A late Friday Five? Blame the Wii Cult

OK, so I’m in a cult. My second one, actually.

First it was an iPod cult, and I’ve managed to spread the love to the rest of my family.

But now we’re all in a Nintendo Wii cult, and that will be the lead item in the celebrated, but not always timely, Deezo Friday Five.

1) You have to understand that I’m not much of a video game guy. I’d play MLB Slugfest until my son finally got tired of beating me. And my daughter and I have fun with with an ancient Nintendo system playing some version of Mario Bros. But that’s about it.

Then Will’s brother Scott introduced me to the Wii during this year’s Executive Game weekend. We played before the game between the Mets and the Reds, and long into the night afterward. I was hooked.

My awesome parents bestowed Wiis on the family for Christmas. We had the option of opening it right away or waiting until Christmas. If Costco can have Christmas decorations up already, it must be close enough. We’ve been playing pretty much non-stop since Thursday.


2) It was a spectacular and unseasonably warm fall day here in West Michigan. I took a Wii break to get the kayak out on the mighty Grand River one last time.

Apparently everyone else had the same idea.

I saw seven other kayakers, a moron on a JetSki, three people in boats who are unaware of the rule about slowing down around kayaks, two pontoon boats – one of which had to be towed – multiple fishing boats and, get this, a sea plane. And I was only out there about an hour.

But the scenery was amazing, with the fall colors just starting to burst. We missed church this morning, but I couldn’t help but be in awe of the beauty of the world God has blessed us with and felt His presence.



3) I’m having a difficult time getting excited about the playoffs. The Mets, of course, didn’t make it. The Cubs choked. The White Sox gagged. I obviously can’t root for the Phillies. I’m tied of the Red Sox, or, as Will calls the, the BoSkanks, since he said there is little difference between them at this point. I’m stilled ticked at the Dodgers for 1988 and because they rolled over for the Yanks in 1977. Plus their manager has some Yankee taint.


That leaves the Rays, who have some former Mets and are benefiting from the karma Met Muffin and I passed along in Detroit.



4) I finally have the campaign pins I wanted for my collection.

I’m picky. There are rules. I like pins that have photos of both people on the ticket and hopefully the year. I picked up some cool McCain-Palin pins when they were in town last month.

But I ordered two Obama-Biden buttons from their Web Site. They took the money quickly, but I waited and waited and waited for the pins. It took nearly a month.

When a campaign takes a month to get a couple buttons to a guy living in a battleground state, that’s a telling sign.

5) Michigan’s economy is hurting the concert industry. I went to see Relient K (with Ludo, This Providence and House of Heroes) in Grand Rapids at a place called the Orbit Room on Friday.

I took my 16-year-old son, his buddy and my 11-year-old daughter. Orbit room is an old venue/bar, with standing room on the floor and seats in a balcony. Not sure what capacity is, but it's probably several thousand.

I figured I'd let the boys hang out on the floor, and my daughter and I would sit in the balcony so she could see well.

But the balcony was closed, and a bouncer said they need a crowd of at leat 1,100 to open it, and that they expected 800 for that show. I bet they drew twice that when they came to the same place two years ago.

I was stunned, since Relient K is really popular, especially with youth groups. Tickets were relatively cheap, too, at $20. But he said that the Michigan economy is so bad that even bands that tend to draw well have problems selling tickets.

But they let us drag two bar stools behind the soundboards so my daughter could see.

It was a good show, Relient K never disappoints. Plus, the guys working the boards let us have the set lists for my son’s collection.











The band’s hit, “I Must Have Done Something Right,” is far and away the leader on the iPod’s play count list. Here’s the video.