Tuesday Wednesday Guilty Pleasure

Fail, I know. Two weeks in a row that I've missed the Tuesday Guilty Pleasure. You know what that means? I'm going to double you up on stuff that I love but have no business even liking.

First, I'll hit you up with a little country music. Yeah, country. Now let me throw out a little disclaimer: I know this song is terrible. There's no doubt in my mind that it could make ears bleed or be used as torture in foreign countries (or in our own...I won't go there). But something about this damn song makes me start singing around the first chorus no matter how hard I fight it. And she's pretty easy on the eyes....

I'm not proud of it, but I guess that's the whole idea of this series. Enjoy. Or cry. I understand.

Taylor Swift |MTV Music

For the second one, I'm going to switch it up and post something other than a song (gasp!). We're going to move to the literary arts. I read this book a few summers ago and, I'll admit it, I got a little misty at the end. Lucky for me I had my aviators on and no one noticed. Smooth. When the movie came out I had to see it immediately and, again, I got a little misty. Maybe it was Owen Wilson this time....



If you're a dog lover you can't help but love Josh Grogan's narrative about his crazy retriever. It makes me want a dog so bad....

If you've never read the book, here's the trailer from the movie that will give you a good idea of what this animal is like.

Some people never learn

At least it wasn't UNC students this time.

Our good friends at Youth for Western Civilization decided to bring another esteemed speaker to our campus after the Tom Tancredo debacle, Virgil Goode. You would think that people would learn from the first group of protesters and find a way to peacefully debate this close-minded speaker. Maybe we'd get a chance to clear our name and show that UNC can protest intelligently. Then I saw this headline: "University officials: Six people arrested in protest." Great.

I was happy to read on Friday that the protesters were not part of the UNC community. They were just some punks from Raleigh, Orange County and Carrboro. Making us look bad....

Even though it was nice to see that they had nothing to do with UNC, in light of the Tancredo incident and all the blame that was placed on Students for a Democratic Society, any protests at UNC make us look like a bunch of closed-minded liberals. So do us a favor, crazy people that have no relationship to UNC: stay the hell home.

And just to update the Tancredo incident, Haley Koch, who just so happened to be on the cover of a magazine I produced for my Magazine Editing class, was arrested Thursday by CHPD for her involvement in the protest last week. They are not messing around!

Last Day of Classes: The only good thing at dook

Yesterday, I celebrated the last day of classes. Oh, not UNC's, dook's. You may be thinking, "Corey, as a die-hard Tar Heel, what would possess you to travel to that hell hole teeming with Blue Devils?" Two words: Ben Folds.


Sorry for the poor picture quality. I didn't plan ahead and had to take pictures with my phone.

There are a few perks that go along with attending a too-expensive private snotty university. One of those is having the money to throw a huge free concert in your quad with artists like Gym Class Heroes, Girl Talk and Ben Folds. Another is that you can have said concerts be a university-sponsored BYOB event.

So I drove my big Tar Heel butt over to Durham and carried my 12-pack of sudsy beverages across campus. I really had no idea where I was going, but I just followed the music. It totally worked. I knew I was getting close when I started to see tons of trash just littering the ground. I thought this was Earth Day.... Oh well.

Now here's the best part. I made a point not to wear any UNC stuff over to the concert, not because I was scared but I just didn't want to seem like I was trying to brag. Sometime during the break between Gym Class Heroes and Ben Folds, I heard a chant going through the crowd. When I finally figured out what it was, I had to laugh. "Tar!" "Heels!" It wouldn't be the last time that I heard the chant. It happened about seven times throughout the night. I think the ratio was literally 50/50 between UNC and dook students. But that's what happens when you bring an alumnus to play at your concert. The chant was funny the first few times, but downright obnoxious after that. I was kind of embarrassed to be one of the UNC people there. I hate when UNC fans are obnoxious: they make us all look bad.

Anyway, back to the important part. Ben Folds came on and the first song made me cringe. It was a song I've never heard before and the sound was thin. You could barely hear the piano. He kept playing the new songs that were OK, but no one really knew them and they were too slow. The crowd wasn't into it, the sound was bad and people were talking over him. I looked over to my friend Andy and said, "This is the worst Ben Folds show I've ever seen."

I spoke too soon.

He launched into "Zak and Sara," "Landed," and "Army." Now things started rocking. The crowd was into it and dancing around and they finally fixed the sound problems. Then Folds did something I never thought I would see him do: played "Brick" live. I was under the impression that he didn't play the song live anymore. Apparently I was wrong. It was a beautiful version (which I tried to record on my Blackberry, but failed miserably). Then, just a few songs later, he broke into "Kate," one of my all-time favorite Ben Folds Five tunes. Even without an encore, I left happy.

Getting back to the car wasn't as easy without music to guide me. We passed by K-ville (I'm not even going to try to spell it) and I thought about all the time people have spent camping out there the last four years just to watch dook lose. It made me laugh a little. I walked by Cameron Indoor and laughed a little more.

I finally got back to my car. I was happy to see that even with the dozens of UNC stickers it wasn't keyed and it didn't have its tires slashed. I turned left onto U.S. Hwy 15-501 and drove back to Chapel Hill, relieved to be safely away from Durham.

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Oh, and this guy on the corner of Franklin Street and Columbia Street has an important message for the world, just in case you didn't know.



Seriously guys, he's not screwing around!!

Feeding the fire

I'm sure by now that most everyone reading this post has heard about the recent protest at UNC that turned violent and ended in a blur of pepper spray and tasers flying in the air. If you haven't, read here. Basically, a student group called Youth for Western Civilization invited former Republican U.S. Representative from Colorado Tom Tancredo to speak out against illegal immigration. When he got there to speak, hundreds of protesters were yelling at him, waving sings in front of him, calling him a "racist" and "white supremecist" and everything else you can imagine. DPS officers had to use pepper spray and shoot some tasers in the air to hold the protesters back. Tancredo couldn't even speak because someone broke a window in the room and he didn't feel safe.

I don't know much about the Youth of Western Civilization group, but I have done some research on Tancredo and I can't say that I'm his biggest fan. But all the protestors suceeded in doing Tuesday is make our university look like a bunch of assholes and make a crazy conservative guy look like a victim. Youth for Western Civilization gets all kinds of free publicity because the "crazy liberals" at UNC broke up their event.

I respect the right to protest just as much as I respect his right to speak, but there are right ways and wrong ways to protest. The right way to protest is to hold a seperate event at the exact same time that stresses the opposite opinion, like the Dance Party for Diversity that happened in the Pit at the same time. Another way to challenge an unpopular speaker is to listen to what he/she has to say and then ask him challenging questions. Not only does it make us look more intelligent and respectful, but it could catch him off guard and make him look like an idiot.

Right now, we look like a bunch of hypocrites. We supposedly open minded liberals shut down free speech of a conservative person. Way to give conservatives justification for what they already think of this campus.

I'm glad that the Young Democrats and Chancellor Holden Thorpe have spoken out against this protest, but that only does so much. People are going to remember this. All we can do now is make sure it never happens again. Protest intelligently.

Photo credit: Daily Tar Heel, Ariana van den Akker

WE DID IT!!!

So this is a week late. I know that. It's taken me this long to get back acclimated to that little thing I forgot about for three weeks called school. And on top of that, I've been battling some insane illness that has had me by the throat for over a week now. I just hacked up a lung while I wrote that sentence.

But you know what, none of that matters, because WE DID IT!!! Yeah, I can say "we" because I was there. I was part of the support staff, however minor my role was. I was with them in Greensboro, in Memphis (barbecue...) and in Motown. I was there when LSU tied the game up in the second half and it looks like the dream run would be cut short. I was there when we rolled the Zags. I was there when Blake Griffin realized that he alone can't handle the Tar Heels. I was there when the Wildcats were tamed and sent back to Philly. And I was there when Ty Lawson got a record-breaking eight steals; when the Heels broke the record for points scored in the first half of any NCAA championship game; when Bobby made a wide-open lay-up in the final minutes of the game; when Coach Roy Williams called a time out with one minute to play to put in the third string; when Tyler Hansbrough bear-hugged the entire bench; when over 60,000 people dressed in green and white were silenced. I was there when the UNC Tar Heels won their fifth NCAA championship!!

And it was awesome.

I don't get emotional over much, but Carolina basketball does it to me. Before the tournament started, I watched a recap of the 2005 season when the Heels won the championship. I got a little teary when Sean May pulled down that last rebound. But for about 39 minutes Monday night, I held my composure. I didn't want to get excited to early. But when Coach Roy called that time out, it was all over. The water works started and I couldn't help it. By the end of the game I could barely play "Carolina Victory" because I was choked up. You can hear the tubas playing it in the broadcast of the game, but I promise you I wasn't the loud one.

I watched a replay of the game just last night and got choked up. I just can't help it. I feel some special attachment to these guys because we were freshman together. I spent my whole college career watching Danny, Bobby, Marcus, Cope and Tyler grow up and improve. I was there when they lost a heart-breaker to Georgetown in the Elite Eight in 2007. I watched them fall apart against Kansas in the Final Four last year. Then I saw all of them come back for one more year. Tyler wanted a ring. And, man, it felt so good to see him get it.

Back at the band hotel, fans were still waiting to see us when we arrived at sometime after two in the morning. We had a "champagne" toast, where the band director really made it all sink in. He said, "Since 1793, three students have worn a mascot uniform when the Tar Heels won a championship. Thirty-six students were in cheerleading outfits when a national championship was won, and 87 band members. Welcome to an elite group. Cheers."

On the plane the next day, the boys and Coach Roy were tired. I heard they didn't sleep all night because they had to be on the CBS Early Show. But they were happier than I've ever seen them. Coach Roy came onto that plane clutching the trophy like someone was going to steal it from him.

Maybe it's because I'm getting ready to graduate and this chapter of my life is ending, but there was something special about this team, this group of seniors and this season that I will remember for the rest of my life. Alumni now say can say that they were there in '82 with Jordan, or '93 with Vince Carter, or '57 with Rosenbluth.

But now I can say I was there in '09 with Tyler, Bobby, Danny, Marcus and all the boys.

Way to go Tar Heels!

Tuesday Guilty Pleasure

So I know this is going up a little late, but I think you'll excuse me since I just got back from Detriot a few hours ago. Oh what a trip it was, but more about that later.

This week's guilty pleasure is slightly different. This really isn't something that I should be ashamed for liking, but I really like it way to much. I'm not going to lie, when I saw this Monday night I shed a few tears. That may sound weird, but I'm a die hard Tar Heel and I just can't help it.

So without further adieu, here is Luther Vandross singing the basketball classic and tournament staple, "One Shining Moment."



I don't care how cheesy that song is, it's the best part of March Madness. I got choked up again. Why you got to do that to me, Luther??

The North Carolina Tar Heels are the 2009 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!! Man that sounds good!