December 11, 2006 7:22 PM
Santa's Dilemma
When the story broke about the NBA being forced to bring back leather basketballs after a failed experiment with new microfiber basketballs, I just laughed and knew I had a topic that I wanted to do. The seasonal tie-in with Santa's workshop was a natural since I envisioned all these overworked little elves having to stop production on the new NBA ball and go back to making the old ones pronto. It just seemed like a good, light-hearted diversion from all the unraveling going on with the Broncos. Besides that, it was a good national topic which helps me keep up my syndicate quota of two-a-week.
I've found myself listening a lot lately to the rock band Rush and reading Neil Peart's new book called Roadshow, kind of a travelogue of his journey during Rush's last tour that he did with a buddy on motorcycle. Peart, the bands drummer whom I consider the best in the business, loves to motrorcycle across country. I read his book Ghost Rider shortly before my late wife, Debbie, passed away from cancer. Peart lost his daughter and his wife within a 10 month time frame and wrote a book about his experience. I could relate to his writing. I don't share Pearts spiritual leanings or philosophy but I finally accepted the fact that my beliefs weren't going to be altered by listening to Rush. I especially like the songs Bravado and Roll the Bones. I love to read and learn about other peoples creative process and I'm enjoying "Roadshow" for it's insiders view of a very unique rock band. I'm also a big U2 fan and have started their new book called U2 by U2. But it will take me sometime to make it through that one. I'm a very big fan of the band Poco but, alas, there isn't the same amount of information about them available. I read the Richie Furay biography and though I would reccomend it there just wasn't much about his days with Poco to wet my appetite. My all-time favorite is Rich Mullins. His music has influenced me greatly. Music plays a huge role in my creativity.
I'm thinking about learning Flash in the next year possibly and playing with some animated win,lose & Drew cartoons. I'll let you know how that goes.
Drew
December 12, 2006
7:02 AM
Geoff writes:
What I really want to know, Drew, is: How long did it take you to draw all those basketballs??
December 12, 2006
3:37 PM
Harry Thomas writes:
I love it! Tony Parker of the Spurs (and Eva Longoria's new fiance) is the only player I've heard say anything nice about the new ball, and even those comments were guarded. Tank McNamara had a series on how Stern wouldn't back down on this - now he has. It'll be interesting to see if they reverse on the "zero tolerance" policy as well.
Good luck on the Flash. I highly recommend the Visual Quickstart Series of books as the missing manuals that Adobe/Macromedia doesn't give you. There's also some good online learning tools. I like apex.vtc.com.
December 12, 2006
4:37 PM
Dwayne writes:
Arnie....I couldn't agree with you more. I hate those plant killers!!!!
December 12, 2006
7:43 PM
Tom writes:
This is stupid.
Can't these grown men stop being babies about this? It's a freaking BALL! Play with it. Deal with it. Cripes.
On another note....isn't it about time the Nuggets started actually playing teams from their own conference? Utah, for example, has played 14 of their 21 games against the West. Denver has played 8 of their 19 games against the West. In short....the Nuggets have gotten well against the extremely soft teams of the East. The East completely sucks and is no measuring stick for anything. The sad part? The Nuggets are only 12-7 after that soft schedule the NBA gave them to begin the season. I can't wait to see how many bags of Hall's cough drops George Karl needs to chew once the Nuggests start playing the real NBA teams of the West. I predict Denver will not fare so well then.