Miscellaneous Ramblings

When I wrote about Thursday's baseball game, I got caught up in the wonders of my camera and the bench-clearing brawl and forgot to rant about the prices at Safeco Field. They have managed to price everything at the absolute maximum that will be tolerated before someone gets out a gun and goes on a rampage. The seats were OK, at field level on the third base line, about half-way in the outfield. They cost $36 apiece. A small bottle of water costs $4.25. A Bud Lite cost $7.00, and a real microbrew beer cost $8.50! Even though I love beer, I couldn't bring myself to pay that price. There is advertising everywhere, and it seems every announcement or big-screen TV event is sponsored by some company or another. I wonder where all the money goes. The stadium, all $400M-500M of it, was and is publicly financed. And right next door is Qwest Field, another half-billion boondoggle financed by taxpayers even though they voted it down twice! What possible economic rationale could exist for a $500M stadium that hosts a dozen events a year? What is the cut for the taxpayers? What is the cut for the Mariner's owners? What is the cut for the Seahawks? If pro sports are such a good deal, you'd think the owners could build their own damn stadiums. I think the money would have been better spent on light rail.

The city fathers recently have shown a little wisdom in their negotiations with the Sonics. Key Arena is a fine venue, and was updated with $100M (I think) in renovations in the mid-90's. This year, the Sonics said they'd leave unless they got a new arena, and for a change, the city didn't cave. It looks like the Sonics will be moving to a new publicly financed (of course) arena in Oklahoma City. All that remains is a lawsuit by the city against the Sonics demanding that they meet the terms of their lease.

Even though I'm not the biggest sports fan in the world, I'm not anti-sport. When we lived in St. Louis in the '80's, the Cardinals were recent World Series Champions. Decent seats in Busch Stadium cost $12 apiece, and beer cost $1.65! And yeah, I know, inflation has jacked up the price of everything. So, just for interest sake, let's do the calculation. The current CPI is around 230, based on 1983-84 prices at 100. Therefore, inflation would have increased the prices of the seats to $27, and the beer to $3.80. I wouldn't bitch about paying $3.80 for a beer at a ballgame. I might even go more than once or twice a year.

On Saturday night, Caroline and I watched There Will Be Blood. Caroline was smart and left to go for drinks with friends half-way through. I thought this movie got good reviews and was nominated for Academy Awards and stuff. Or was that another movie? It must have been, because this movie was an unmitigated piece of crap wrapped up in some artistic gauze. I kept waiting for something to happen that would explain it all, and it would all make sense. Maybe I'm not as smart as I think I am, and maybe I didn't see the allegories and connections to classical themes and classic movies. Maybe I'll suffer through it once or twice more until I get it. NOT!!

And on a lighter note... Yes, I really am lighter since I started working out five months ago. On Saturday, I went and bought some new jeans. 34W 30L. I haven't bought 34W jeans for at least 25 years!