Ben Rector and Needtobreathe Concert!

Wednesday night, NEEDTOBREATHE (don't worry, I will refer to them in a less-enthusiastic way for the duration of this post) and Ben Rector started their tour in Houston. And I went! It was one of the best concerts I've been to in a long time, and here are my thoughts about the highlights.

First off, both Ben Rector and Needtobreathe lead singer Bear Rinehart have the vocal strength and style that makes the live experience more like a CD-listening party than an unfortunate karaoke night. Both guys sounded so good throughout the night, and their voices being so strong really led the audience into a sing-along concert feeling.

For Ben Rector's portion of the concert, he did a great job of just being an opening act. He enlisted the help of the crowd to sing the chorus of one of his songs. He did his traditional impromptu writing of a third verse via audience suggestion. His finale song was a classy, timely cover of the late Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)". And through all of this, he got to show off his stellar vocal range and tone.

Then Needtobreathe came on and just blew my expectations out of the water. If you closed your eyes, you definitely could've convinced yourself that they just played the CD over the speakers. They rocked hard, Bear's voice rang out loud and growly over the top of all the music. The guys looked like a bundle of nervous energy (with it being the first night of the tour, that's totally cool with me), and every guitar solo and breakdown section of a song was pumped so full of energy and just pure rock 'n' roll. The band is going to get used to the crowd knowing every lyric through the rest of this tour - it seemed to kind of catch Rinehart off-guard when the crowd was effectively drowning him out at points.

With that slight negative aside, the connection between crowd and band was strong - and definitely escalated as the concert went on. This all culminated when, during the encore when all 5 guys were playing unplugged in a tight semicircle, the entire audience collectively shut up and just...listened. Rinehart, having stepped away from his turned-down microphone, belted out the refrain of the studly chorus from "Slumber". The emotional connection between the crowd and the singer at that point in time is something I've never felt before. Then, the band hit a final chord and walked off the stage, and the audience just kind of sat stunned before coming to our collective senses and applauding. I know that concerts are largely a practice in crowd manipulation, but that refreshing take on an encore didn't seem forced - it seemed natural and just special, honestly.

All told, the concert was an incredible experience. It combined the luxuries of a big-time concert with all the intimacy of a living room jam session. If you have a chance to see this tour when they come (near) to you, I highly suggest you take the time. If this post catches you a day or two late, never fear! that's what iTunes (or let's be honest: Spotify - welcome to 2012) is for! Check out any and all of both these bands' music, I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.

Chandler Parsons or Chase Budinger?

In watching the Houston Rockets lose tonight to the Milwaukee Bucks, a question occured to me: Why is Chandler Parsons playing so much instead of Chase Budinger? Budinger started the year in the starting 5, and has since been relegated to towel-waving sub in recent games. In looking at their stats, they seem to be much the same. So what's the difference in these two Caucasian forwards whose first names start with "C-H-A"?

Here are some of John Hollinger's PER stats on both players (PER is adjusted on a per-minute basis):

Chase Budinger, 6'7'', 3rd year

20.7 minutes/game

51% field goal percentage

9.5 assists/game

7.9 turnovers/game

8.6 rebounds/game

11.44 PER

Chandler Parsons, 6'9'', Rookie

23 minutes/game

48.6% field goal percentage

16.2 assists/game

8.8 turnovers/game

13.7 rebounds/game

14.66 PER

What's the difference between the two? And what has pushed Parsons into "starter" status?

First, Parsons passes more without costing much in terms of turnovers. Watching Budinger, he sees himself at the receiver of passes - and once he gets the ball, he's looking to score more often than not. That's not necessarily a bad thing; lots of players (cough Kobe cough) operate better within their team (cough cough Melo) when they're "the guy". However, unfortunately for Budinger, the Rockets already have one of those (ahem...Kevin Martin). As far as Parsons is concerned, he seems just as happy to set someone up as he is to shoot the ball. He hustles around the court, and he just gets open due to that relentless motor.

The other main difference between "Chandler Bang" and "Bud"'s stats is the rebounding rate. Parsons is two inches taller than Budinger, but Parsons knows how to make his size a huge deal when he's playing inside (offensive or defensively). CP plays like a power forward with the athleticism of a shooting guard. Budinger plays like the key is made of hot lava - he lives on the wings, and then only ventures inside on his patent-pending baseline dunks. He plays like a shooting guard with the size of a small forward.

One last comment on Parsons: in this, his rookie season, it feels like he's completely unaware of the stakes. He's playing like a 10-year old on a youth basketball team: hustling everywhere, taking the ball up the court on occasion, doing his post-game interviews with an orange-peel-smile. One of those may actually have been made up. However, this obliviousness is just making Parsons play with a joy and carefree air that makes him already one of the more clutch players on the team. Hopefully he can keep that aspect of his game up throughout his career.

All told, I think that Coach Kevin McHale is riding the hot hand, since Parsons has been on fire recently. However, for the reasons stated above, I think the right move is to keep playing Parsons as much as possible. He brings a relentless character to this Rockets team that they'll need to imitate if they hope to go far in the playoffs this season. Thankfully we can't get matched up with the Bucks until the Finals.

Bucket List

I love lists. In a typical day, I'll make a dozen different lists that fit whatever I'm thinking and doing for that day. My mom says I do this because I have an analytical mind. I tell her that she's analyzing me by saying that - but I mean...I'd agree with her.

The thing about lists, in general, is this: each item on a list is inherently begging, SCREAMING to be checked off. My freshman year English teacher, Mrs. Shank (the best English teacher I've ever had), told our class that when you make a list, you should make the tasks achievable because checking off a task is an emotional boost. This "bucket list" flies in the face of that advice, to a degree, but my reasoning is as follows: every item on this list is set up to be a kind of "life achievement award," not something flippant like a to-do list for a Saturday. With each task I (hopefully) eliminate from this list, the feeling is that it is a significant milestone being passed. How apt is that description to my list? Eh, some of these goals are altogether too lofty. But I'm not making a bucket list that I want to complete - I hope to have plenty to work on throughout my life.

One last clarification, I wrote this list in spurts, as things popped into my head. I'm basically publishing this to display my inner dialogue - plus, I have way too many notes saved on my iphone, let's be honest. So this list is very "stream of consciousness," and is only edited to clarify my own personal short-hand.

So without further ado, here is my "list of things to do before you kick the bucket" (thank you Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson):

- Run with the bulls in Pamplona Spain
- Live in manhattan
- Do stand-up comedy
- Get a pilots license
- Go to Coachella/SXSW/ACL

- Be a general manager of an MLB team
- Travel to every continent (as an adult)
- Learn an Asian language
- Learn Italian
- Run a marathon
- Run a half-marathon
- Run a 10k
- Run a 5k
- Bungee jump
- Witness the Northern Lights
- Write a book
- Take dance lessons of some sort (to proficiency)
- Watch The Wire
- Watch The Sopranos
- Watch Lost
- Visit Boston
- Go to all 30 MLB stadiums
- Go to the Super Bowl
- Go to the BCS national championship game
- Go to all 4 tennis opens
- Go to The Masters
- Learn how to bake something good from someone else's homemade recipe
- Go to Hawaii
- Go to Old Trafford and see Man U play
- Read all the way through the Bible
- Read a book in its native language
- Release an album of original songs
- Successfully complete the gallon challenge
- Eat the Big Texan dinner in Amarillo
- Climb mount Kilimanjaro
- Go white water rafting
- Break a Guinness world record
- Learn to drive a motorcycle
- Machu Picchu
- See the cherry blossom festival in Washington DC
- Go on a date with Rachel mcadams
- Mardi Gras in New Orleans
- Solve a Rubiks cube
- Get a degree from Stanford
- Get a degree from Harvard

- Read all of Shakespeare

- Read all of Sherlock Holmes

- Watch all of the James Bond movies

- Watch all of the Oscar Best Picture Award winners

Taking Down Dos Lobos

Tonight, the Houston Rockets took their 6-game winning streak into the Target Center in Minneapolis. This season, the Rockets have been equal parts Jekyll and Hyde when they are at home or away, respectively. At home in the Toyota Center, the hometown boys are 7-1, while on the road they came into the night sporting an abysmal 2-6 record. So taking on Minnesota in the (Timber)wolves' den is just what the Rockets needed to transfer their home success to the road as well.

Houston controlled most of the game, although Minny had a couple dangerous runs that even gave them a lead in the middle of the 3rd quarter. However, Houston ended up winning 107-92. With the win, the Rockets improve to 10-7 while the Wolves drop to 7-10. The Rockets key performer probably was Kyle "Mr. Triple-Double" Lowry, who provided 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. Kevin Martin was no slouch, finishing with 31 points of his own.

The Wolves are basically a band of merry men surrounding their All-Star/All-World/All-Universe power forward Kevin Love, who finished with 39 points and 12 rebounds. He is relentless on the boards, especially offensively, and his inclusion of a 3-pointer into his game mixes low and high extremely well. As for the sidekicks, this year has been a kind of culmination for lots of Minnesota General Manager David Khan's experiments: namely 2011 #2 overall pick Derrick Williams out of Arizona and the #5 overall pick from the 2009 draft Ricky Rubio. As this is Rubio's first year coming to the NBA from his native Spain, the effect on Minnesota is having two Top-5 picks added to your team in the same year.

The aforementioned newcomers are playing well: the wildly-popular Rubio (1/2 of Minnesota's "Dos Lobos" Spanish contigent, along with injured guard J.J. Barea) is making his mark in the league as a distributor and good defensive player, while Williams really needs to look no further than teammate Michael Beasley to model his game as an offensive-minded wingman. As the year goes on, Minnesota can look to continue to build the rapport of their young nucleus of Love/Rubio/Williams and hopefully bring great chemistry down the stretch of this year and into next season. They have room to grow, but as was evident in large stretches tonight, these Timberwolves aren't playing very well.

So what does this win say about the Rockets? The importance of a road win cannot be understated, especially coming off of an emotional win against the rival San Antonio Spurs. The triple-double by Lowry serves as an announcement to the league, a coming-out party of sorts, that K-Low is here and he is one of the best point guards in the world. Kevin Martin keeps proving that he can score anywhere and everywhere, even though his insistence on shooting fast-break 3's continually makes me nauseous regardless of how many he makes. Samuel Dalembert has really made his own niche as a rebounder, cleaning up the glass on both ends of the court. Also, his innate sense of shotblocking is a key to the Rockets' defense.

From watching Houston play for much of this season, it is my opinion that these are the Rockets' two best lineups. First, the "normal" lineup that should be used throughout the course of the game consists of center Dalembert, power forward Luis Scola, small forward (rookie!) Chandler Parsons, shooting guard Martin, and point guard Lowry. In crunch time, however, a smaller lineup is really paying dividends by allowing both of H-Town's dynamic point guards to get some key minutes: "center" Patrick Patterson, and then guards Lowry, Goran Dragic, Courtney Lee, and Martin. These two lineups have been playing incredibly well, and it has been a big part of the Rockets' current 7-game winning streak.

With the win, the Rockets now move into the 8-seed in the Western Conference. Who's next?! That would be the Milwaukee Bucks, who travel to Houston to try to steal a win at the Toyota Center tomorrow night.

The Boys Are Back!

Tonight, the Houston Rockets defeated the Sacramento Kings, 103-91. With the win, the Rockets improve to 4-7 on the season, while the Kings fall to 4-8. The Rockets and Kings are the 12th- and 13th-seeded teams in the NBA's Western Conference, far from being current playoff contenders. So this begs the question: who cares? Well obviously, I do. And so should you, if you're a Rockets fan.

The Rockets played well. Really well. And I believe that this is the blueprint for future Rockets success. With the current roster, all the pieces are in place for Houston to make a run at a playoff spot - they just need to consistently replicate the model of tonight's game.

The defense played pretty well, getting a big inside presence from Samuel Dalembert and his season-high 4 blocks. With Luis Scola's inability to challenge shots vertically, Dalembert should play a big role for the Rockets as the anchor of their defense.

Kyle Lowry is proving himself to be one of the better point guards in the league. Mr. "Near-Triple-Double" fills out every aspect of the stat sheet, and the rest of the team takes after his hard-nosed, hustle style of play.

Luis Scola had everything going through him on the offensive end. This helped in two ways: by giving the ball to Scola in the high post area, he can easily kick it out to any open teammate if/when a double-team comes; and if no double-team comes, Scola can go to any of the Bill Worrell-patented "Ice Cream Man" scoop shots that his post game consists of.

Kevin Martin is doing the things that Kevin Martin should. He's an underrated shooting guard in the NBA, and he adds more offensively than he takes away on the defensive end. Chase Budinger mixes in sharpshooting on the 3-point line with an ability to elevate and aggressively slash to the basket, and the whole package comes together very nicely.

Chandler Parsons has been astounding, honestly. The rookie has played as a Chase Budinger-wannabe, and is acted the part in spades recently. He can shoot a fair amount of 3's, and then his size allows him to play inside also on defense.

On the bench, Goran Dragic, Terrence Williams, and Patrick Patterson are playing well enough to contribute to Houston's success. Then, anything that Jordan Hill, Jonny Flynn, and former D-Leaguers Hasheem Thabeet (ha!) and Jeff Adrien can add in random games will only be gravy that adds to the Rockets' inevitable postseason push.

If the Houston Rockets are smart, they'll use this seemingly-innocuous game on the schedule as their plan for the rest of the season. If they do, they'll make the 2012 NBA playoffs - write it down!

Hugo

This past weekend, a friend asked me if I'd like to go see a PG-rated movie. Having just seen the new Muppets movie (which I liked, actually), I was not particularly anxious to go see another movie deemed so "tame" by MPAA standards. However, being the amazing friend that I am (if I do say so myself), I alit from my cloud of condescension to go see "Hugo".

As we're sitting through previews beforehand, I'm told that the movie is directed by Martin Scorsese (and co-directed by Johnny Depp). So I readjust my expectations slightly, although still remaining nonplussed. Then, the movie starts.

From the outset, it is evident how Scorsese does such a great job of telling this incredible story, which is adapted from a short story originally written by Brian Selznick. It is fascinating to watch as the main character, Hugo Cabret, crawls, slides, and climbs around the walls of the Paris train station that doubles as his home.

I notice that, all in all, there is not much dialogue throughout the movie. Therefore, the non-verbal communication between characters is magnified. The orphan Hugo wades through a myriad of difficult emotions, and as is understandable, he conveys his emotions through body language and facial expressions more often than words. The old man (George Melies, played by Ben Kingsley), kind of steals the show theatrically as he runs the gamut of emotions throughout the movie.

The (real-life, apparently) character of George Melies is absolutely captivating. After Hugo and his friend (Melies' god-daughter) unearth the truth behind the shopkeeper's secret past (Spoiler Alert!), the next 15 minutes of the movie is a montage of Melies' actual turn-0f-the-century films, restored and brought to life in wonderful 3-D. The prominent film used in the movie, "A Trip to the Moon", can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDaOOw0MEE

The main component of the movie that made it so enjoyable was the 3-D. Props to the movie industry, as they've improved 3-D glasses so they are no longer cumbersome and annoying to wear. It just makes it easier to focus on what I came to see, instead of paying extra for a ticket just to fiddle with the glasses the whole time and miss key parts of the movie.

As with many of the newer 3-D movies coming out nowadays, "Hugo" made excellent use of the technology featured in this medium. Some movies, like "Toy Story 3", are made more enjoyable by the presence of the 3-D capabilities. However, the truly transcendent 3-D movies, like "Avatar", make the technology seem truly necessary for it to be enjoyed correctly. "Hugo" definitely asserted itself as a transcendent 3-D movie, and the usage was perfect: it propelled the story further, gave life to scenes which would have otherwise been difficult to visualize, and wasn't ever cheesy.

The emotional themes shown throughout "Hugo" made the movie worthwhile: Hugo's search for love and acceptance and purpose following the loss of his father (played by Jude Law, an added bonus); Melies' revitalization as a success, not forgotten although time has not been kind to his art; and the heartwarming forgiveness and mercy that the station patrolman (played by Sacha Baron Cohen, another surprise!) learns through his encounters with the station's florist.

Needless to say, I was amazed by the movie. The combination of the interesting plot, the character development (verbal and non), the historical aspect of George Melies' lifework, and the tasteful, vital use of 3-D technology made "Hugo" one of my favorite movies of the year. Go see it before it's reduced to a 2-dimensional screen!

Behold King Pigskin

In the United States today, sports are a focal point of our culture. Different sports can serve in different roles in our lives. Baseball, like a beloved family dog, is always there for you, never requiring your full attention. Football, like a new sports car, can't be overused so as to dull its sheen, but demands your full attention and works in a strict "weekends only" zone. Hockey (or heck, even soccer) like sushi, is for those with a sense of adventure and a curiosity to experience foreign cultures.

For a small part of December, each of the major four (five with soccer) American sports was active in some respect. The NHL and NFL (and soccer leagues around the globe) are in the middle of their regular seasons, the MLB is working through its winter meetings (featuring blockbuster signings of stars like Albert Pujols), and the NBA has been working its way back into the national stream of consciousness after being mired in a long players' union lockout. So the obvious question is: which sport is America's favorite?

Football - American football, of course - reigns supreme. And it's not even close. This past weekend's games are a testament to the amazing drama that surrounds the NFL, week in and week out. In the Houston television market, this is what a day as a football fan looks like, taking December 11th's schedule as an example:

Noon (CBS) - The Houston Texans (10-3), led by their undrafted rookie quarterback T.J. Yates, go into the Bengals' den and defeat Cincinnati (7-6), led by their own rookie quarterback Andy Dalton (a native Texan), on a last-second touchdown.

3:00 (F0x) - The AFC West-leading Denver Broncos (8-5), behind the leadership of their media-lightning-rod and consummate winner, quarterback Tim Tebow, outlast the Chicago Bears (7-6) in overtime in Denver. Thanks in part to the mile-high conditions, Broncos kicker Matt Prater hits two breathtaking, long field goals: a game-tying 59-yarder and the overtime 51-yarder.

7:30 (NBC) - In the only night game on the NFL schedule, two NFC East rivals meet in Dallas as the New York Giants (7-6) square off against the division-leading Cowboys (7-6). The teams trade blows for the entire game, ultimately ending in Giants defensive lineman Jason Pierre-Paul blocking Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey's potentially game-tying field goal in the game's waning moments. With the win, the Giants move into a tie with the Cowboys atop the NFC East.

Three games, three last-second finishes. Even amid four other major sports going through some pretty big news weeks (the Pujols signing, the drama surrounding New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul as he seeks to be traded), the NFL captures all the headlines. How? The football that is being played on the field is simply...spectacular.