do not finish off the Montreal Canadiens tonight. So get praying to the hockey gods because any game 5-7 makes me queasy enough in the stomach to cause an acid volcano, I don’t need to add a heart attack.

And can you imagine the TV reporters going nuts with this story? I don’t to hear this beaten to death either.

So please hockey god’s spare use from “clever,” but un-original stories in tomorrow’s paper and hockey blogs and make them full of Eastern Conference Final stories. I don’t need to hear how history might repeat itself because of something 43 years ago, but I know every writer had their story ready to go before game 6 is even played.

There’s only one way the Mellon Arena should go, and that is to go out in style with  a repeat of last years history. 

And with that I say:

             It’s a sad, yet happy day in the City of Pittsburgh. Today is the last regular season game in the History of the 48 year-old Mellon Arena. Trust me when I say their will be some misty eyes and man tears tonight as the city says farewell to the oldest arena in the NHL. (more…)

As a Pens fan I am kinda of confused and happy about this. I know another player was seriously injured, but according to current NHL rules it was a legal hit as should to the head is allowed.

Honestly, after I saw the replay (which you can see below) I thought Cooke would be out for 5 games as he was suspended once before for an elbow to the head earlier in the season.

So what’s your take?

Tomorrow is my last day of Grad School! Hooray!

I wrote my final paper for my “Drama of Leadership” class. Yes that’s the classes name and I am glad to be done with it. Not that it was hard, I just hate writing papers.

The really big news tomorrow concerns my event planning class. Tomorrow morning our group of 4 is going to present our event plan for the opening of the Consol Energy Center to several people of the Penguins and Mellon Arena. So it’s safe to say I’m a little freaked out and excited at the same time. Here’s a list of people we are presenting too:

James Santilli, VP of Marketing, Pittsburgh Penguins

Jill Shipley, Director of Fan Development & Special Events, Pittsburgh Penguins

Ross Miller, Director of Marketing, Pittsburgh Penguins

Jay Roberts, General Manager, Mellon Arena

Rob Goodman, Assistant General Manager & Director of Marketing, Mellon Arena

Yeah, who knew these people would take such interest in MBA presentation, but they did so I’m happy they care enough to see what we came up with and I hope they use some of the ideas we have for when the Consol Energy Center Opens.

Here’s a preview of one of our slogans:

BIG, BIG Thanks to Ryan Lenocker of KickSave Design for putting up with me the past few weeks while he worked on a few logos for us. Thanks Ryan for all of your help.

Well, it’s another gray Monday here in Pittsburgh. The rain has been falling for a few days on and off and it looks to continue that way for the rest of the week, but at least it’s suppose to be in the 60s at it’s lowest point so that’s a good thing.

This weekend while I was working at the mall my manager and I ordered from a restaurant which is in the outside portion of the mall. We usually order from there on Saturday’s because we get sick of the food court and there food cost just as much as the food court, but it’s 100X better.

Like I said we order from this place every week so the bartender who takes our order, Lucas, knows the deal when we call. So I went to pick-up our order. I walk into the restaurant and the girl behind the podium says, “Hi,” and I say, “Hello how are you?” as I walk toward the bar area to pick up the food and then she says, “Are you the new guy? Here’s your apron.” I stopped and look toward the bar area as I see Lucas laughing as he heard the whole conversation.

I said, “No, I am just picking up food.” Slightly embarrassed she apologized and I proceeded to pick up the food from Lucas and when I walked out she apologized again and said, “You must be a waiter, somewhere because you just look like a waiter.”

Now I am required to wear all black or black and white for my job at the mall, I choose to wear all black because when I used to wear a white shirt at the store I work at it would look not so white by the end of the day because there is so much dust flying around the mall. But still I didn’t know I look like a waiter.

Is there a certain type of look that fits a waiter?

I could never be a waiter because, well, people would piss me off with there special orders and I would probably drop a tray of food on someone, which wouldn’t be good.

I get annoyed at the people at my other job in the morning that go to the café and get picky about what piece of bacon they want or how crispy a hash brown was made. I feel bad for the cook because some people are just so picky. That and these office ladies like to steal tea bags constantly. They take two cups shove tea bags, sugar packets and sometimes lemon into one cup, then place the other on top and fill it with water and it looks like they just doubled up their cup.

I just roll my eyes and try not to cause a scene. One day I will stop the office ladies and just be like why are you stealing tea bags? The kicker is the first cup of coffee or tea is free.

Sigh.

That’s it for now.

10 days until vacation.

Penguins VS Capitals Game 2 tonight.

LET’S GO PENS!

Later!

Dear NBC-

Why do you carry NHL games and strive to provide the worst NHL coverage ever. And then to top it off you seem to hate hockey fans.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have set up a large screen outside the arena to watch the hockey games for the past two seasons.

Word started circling on Friday April 17 that you would not allow the Penguins to show the game on the screen which brings about 2000-4500 people to gather around and root on their home team…FOR AN AWAY GAME!

You claimed you did not know about this screen, which was a lie, as there were shots of it all last playoff season when the Penguins went to the Stanley Cup Finals. It was mentioned several times during your broadcast and broadcast from the Versus Network. To claim ignorance that you were not aware is just a flat out lie.

Will those 2000-4500 people really kill your ratings? And what about your advertisers?

Wouldn’t be a shame if people stopped buying their products because of a decision you made? Because the way I see it the screen would be an advertisers dream. 2000-4500 people with no distractions of home sitting in front of a large TV, really if I was one of the advertisers I would be pissed at this decision. NBC just took a captivated audience and placed them in their home where during commercial breaks they could be cooking dinner, going to the bathroom, running errands etc…

NBC you made a huge mistake and if/when the Penguins make it further into the playoffs it’s going to get ugly.

I hope the Penguins organization goes rouge and take up the CBC’s offer to show their feed of the game, because it take a Canadian company to truly understand hockey fans and the support for their teams.

It’s a shame how you don’t care about hockey fans and through some of the worst commentators, coverage and awful camera angles. Get rid of the end zone cam for power plays, it’s horrible and makes people nauseas.

NBC think about what your doing to a group of, not just hockey fans, but people who may watch your shows, which there really isn’t that many because your lineup pretty much relies on shows that should be cancelled, The Biggest Loser and Celebrity Apprentice such fine TV Viewing that is., but no thanks. I may be one person, but doesn’t one person with a Nielson box reflect 1,000 people or more.

Just think about that.

As I sit here at work on Christmas Eve and try to forget about the wrinkled old lady who lit a cigarette up at Pizza Milano yesterday and ashed on my food and was unapologetic, and the un-inspiring play of the Penguins last night, I just want to take the time and say thanks to everyone who has been reading.

I’ll be taking a little break over the next few days, but will post if anything interesting happens or I find something I want to write about, as this blog is really a place for me to think, vent and share what I like and keeps me from going insane at work.

Above all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone, I wish we has some snow here in Pittsburgh, but I guess the fake stuff here on the page will have to do.

Best Wishes

Mark

Wow! It’s only 2 days until Christmas.

Where does time go?

Last night I decided to bake, don’t know why I did since there will be way too much food Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but I decided to anyway. I had frozen sugar cookie dough in the freezer.

They came out just the way I like them with a nice doughy center so that when you reach the middle it’s like eating only the cookie dough.

Nom, nom, nom!

After that, I watched the Penguins game hoping for better results then Saturday’s massacre. Early on it didn’t look too good being down 0-2. Yes, once again, they rally in OT to beat the Buffalo Sabers, with a bunt from Sidney Crosby to win 3-4.

New Face of the Pittsburgh Pirates? He knows how to bunt.

Dear Neil Huntington,

Please sign Sidney Crosby to a contract so he can teach your team to bunt. He’ll probably work out better than those to reality stars from India. I think it’s worth the investment.

Thanks!

Mark

What’s up with the commercials during the game? Versus, of course, is a horrible place to show hockey. From the announcers, the “We love Philly” mantra, thanks to Comcast, and the awful commercials we must endure to watch the game.

I can’t believe they can get away with the “Bob the Enzyte” commercials. Did you notice the arrows kept point to wood? Or how they said, “This chubby Santa?” A little disturbing, but it could make a good drinking game. The ‘BOD’ commercials needed to stop too. What demo are they going after?

Oh, well too bad the radio is not in sync with the HD feed, or I would have listened to the radio. I hate when the radio is ahead or behind, it just ruins it for me.

As an early Christmas gift to myself, I’m going to the game tonight to see the Pens take on Tampa Bay. I actually bought the tickets at the beginning of the season since just about half of Tampa’s team is ex-Penguins.

How I want to see this tonight.

I wish Barry Melrose was still the coach because that would have been awesome to see him stand there and pretend to coach.

I don’t really blame Melrose for being pissed. The owners just signed a crap load of new people and thought it would work. May I point out that was the Penguins philosophy the year after the lockout. We all remember how that all turned out.

That’s all for now.

Later!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

That’s the only way I could describe this morning with the 4 degree temps and -22 wind-chill that settled in on Pittsburgh.

I should’ve worn thicker pants to work as when I walked from my parking garage to my building my legs were freezing. And if it’s this cold I want to see snow and lots of it.

A lot of things seemed frozen this weekend.

The Penguins put on a pitiful performance at Mellon Arena Saturday getting crushed by the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3. Pathetic. It amazes me how the Penguins can look so good one game and the next play like a pee-wee midget team that doesn’t know how to pass or protect the puck. Hopefully they get a boost by getting defenseman Ryan Whitney back. I will be at the game Tuesday against “Pittsburgh South” AKA the Tampa Bay Lightning.

We’ll see how that goes.

Then yesterday the Steelers played a pathetic game against the Tennessee Titans, losing 14-31. Ben Roethlisberger needs to learn to be the QB he once was and the offensive line just needs to learn what an offensive line is suppose to do, which in case they need to know is protect the QB and open up holes for the running backs.

I remember listening to a radio show a few weeks ago when a player from the offensive line was complaining that when they do something good you don’t hear about it, you only hear about the bad. Um…yeah…hello it’s like me saying, “You never hear a thing when I do my job right at work, only when I screw up.” It’s your job, so when you don’t hear anything about how you’re playing, your doing well.

I also ventured out to the mall this weekend. It was a pain to get to and park, but the mall itself wasn’t crowded. Looked like a normal Saturday to me. Some stores, like Brookstone, were busier than others, but nothing to bad.

I’m now going to hole myself in a conference room and input test scripts into a computer. I have to go hide in a conference room because, if I don’t, I will be bothered at my desk all day by the co-worker who lacks common sense, sneaks up behind me, and asks awkward questions that can be answered by the person who sit directly across from him.

OK, time to hide for the day.

Later.

Happy Tuesday morning!

We have determined that we will be calling the Consol Energy Center “The Coal Mine.” There’s just something about it and if you read Empty Netters today in the Post–Gazette they (Seth) says, “The Coal Mine.”

If we were the Penguins we would roll with this right now. It has staying power, but we can understand wanting to wait for a natural nickname when the CEC is built.

By the way I’ll probably call it The CEC pronounced The Sec because young people today like to shorten things. Take for example the word “ask.” A simple three letter word, right?

Nope to long ago it was shortened to “ak” and then as I here people on the street now say “Can I “A” you a question?” And it’s not pronounced ‘a’ it sounds more like a grunting noise. It almost sounds like “ah” you know like open up you mouth and say “ahhhhhhh.”

Crazy kids.

Does anyone know where all the snow came from last night? I woke up this morning with my car covered and people I work with were like “What snow?” Apparently no one except the Mon-Valley area got the snow and was forced to break out the ice scrappers this morning.

I thought I might have been able to get two posts in today but my Lotus Notes (I know, I know who still uses Lotus Notes, my company does.) calendar says otherwise as I have meetings all afternoon.

So, boo to those meetings where nothing ever get accomplished since they are all teleconferences and without being able to stare someone down it’s pointless to try to get a point across because they hide behind the phone.

I feel like a good argument today, so this may be fun.

That’s all I got for now.

Later!