Nicaragua

"Man, you are living the life!"

-19 year-old kid at the Apple Store in Manhattan Beach

Nicagragua is:

Anticipation, surrender, ears slicing, blood flowing, tonas, flur de cana, two bucks for the rodeo, backside barrels, seabiscuit, el jefe, mexican bandit with two guns blazing, "pelicula star," snake pranks, the quiet assassin, the tilten hilton, the feral kingdom, the monkey broke loose, who won the sleeping contest? 5 am wake-up calls, off-shore winds everyday, Jimmy, Lance's parents, adios Mateo, Bin Laden is dead, dirt roads, tortugas, colorados, allicero, Travis, sunburns, hair getting blonde, "look at that chick," "we can butterfly the ear back on," just gaff that guy, Popoyo, chococinco, living a waking dream.........

Did all of this happen in a week? Or was it all just a dream?

Inside Job

A classic skit on the Dave Chappell show portrayed what would happen if white-collar financial crimes were treated in the same manner as street crimes. In this hilarious bit of satire Dave exposed a massive double standard that we all know exists, yet do nothing about. We cheer on the police and call them "heros" for writing traffic tickets or enforcing the no cell phone rule while we drive, yet we expect law enforcement to do nothing when the greedy men who run wall street literally steal billions out of their pension and retirement plans. After they have have traded, bundled and sold billions of dollars in "crap" (quoting a Merrill Lynch e-mail here) and paid themselves out massive bonus and cashed in their stock options they than turn to the government to bail them out because they are "too big to fail." I am writing this piece on Rileyrandr because both Bush and Obama deserve the blame for an incredible failure to regulate the financial industries.

I would encourage everyone to watch the documentary, Inside Job, to gain an understanding and an insight as to what happened to our financial solvency during the past eight years. As one congressman put it, "we put people in jail for robbing banks, but we do nothing when the people who are robbing the banks are the CEO's". This film will force you to take a hard look at the players of all the major financial institutions, the Fed, the SEC and yes, even Spitzer himself. The Wall Street players want to make things complicated with words like "credit default swaps," "sub-prime" etc but it is really nothing more than a classic ponzi scheme with the American worker playing the role of the sucker. Watch this documentary and take a look at what "deregulation" has done to America.

The danger of group think

"You want to be the trend, don't follow the trend."

-Matt Riley

Jack Nicholson once said that sports fascinated him because it allows us to indulge in our own private theories about competition and mankind. Public opinions and marketing ideas are formed based on the collective interest and collusion of the owners, the leagues top executive and the handpicked media stars. Often times the public forms an opinion on a certain player or an owner just because they have heard it repeated so many times that they accept what they hear as a fact. (ex. Michael Jordan is the best basketball player ever) (Mark Cuban is a wild eyed maniac) The sports world is full of media shills who consistently laud a few handpicked players or praise certain franchises knowing they will be rewarded and given further access and thus profitability in their careers. So what happens when a visionary owner takes on an entire league and engages in a blood feud with the commissioner of the NFL? You have a sustained ongoing retaliation campaign that has smeared a brilliant man, Al Davis.

Al Davis is a gangster. Al Davis is a genius. Al Davis is a winner. Al Davis is a visionary.

It has become laughable at how many people simply parrot the conventional wisdom that the Raiders will never win unless Al Davis dies. ( I guess they forgot the three Super Bowls he won) When I was a youngster roaming the Coliseum you would hear Raider fans moan after every loss about how terrible Al Davis is and they would blame the recent loss on the owner. I was always confused about why some Raider fans, and non-Raider fans everywhere, would express some much vitriol against a teams owner. Why do so many people seem to dismiss a brilliant, tough, open-minded winner? Because they are all victims of an affliction called group think.

Let us look at the facts:

The Raiders have an all time winning percentage of 0.599. By comparison, the Yankees have an all time winning percentage of 0.566 and are considered the golden standard of all sports teams. Al Davis is a brilliant and groundbreaking figure in the NFL and is the reason the game has evolved into what we have today. It was his innovative, pass first, throw it deep style that has resulted in the "vertical" game. He adopted the swaggering style of marauders and actively courted an outlaw image. Only a true gangster could bring together the diverse cultures of Oakland and seamlessly mesh the black panthers with the Hells Angels. Both groups could be seen roaming the sidelines during Raider games in the 70's. He coined the phrase "just win baby" and "speed kills." Al has served as a head coach, general manager, league commissioner, and owner. He served as the youngest head coach in league history in 1963, and was named AFL coach of the year. He was named commissioner of the AFL in 1966 and began to recruit top talent away from the NFL. This made the AFL highly competitive and forced a merger with the NFL. (kinda of like what happened to the Detroit Tropics in Semi-pro) Al Davis was the first ever to draft a black QB in the first round, the first to hire a black head coach (Art Shell) and the first to hire a Latino head coach (Tom Flores). He also employes the highest ranking female executive (Amy Trask) in the NFL who now serves as the CEO of the Raiders. But Al will never get credit for his groundbreaking stance on civil rights because it does not fit with the popular narrative of our time.

Every team in sports goes through highs and lows. You just hope that you can extend your time and the top and only spend a few years at the bottom. So last look at the last seven years, following the AFC championship season and see what Al Davis did to right the ship:

The Raiders made it to the Super Bowl in 2002 due to the veteran leadership of Rich Gannon (the years MVP) and were the oldest team in the league in terms of average player age. Thus, the inevitable decline due to age as Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, Rod Woodson, Romo, Lincoln Kennedy etc all retired or moved on. The Raiders attempted to rebuild by drafting JaMarcus with the first pick in a move that at the time was seen as a brilliant pick. I challenge you to find any one public comment that predicted the utter disaster of JaFat. During the JaFat years Al Davis drafted Darren McFadden, Michael Bush, Ford, McClain etc. From 2007 to today the Raiders have drafted 13 starters out of their 22 picks in the first three rounds. This is the highest success ratio of any team in the league. The Raiders are on the rise and the silver and black will regain prominence in the NFL.

If you only listen to the soundbites or see just a glimpse of Al Davis on televison with his projector at a press conference you can be made to believe that he is an unhinged lunatic who behaves like a modern day Godzilla breathing fire and destroying the city of Oakland. But if you take the time to watch the entire press conference (as I did on youtube) or listen to him speak in an extended interview you come to see a man that has always had the courage to do it his way. You begin to admire a man that shaped events around him and has always done it his way. Al Davis is a maverick who has built a team his way, sued the NFL multiple times and won, hoisted up the Super Bowl trophy three times, and (dare I say it after the McCourt disaster) is a misunderstood genius. Long live Al Davis!

A nation is on the rise......

"It is here, in this organization, that the will to win burns brighter." "We will get it back."

Al Davis- speaking about hiring Tom Cable

After seven years in the football wilderness a fearsome band of warriors have emerged to strike fear in the hearts of the AFC West. The Raiders sacked Mrs Elizabeth Hasselback eight times yesterday and I was left wondering when Pete Carroll would just give up and put in Whoopi Goldberg at left guard. I guess its too hard for "uncle" pete to "always compete" when he can't gain an unfair advantage in the NFL by buying his players houses and cars. The most overrated coach in history was shown what a fraud he has always been by "coaching" an offense that was only able to generate three points against the Raiders. I guess Pete was too busy counting the millions that he conned the Seahawks into giving him. The Raiders are a team on the rise and after putting together two impressive victories the nation will host the Chiefs this Sunday. If Oakland can beat KC, (dare I say it) we have a realistic shot at going to the playoffs for the first time since 2003. This is why you stay loyal, this is why you NEVER bandwagon (cough, cough, not seeing a lot of SC gear these days) this is why win, lose or tie, I am a Raider fan till I die. On a side note, after the beating the Raiders gave Denver last week I was wearing my Raider hat and some clown said, "oh did you just dust that off because they won?" Before I had a chance to answer this guy Kensey said, "no he wears it every Sunday, no matter what." Thats the kind of girl that I like, one who understands loyalty. In the words of the great Al Davis, "thats what I'm telling ya."

Mucho take it easy

"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement."

-Alfred Adler

El Salvador is like a beautiful but crazy girl that you just keep thinking about. You know how messed up she is but you overlook all of that because she is just so damn exciting. That is how surfers view El Salvador: As a dangerous country but one that entices you because t is full of empty waves. So, you buy the ticket and take the ride.

As I waved goodbye to my Dad at LAX and lugged my boardbag (with my 6.4 and 6.6) I was greeted by an AA agent who said, "you are going surfing in El Salvador? Boy, are you brave." I just smiled and moved on. I was flying on the red eye out of L.A. and was the only white guy on the flight to San Salvador. The stew came up to me and said, "surfer?" I said yep and she said that the only Americans who came down to El Salvador were surfers. I landed at about 5:30 am in San Salvador and got a text from Adam saying that his flight on TACA ( Take a chance airlines) was delayed until 4:00 that afternoon. The plan was for me to wait about an hour at the airport for these guys to arrive since I was the only one flying on American. So here I was, all alone, getting swarmed by people outside of the San Salvador airport. I had to use my boardbag as a buffer to keep taxi drivers etc away from me and tried to call the hotel for the pick-up. But this is central America and things don't really work like they do in the U.S. Nobody was picking up, I called my travel agent and got no answer. Ladies of the night were coming up to me and asking if I wanted a girlfriend for the week, people were trying to sell me all kinds of crap and I kept on reading the travel advisory printed out in big bold letters:

Do Not Get In A Cab Alone!

Finally a guy pulled up in a van and said he was from Las Flores and he would drive me on the two hour plus trip to the hotel. I said a silent pray and got in the bus with him and was able to converse in a Spanish/English hybird. We talked about the waves (olas) and I asked him if he was in the civil war. He showed me a picture of himself in full uniform holding a machine gun. The drive was insane as we passed all sorts of pigs, chickens, cows and goats just running free all over the road. I was able to see miles of just empty beachbreak with decent waves that reminded me of El Porto back home.

I got to the hotel, took a deep breath, and sat down on the deck overlooking a right pointbreak. It had a little bit of morning wind on it but it looked like a fun head high wave. Las Flores is really a surfers dream with a wave out front and boats that leave four times a day to take you to punta mango or to the other beachbreaks. Life quickly gets very simple. You wake up early, surf, have breakfast, surf, nap, have lunch, get an afternoon surf, grab a beer, surf the evening glass, have dinner, watch the sunset and go to bed early. It is incredible to be consumed by the swell, tide and wind for days on end. You really have nothing else to worry about other than trying to decide where you want to go surfing.

All of the other surfers staying at the hotel were from SB, Newport, the South Bay or San Diego. All of the guys got along and took turns in the lineup and just really seemed to enjoy being away from the crowds of Southern California. The best session that we had was an evening surf on the second to last day at punta mango. The boat pulls up and the lineup is empty. I am surfing with only three other people as we watch the sun set from the water. The shoreline of punta mango is undeveloped and you a single horse was grazing on the land. The green mountains were shrowded in mist, the right was overhead and pumping, the water was 74 degrees and I was in heaven. Thank God I am a surfer!

A couple of boys going to the Kings game

One of the reasons that I love living in the city of angels is the constant variety of options that are presented to you on any given night. Last night, I left the beach and drove 23 miles to celebrate Big Goot's birthday with a steak dinner and a hockey game. I had a hour free before I met with Garrett so I visited the Bradberry building and the new Catholic church in downtown L.A. Garrett and I had dinner at Flemings steak house and than watched the Kings defeat Carolina 4-3. I have started to really enjoy Kings hockey and even purchased my first Kings hat since 1993 (the year they went to the finals). Go Kings!

Would you buy real estate from this man?

The scene:

Opening Day Dodger Stadium 2008

A young man runs out of Dodger stadium and begins a furious late afternoon drive to UCLA to attend a real estate principles class. His real estate career at UCLA is just starting. He is still teaching at Torrance High School. Over the next two and a half years he returns to Westwood, sometimes making the 1.5 hour commute twice a week, to pursue his real estate dreams and acquire a brokers license. Fast forward to late summer 2010. He has completed all of his course work, he has studied hard, he owns his own company. This same young man now sits in his office, hands nervously logging in to look at his name and see the magic words next to it: Passed

I am a real estate broker!

So, who wants to buy some real estate?