Titletown, USA
For the past several weeks, ESPN has travelled arond the country to find the community they could crown "Titletown, USA". Thre was, at first, a small problem with that. Green Bay, Wisconson had given themselves that appelation and had even copywrighted the term. I don't know if ESPN ever got permission, but I guess they got at least a blessing--no lawsuits in the sports pages between Green Bay and ESPN.

Well, after weeks of cheesy human/community interest stories on SportsCenter, the honor of being Titletown, USA was bestowed on Valdosta, GA. For a very long time, it has been the high school football capital of the world. If there really is something as a high school national championship, they've won at least 3 or 4 at Valdosta High School. Lowndes County High has won 3 out of the last 4 state championships. Jesse Tuggle played college football at Div II powerhouse Valdosta State. All these facts were mentioned on Sports Center along with J. D. Drew being from the south Georgia town. They failed to mention that pro wrestling superstar Buff Bagwell claims Valdosta was well.

Viewers called in and voted for who should be known as Titletown. Valdosta captured over 29% of the votes. 29%!! Could a small city in south Georgia have stuffed the ballot box? If so, they deserve the title because they have passionate fan support. OR it could actually be that Valdosta has a reputation that would garner votes from across the country. This is possible. In 1991 as a Charleston Southern mission trip group made its way back to campus from New Orleans, we planned our route to include a stretch of US Hwy 84 which took us right through Valdosta. Why? Because even back then we had heard of their reputation as a football powerhouse. 17 years later it's Titletown, USA.

This makes me glad because it reflects more of the culture of our whole country were communities rally around what is happening on Friday nights instead of Saturday afternoon. No offense, Valdosta State, but you have to admit you are probably struggling to be in third place in popularity in your market (depending on when Buff's in town).

I am also glad that Columbus, OH did not win.

Don't Turn Around-uh-uh-oh!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the next great thing in marriage enrichment . . . introducing tandem synchronized iPod shuffle-ing!

Many evenings Trisha and I will go for a walk. When we go, we usually both will listen to our respective iPods. That is to say that we'll walk together but she'll listen to her music and I'll listen to mine. I had expressed the following idea before, but someone I love declared, "That's impossible!" Two evenings ago, I brought it up again, and this time the notion intrigued the social scientist side of my wife's personality. I unpacked a plan for us to listen to the same songs at the same time while using two separate machines. The alternative was to use only 1 iPod and share the earbuds.

Step One. Compile a playlist. We actually had a playlist draft to pick songs that we each would want to hear . . . "Mr. Commissioner, with the second pick of the fourth round, the man's iPod chooses 'Fergalicious'!"

Step Two. Sync your iPod's. You have to make sure that the playlist is in the order you want. Be careful when you sync the second iPod. Our computer wanted to put the second sync in order by artist's name. Something we discovered the second song into our walk.

Step Three. Set the iPods to play songs in order. "Shuffle" will have you out of sync.

Step Four. Start the iPods simultaneously. We actually had that Lethal Weapon moment the first time we tried it. "You mean 1-2-3 and then shoot or 1-2 then shoot on 3?" The solution was to have one person hit both start buttons. It helps here to listen to one earbud from each iPod.

Step Five. Be sure to lip sync or even sing to each other. It's fun, and, of course, nothing will freak out your neighbors more than seeing the two of you bounding up to them with your white earbuds in and all of a sudden declaring in unison "Alles klar, Herr Kommissar?"

The Future? Since this is a new phenomenon for us, I can't push this too far or too fast lest we crash and burn. I thnk we need to add "The Electric Slide" to the playlist just so one day passers by will see us dancing, to apparently no music, in the post office parking lot.

Pilgrimage
I recently attended a workshop on spiritual formation. One of the practices we were encouraged to undertake was to go on a "pilgrimage" every 7 to 10 years. That is, to take a trip to a sacred place.
As I thought about where that sacred place might be for me, it occurred to me that I might already have been on a pilgrimage--of sorts.
In the summer of 1997 I led a youth group on a mission trip to Chicago. On our day off, we went to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play the SanFrancisco Giants. There were several "holy moments" when the baseball part of my soul got to catch up with the things I had only seen on televison.
It was a day game, a grand tradition at Wrigley. There really was ivy growing on the outfield walls. Sammy Sosa made his game opening lap of right filed, waving at all the "Bleacher Bums". We had semi-obstructed view seats. The wind was blowing out. JT Snow hit a home run to Right that got thrown back. Sammy Sosa hit a home run for the Cubs (so did Brian McRae). Ryne Sandberg played second base. Mark Grace played first. The Cubs won 6-3 and they raised the "W" banner beside the scoreboard.
The "most spiritual" moment, of course, came just moments after Darryl Hamilton struck out swinging to end the top of the 7th. I grabbed Trisha by the hand and said, "C'mon, let's go!" She didn't understand want was going on. "You need to see this," I explained as I led her down the first base side of the stadium toward right field. Our seats were semi-obstructed related to the view of the field, completely obstructed when it came to seeing the press box. I was almost running and dragging my wife along. I kept checking over my left shoulder to see if we could see. About the time we got "clear", I turned my wife back toward home plate where we both got to see Harry Carey pop out of the broadcast booth to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
That was an experience that will stay with me for a long time. I could try to do some theological reflection on all of those expereinces that day, but I will be content to preserve some of those those images for moments when my soul (the baseball part or even all of it) might need them. Of course, if your soul has need, come by and I'll tell you the stories in person.
Yesterday, when I was listening to the Braves game, Chipper Jones hit a home run in the bottom of the first. The thought hit me . . . At that moment in Turner Field, there were many people who were there for the first time taking in sights and sounds and experiences that they might have only previously seen on TV. There were kids there wearing #10 jerseys and t-shirts who got to see their favorite player hit a home run. Surely they also deserve some kind of bonus if they stayed for all 17 innings. Who knows what their own pilgrimages might have accomplished for their souls?

Sharing the Love
Summertime always brings us such a wonderful array of odd television shows. Here are a few rapid fire reviews . . .
Wipeout: Boring! I was hoping it would be something like Most Extreme Elimination, the Japanese game show often "marathoned" on Spike TV, but it cannot live up to that caliber of entertainment. It's just an obstacle course show with poorly rendered sarcasm. Et tu, John Henson?
I Survived a Japanese Game Show: This is a little better. You get the fun of MXE mixed with a little Survivor strategy. It takes an hour, and you do notice.
My Name is Earl reruns: Make sure you get TBS and watch this American classic. My favorite episode was on last week where Joy is on the "happy pills" and she goes off, though still in happy mode, on her neighbors then compliments them on their dancing Santa. "Oh snap!"
America's Got Talent: not watching it.
Last Comic Standing: ditto.
Dodgeball: whenever that movie is on, I stop and watch. What's our motto? Aim low?
Braves baseball on FSN/SportsSouth/Peachtree TV: Sometimes rewarding. Sometimes painful. You would have won a bet trying to convince me that Brent Lillibridge is almost 25 years old.
Accompanying most of these great broadcasts is, I contend, the beer commercial of the year. Heineken hopes to sell its new Premium Light via their "Share the Good" spot. When I first saw this commercial I commented, "Oh man, that was a Coke commercial--for beer!" Take a look . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn-NtOXFE3Y
At first glance, I judged this beer ad to be the millennial version of "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." I wondered, "Can we do that with beer?" Was Heineken treading on some sacred space in our culture that for at least 35 years has preached world peace could be achieved with a candle in one hand and a Coke in the other? After seeing the commercial several more times, I felt a little different. This one is supposed to be sarcastic, and, yes, it is even funny. You probably don't need me to tell you what's funny, but trust me anyway. For as much as Michelob Ultra commercials wanted to be Gatorade commercials, the Heineken Premium Light commercial is not a Coke ad. It's actually beating up the Coke ad during recess--and we're in summer school! When we get a little bit closer to the Olympics, I imagine Coke will trot out several "world united" spots and you to might be able to see that Heineken has already made fun of it and perhaps even pointed out that "the Emperor is naked".