504ward Promotional Film from Benjamin Reece on Vimeo.

Note: I was hoping to actually include the video, but wordpress is giving me fits, if anyone wants to teach me the ways, I’d love to learn. Thanks.

Update: I’m going to try something and if it works I’ll have subverted the system at least for this 2 minute clip…

Okay, I’ve once again failed… Any ideas?

Jumping on the bandwagon is regarded with disdain among “true” sports fans who have endured years of disappointment and falling short. (In no city is that more prevalent than Boston. The past few years have been great, but prior to 2001 this was a pretty depressed sports town.) These “true” fans of the game are the same type of people who immediately write off a musician or a band at the first sign of popularity. And to be fair, I’m pretty sure I almost was one. This fear was most evident in my rejection of John Mayer (something far too few girls have apparently done), but I talked myself off the ledge citing cheesier and cheesier lyrics, his overall cockiness, and his decision to take pictures of himself with a fan’s camera at a concert.

I moved to the New England area in the summer of 2005. The Red Sox had won the previous World Series and the Pats were preparing to unsuccessfully defend their third Super Bowl Victory in four years. I was leaving behind the only sports teams I’d ever known and loved (the Arkansas Razorbacks), but wasn’t ready to embrace the glory of Boston sports-fandom. I’d actually rooted for the Patriots in 2001 but that was more of a rooting against Kurt Warner and his wicked wife. I had no real ties, other than proximity to any of the major sports teams and I definitely didn’t want to be labeled a bandwagon fan, so I embraced no one.

The first year was easy. The Red Sox fizzled out in the division league series against the White Sox and the Patriots lost to the kryptonite-carrying Broncos. The second year was a little harder. Because of a fantasy baseball league, I’d developed a man-crush on Manny Ramirez, and I still don’t think I’ve seen anyone with a better approach to professional sports than Manny. But that’s another story altogether and it’s time to get back to the Celtics.

As a reader of Bill Simmons, you can’t help but absorb a working knowledge of the NBA. And with that working knowledge comes an intimate (although oddly skewed) familiarity with the Celtics. At some point last year, Simmons developed a man-crush of his own on Kevin Durant. This got so out of hand that he wrote an article for ESPN the Magazine where he began openly rooting for the Celtics to lose to increase the chances of Durant’s arrival. I can say with very little doubt that this article opened the door to me being able to embrace the Boston Celtics.

Something in that article struck a chord. Maybe it was the fact that I’d spent the past few years openly rooting against Arkansas in the hopes that Houston Nutt would get fired or at least be forced to hire an offensive coordinator. Maybe it was the direct linkage of a sport I’d grown up on (college basketball) with a sport that had always seemed foreign (professional basketball). Or maybe it was just one more point of identification that drew me in like amoth to the flame. Whatever it was, I began following the NBA with a cautious interest.

That caution earned me a free drink at the local Starbucks when I knew that the Celtics had lost 17 straight (which would later get pushed to 18 before the streak was ended). Cautious interest also emphasized a sense of karmic justice when the Celtics defied odds and ended up with the 5th overall pick rather than the 1st or 2nd. And when embraced, that karmic justice has an intriguing way of working itself out as evidenced by the rebuilding of the Celtics in the offseason. The trades for Allen and Garnett and the acquisition of a few key free agents to play alongside Pierce have been chronicled thoroughly elsewhere. What I’d really like to do is list off a few of the points of resonance, those key things that really drew min over the course of this season.

I outlined a few of the funnier things I noticed like who looks more like an alien Sam Cassell or Reched Caldwell? Or is there a more fitting 12th man for the Celtics than Scalabrine? But I really want to hone in on some of the key attractions.

1. KG- Is there a more intense human on the planet? How do people handle him on a regular basis? Does that passion carry over to the rest of his life? And if so does he have to be followed by a censor. One day on the way home from work, Lee joking said, “You’d think the networks would know by now that they can’t show Garnett’s lips.” And he’s right.

2. Ray Allen- I love that the underappreciated hero of this NBA Finals is admittedly obsessive compulsive. OCD has always intrigued me and to get to watch it on national television is amazing.

3. Glen “Big Baby” Davis- The acquisition of Big Baby on draft day was one of my favorites. I loved watching LSU make a run through the NCAA tournamet during his Freshman year. And personally speaking, his efforts (along with his teammates) in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were admirable to say the least.

4. Rondo- Along with Big Baby, Rondo eased the transition from the college game for me. I don’t know what it is about long-armed point guards, but I can’t help but root for them, and even when he gave Arkansas fits I liked Rondo.

5. Posey- Van Gundy’s man-crush aside, I think Posey was the second biggest reason I loved this team. Lee informed me, and Comcast backed him up, of Posey’s pre-game ritual of a hug and an encouraging word for each of his teammates. Could you imagine the effect this would have on our daily lives? I’m a bit particular about my personal space, but to have someone you’ve “gone to war with” embrace and encourage you on a regular basis has to do wonders for your confidence.

6. Paul Pierce- Any man who’s been stabbed 11 times and given the nickname “The Truth” by Shaquille O’Neill demands respect by his very existence. And Pierce’s performance over the course of this year only furthered that respect. Pierce has been with the Celtics for awhile and was initially one of the reasons they felt familiar to me. I’d watched him play for Kansas and always thought he was great. But his willingness to welcome almost an entirely new roster to the Celtics and his emergence as an aggressive force were incredible to watch.

7. Ubuntu- This story line has been done to death, but it still fascinates me that Doc Rivers was able to engage this theme with this team to invoke a sense of connectedness and comradery. ABC showed a segment on Phil Jackson’s coaching career in which he harkened to the Rudyard Kipling poem “The Law of the Jungle” saying “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” Strangely enough it seems that the Celtics got the message and used it to devour the Lakers. With one glaring exception (Cassell, I’m looking at you), the entire team played a game defined by its unityh of purpose that was just beautiful to watch. It only furthered the point of My Morning Jacket’s “Librarian,” “What is it inside our heads, that makes us do the opposite, that makes us do the opposite, of what’s right for us? ‘Cause everything’d be great and everything’d be good, if everybody gave like everybody could.” This team put on display for all to see the truth of Archbishop Tutu’s statement,

“A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”

Like I said before, call me a bandwagon fan if you like, but it looks like I need to head back to the store for a few more t-shirts to wear with pride.

Update: So I made it ’til half-time but the Celtics were up 20+ and my eyes were two-thirds shut. If I were a true fan, I’d have stayed up and celebrated, but since I’m a recent convert to NBA- and Celtic-fandom and I will be 4 days behind by the time I get to work, I figured the more sleep I could accumulate, the better off I’d be. I know that’s lame, but whatever, so am I…

I’ll write more once I’m back in New England, but I wanted to continue the thoughts on “progress” of cities that was hinted at but not the point of my last post. Driving around yesterday was a little disillusioning. I knew Little Rock was going to continue expanding, but this has gotten out of hand. Stop signs and lights are one thing. The monstrosities of consumerism have taken over some of the prettier parts of a city I used to call home.

It’s sad, but I guess that’s the price we pay to have the “comforts” of life. I’m just not sure it’s worth the cost…

In his reaction piece to Game 2 of the Lakers-Celtics match-up, Simmons goes into great detail of how this Renaissance came to be.

“So how did that happen? After decades of universally impersonal/enigmatic/unfriendly/anonymous/loathsome Boston sports owners who failed to mine a ravenous sports market, things turned when the Krafts bought the Patriots and proved that a local family could own a Boston-area franchise, interact with the community, listen to fans, build a state-of-the-art stadium and legitimately give a hoot about making everyone happy. A few years later, the Henry/Werner/Lucchino group purchased the Red Sox and shrewdly turned a notoriously fan-unfriendly franchise around, renovating (and even re-inventing) Fenway Park and maximizing every potential penny from that franchise. That was quickly followed by the new Celtics ownership (Wyc Grousbeck, Steve Pagliuca and their minority partners) making a concerted effort to get involved with the community, build relationships with sponsors and heavy hitters and everything else.

Now the three relevant Boston franchises seem like mirror images of each other. They’re all winning. They’re raking in cash and increasing the value of their respective teams to the point that it’s almost absurd. They hired intelligent, successful, innovative executives who keep pushing their teams forward. They have owners who are visible and accountable, owners who proved they will spend the requisite amount of money (and then some) to field winning teams. Beyond that, the top executives for all three franchises know one another, lean on each other for advice and hit up each other for favors; it’s a working relationship in the best sense, and it’s the kind of thing that just didn’t happen 10 years ago. Team A and Team B are always pulling for Team C. Anyway, that’s how you end up with a legitimate renaissance for Boston sports, as well as 40-50 stars and former stars at Game 2 of the NBA Finals.”

The other really cool thing Simmons does in this article is to point out the Renaissance the city of Boston itself is having. Some of the supporting examples leave me a little too cautious to drink the kool-aid (I’m not sure a club like Alibi should ever be glorified, but that is a sidebar I don’t want to bother with for the time being.) But others such as,

“In fact, you could walk from Quincy Market to the North End to Causeway Street to the Red Hat to the top of Charles Street and (A) remain in the sun for the entire time and (B) actually enjoy the trip without feeling you might get mugged. It’s just a different city…”

and as the family that has recently visited can attest to, anything that opnes up the better walking aspects of this city leaves me excited for the possibilities.

Ultimately I think the brilliant thing about this article is that it only further illustrates the old adage “you can never go home.” Boston isn’t the same city Simmons left a few years back. Boston isn’t even the same city I moved to a little over three years ago In some ways that is good, in others maybe not so much. And speaking from experience, we change in the time away from “home” in ways that we can never quite quantify.

I’m coming up on the the ten-year reunion of realizing this “truth.” A lot of things changed my freshman year of college. I made a new set of friends. I changed my major a few times (really it was only once that year, but how dramatic does that sound and it was a drastic change, seriously who bounces from electrical engineering to psychology). And I began discovering the wonders of the northwest corner of my home state. But there are two moments from early on in that first semester that made me aware that I could never really go home again.

In much the same way that Boston changed despite Simmons dis/belief in that possibility, so to 9 Tally Ho changed to 3221 Foxcroft. In all reality this change consisted of only a small metal sign at the top of a private drive to notify outsiders. But for the residents it signified a movement whose ramifications are only now being fully felt. I’m not sure exactly how long it took her, I’m guessing a few minutes tops, but almost as soon as my bags were loaded in the car to drop me off for my first year of college, my sister had moved herself into my old bedroom. The youngest stayed put, biding her time until the room thief departed a few years later, but now she too is readying herself for her freshman year (and I couldn’t be prouder, but that, too, is another long tangent.) Needless to say, I was a little annoyed when my parents broke the news, not as annoyed as I’d be a few years later when they would tell me she’d totaled my car, but more annoyed than I’d care now to admit. And the first time I came home for a Little Rock game, I had to face the fact that home was no longer the same.

The second moment seems surreal even as I think about it today. Within the first couple months of my freshman year, some of my new friends decided to take a road trip to Memphis to watch the Razorbacks demolish the Tigers. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the highway system in the state of Arkansas around 1998, and really still to this date, to get from one part of the state to another, you almost always had to travel through Little Rock. Fayetteville to Memphis was no exception. The strange thing is that when we stopped in Little Rock I didn’t even bother telling my parents I was there. I was so caught up in this new life with my new friends, that for whatever reason I was afraid to call home, as if that would somehow make it less real or they would in some unimaginable way embarrass me.

I remember eating dinner at the Pleasant Valley Country Club (less than a 5 minute drive from my parent’s front door) and standing in the bleachers of a high school football game between two teams I’d never seen before and thinking “When are these people going to realize I don’t belong?” They probably did immediately, but were nice enough to reserver conversations regarding that well known fact to times and places marked solely by my absence. We drove on to Memphis, watched the football game, and returned to campus at the end of the weekend, once again passing through Little Rock without so much as a phone call to my folks (in my final defense this was a good three to four years before I owned a cellphone.)

I’m pretty sure that was a significant one-time thing. There is a distinct possibility that I passed through Little Rock again and again without phoning home. But those moments didn’t leave a mark the way that first time did. Some may call it independence and applaud me for shedding the chains of familial obligation. Others may call it neglect and condemn me for denying access to my family. Like most dualities, both are right and both are wrong. I’d go further with those thoughts, but this is a blog, not a diary…

I’m headed back to Little Rock on Thursday for a long weekend and I’m really looking forward to the trip. But I’m well aware that I’m not going home.

Through a strange twist of fate, Leah actually shares an office with Lee, along with an incredible talent for photography. It was in that very office that the header for postluddism was shot. I think the original is significantly cooler than the cropped version, but I’m a big fan of my crop-job as well. I’ll let you explore her photos for yourself, but I wanted to highlight a couple polaroids she took of the Borderlands here and here.

Two of the previously featured photographers recently took field trips across the pond. Jen just returned from a vacation in London and Oxford and posted her photos on her blog and in her Picasa album. The Longbrake was hired to shoot a wedding in Edinburgh, Scotland and posted a few of his photos on his blog as well.

Finally, Stephen officially launched his photography website and if you didn’t check it out last time, I recommend you taking a gander soon. If you did, but haven’t returned in a while it’s probably worth a second glance as he’s added some pretty cool background tunes to listen to while you view.

At first I was intrigued by the involvement of Ethan Hawke (that’s right, he’s narrating this piece), but later became confused by the involvement of some of the other notables. Other videos worth checking out on friendsofthehighline’s youtube channel include the self-titled High Line video as well as anything involving Ed Norton. While you’re at it you might as well take a gander at their main page too.

I’m pretty sure Hillary knocked the wind out of my excitement level, as did all the other smarmy politicians. But it’s really hard for me to not want to get behind a movement for urban parks, especially those that look like they’re a cross between Lord of the Rings and Star Wars…

Speaking of urban parks, I’ve kept quiet about a discovery I made here in Boston a week or so ago, but keep an eye out for an interesting side project that’s in the works.

Friends of the High Line on Youtube

The High Line dot org