Coney Island's Astroland will close next summer

 The park was sold to new developers that intend to creat a year-round resort.  The landmark cyclone rollercoaster was saved from the redevelopment plans and is on contract with the city, hopefully never to be touched by redevelopers.
I hope Village Voice's Syren Music Festival continues on...

Article on Renaldo Balkman proves NY Beat Writers are Asses

Leave it Si.com to illustrate just how incompetent those ny knick beat writers have become. This is how you write a Knicks article not spewing negativity, you hacks. Sitting courtside eating hotdogs everyday (I bet you anything those 'beat writers' write off all that junk food in addition to the courtside seats as company expenses) only to later blast the franchise like a blind conformist idiot isn't what I call beat writing, but hey, some editors seem to think it worthy of their newspaper's names (see NY Post, NY Daily News in particular).

Isiah Thomas Must be Fired

I just came from church so let me try not to be so profane about this.

Isiah Thomas is trying to save his own neck again by putting the blame on someone else. He did it with Larry Brown, he did it with Lenny Wilkins. He has reassembled this roster several times over to no avail. Not one of the teams Isiah has built has had any chemistry, and although he has an eye for drafting good players, he has no vision of a cohesive basketball team.

Now Isiah is trying to blame Stephon Marbury for his failures. Before the season started, Isiah and Mark Aguirre asked Stephon to change game to be more of a ball distributor for the Knicks. Stephon, having so much faith in stupid Isiah, has agreed to anything and everything the CBA bankruptor Isiah has said. The knicks, now 5-10 (although .500 on the road where Isiah can't make the home team turn against Marbury) look as bad as last years 23 win team.

I don't know if I've said this here or not but now I believe we must fire Isiah. Fire him before makes any more moves that make Frank Layden look like a basketball genius. Fire Isiah before he bankrupts MSG, before he give away unprotected lottery picks for lard-asses devoid of competitive spirit, fire Isiah before the richest team in the league looses what has been the most loyal fan base of any team in the NBA over the past 30 years. Let Isiah go, let Isiah commentate on that shite network ABC/Disney/ESPN, because after shaming the knicks with his presence these past 4 or 5 years, he'll never work in the NBA again as anything more than a draft scout.

I should have known he wouldn't have worked for the Knicks, he was traded here from detroit in the final days of his basketball career only to refuse to play for them. what was Isiah's quote regarding similar Antonio Davis signing?
"This ain't charity".

But it would only be divine benevolence for Isiah to resign his positions with the Knicks and never come back.


Who should the knicks hire if and when Isiah Thomas makes his exodus from New York? Why not have Kiki as GM? He is a former Knick who has also assembled an athletic roster in Dever only a few years ago. I think either Herb Williams or Mike Fratello would be fine replacements for Isiah the coach as well.


Fire Isiah!

Knicks' season already seems lost according to NY Writers

So there is a mess at the Garden again this year and this time it is Isiah's job that is on the line so who is left to blame now that Lenny Wilkins, Don Chaney, Larry Brown and Scott Layden are all free of responsibility? That's right, Marbury.
No wait, that can't be right!
Why has everything Knicks related I've heard or seen this season seem to be about Stephon and how him and Francis are the cancers of the knicks?
Look at it this way, either Isiah goes or he paints another picture to the media about why it is someone else's fault and that person goes. Which do you think Isiah is going to choose?
These days everyone loves Nate. And I'm a fan of Nate's, but he IS NOT A POINT GUARD, assholes! He averages 1 assist per game. Just one. Now you're going to dump Marbury so that Nate can start? that is trading one problem for another. oh and by the way, I still hold Nate responsible for Channing Frye's injury last season, and who knows if that injury has had any effect on this season's production from Frye.
So, its a mess. You have Stephon, Francis, Nate, Jamal, Quentin and in two weeks Jared Jeffries, all asking -if not demanding- for minutes on the perimeter. Now, you need Jeffries on the perimeter because he can ignite a fast-break style offense so consider him the only one you MUST play. Nate, Jamal and Q all have come off the bench during their Knicks tenure so what does this mean? Either Stephon or Francis has to go to accommodate Jeffries' return. Which is it going to be? Only Isiah and that guy from canada know at this point.
Here is another possible solution:
Sit Curry
Start Frye, Lee, Jeffries, Marbury and Francis. See what that team can do on the floor together. you'll have Curry, James, Richardson, Crawford and Robinson coming off the bench with Balkman, Kato, Collins and Rose as reserves.
You have to isolate the problem. To me, the problem starts with perimeter defense. you get jeffries back, and the knicks give up fewer outside shots. if the problem is marbury or curry, you tinker with the lineup, one player per game, until something works, ie, the knicks win for once.

No one can tolerate another 23 win season. no one can tolerate chicago getting a high pick in the draft again. if the season is lost and those two things end up happening, I'm going to a hypnotherapist to have all traces of my knicks fans roots eternal-sunshined out of my mind.

Blame Isiah. All he can do is draft good players.

All systems, no go.

It seems for some reason that every online system is not working today.
Don't know if it is some virus floating around or what.
But I can't log into anything.
I'm surprised blogger let me log in, actually.
Weird.
Hackers.

new blogger? knicks thus far.

So this is the new blogger.com interface? seems a little different so far, but not much. the font has changed and now their linking my gmail account to this account, seems like some kind of identity attempt in my opinion.

all i can say about this season so far is that they're trying to make Marbury the scape goat for loosing. During training camp they asked him to change his game so they can start winning but so far its just meant taking less shots for the sake of being a distributor on a loosing team. I'm still rooting for steph, hope the new system works out for him and isiah doesn't trade him just to save his ass -you know common thought around the league is that if you trade steph your team automatically gets better.

i don't know if there is a cancer in their locker room or if they're just learning a new system. i would hope only 10 games into the season that the team is still unified during this initial adversity, but no one knows, not owner James Dolan or myself.

Who is doing Mitsubishi's car commercials?

A few years ago it was Spoon's "We've Been Had" that was featured in a Mitsubishi tv commercial, tonight I could swear I heard The Fall's Mark E Smith
"I was walking down the street"
During a new Mitsubishi Outlander commercial during the knicks game on MSG Network.
Holy shit. How can this be? Nobody seems to care anymore, all indie rock bands do car commercials in the early 21st century, but The Fall? The holiest of mid 90's indie rock bands, in my eyes?

It could have been a song called "IBIS-AFRO MAN", but its uncertain if this was indeed the fall or simply a copy cat. You know, sometimes car commercials sound like the strokes but they're not always actually the strokes...

Well if it was them I still love the fall anyway.

(the fall play brooklyn's studio B tonight after what seems to have been a very short set at hiro ballroom the other night for CMJ)