Last night, Kim, my dad, and I took my niece Emily to the Harlem Globetrotters at URI. And I took horrible pics and video. I had fun, but I really botched the whole recording aspect. To try to "fix" the problem of weird lighting at indoor arenas, I put my camera on some setting that made all my pics come out weird. And as a bonus, I forgot I'd changed my video mode to the crappier setting a few days before and forgot to switch it back. So I'll just give you one vid and a tiny amount of pics.

These are some kids playing before the game/show started. I honestly don't know why, but we were given a seat upgrade when we arrived. So we had this sweet view, right behind what would be the Washington Generals' bench.

Splashing their web site around everywhere. Right away we noticed that the sound system at the Ryan Center (this is where I saw the Steven Wright show on Halloween last year) is horrible if you're sitting down low. It's like the subway announcements. This really took away from the fun, since the whole show the Globetrotters are mic'd up and talking. So it was like seeing the circus without hearing the ringmaster. Still cool, but missing something. (And I don't support circuses anymore, but I needed an analogy.)

Here's Emily getting her ball autographed by the Generals' coach. Here's the thing about seeing a Globetrotters game: You go in thinking, Hey, maybe I'll root for the ultimate underdog, the Washington Generals! But you quickly realize that the point of the whole thing is that the 'trotters are the good and the Generals are the evil. They slapped a Yankees jacket on the Washington coach right away, to make us hate him. So suddenly you're on the side of 'trotters, as they taunt, tease, and mock the Washington squad. That coach did a great job of playing the role, though. And he actually came up to Emily's seat and talked to her, so she decided later to go right down and get his autograph (while he was on the bench!).


Here, a baseball game breaks out among the Globetrotters. I like to imagine the Generals as a real team, just disgusted and exasperated at the antics of the 'trotters, like, "how is this not a delay of game?? Come on!! Am I crazy? Am I crazy??"

The signature sign-off of the Globetrotters. They did all the classic bits I saw them do when I was about 12. You know what they are. It's definitely fun to see these guys. And to see basketball from down that low is amazing. These guys aren't even NBA material and they're playing entirely above the rim, dunking like it's a Nerf ball on a toy hoop.

Here's video of the ball-juggling dude. I love all the tricks and stuff. My "talent" is that I can spin a ball (or anything else) on my finger indefinitely. So I like to see people who make a living out of stuff like that. When I was a young teen, I showed a certain family member my ball-spinning abilities, and was told, "tricks don't score points." But they totally do. They totally do.



P.S. The Generals lost.