Austerman.com | Michigan, USA

Random Thoughts

2008-05-09T02:05:38Z

A very solid game from the Red Wings tonight and the pressure is now on Marty Turco to play the best game of his life on Saturday to help the Stars win and show they can do it at the Joe.

Dandelions are an impressive weed. Imagine if we could somehow convert dandelions into gasoline....

Being sick is not enjoyable.... blech.

After listening to satellite radio a lot, it's very very very hard to sit through multi-minute commercial breaks on free music radio.

I wouldn't want to be a school principal these days.

I'm tired and don't feel like typing any more tonight...........

Here we go again (or from joy to sorrow)

2008-05-07T02:28:42Z

Boy the patting on the back was in full bloom after the Tigers swept the New York Yankees last week. Only thing is, that now seems like a lifetime ago following five straight losses to the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox. The scariest part of this losing streak is that it looks exactly like the funk the Tigers were in to start the season. Pitching- stinks. Defense- stinks. Hitting- non-existent.

A blog entry I wrote on March 28, Are the Tigers ready for prime time?, unfortunately seems to have been accurate in a couple of areas. First, the Tigers are not going to be a .500 team after 40 games unless they snap out of this current funk and win the next 6 straight. I'm not banking on that. Next, the pitching has stunk, not only the expected troubles from the bullpen but the starters have been way too inconsistent (other than when it comes to giving up runs). I didn't address team defense in March - but that has suffered and now Leyland has Sheffield playing left field and moved Guillen to the everyday 3rd base spot. Ugh. Finally the hitting has been atrocious, except for Curtis Granderson. Most of the Tigers hits have come at non-key times in these losing streaks - and if I don't see another double play for a month it'll still be too soon.

So what to expect next? My fear is that these losing streaks are going to be an all-too common thing for this team, completely destroying any momentum they build up. Just like what we've seen this week after the miracle in the Bronx.

There have been plenty of calls to move Inge back to 3rd base and have Guillen be the teams DH. That lineup tonight produced all of 3 hits and 0 runs. Not quite a success.

On May 6 the talk has already started... wait 'til next year. While I don't totally agree - yet - someone has to find something to wake this team up, and quickly. Being a baseball fan in Detroit this year is maddening.

Big D versus The D

2008-05-06T02:43:00Z

The Dallas Stars are a hockey team I have a hard time working up any hate for. Maybe its the local ties with Mike Modano and the fact that Marty Turco was a star for the University of Michigan hockey team. Or that just like the way the Stars play the game. So while it's very easy to root the Red Wings on against Dallas... it won't stink nearly as bad should Dallas win the series.

I don't have a strong feeling for this upcoming series other than it will not nearly be as easy for Detroit like it was against the Avalanche. It should be a 6 or 7 game event and there will be plenty of times when Wings fans will get frustrated and even worried about the way things are going.

The wild cards for both teams- the goalies. Turco has traditionally struggled against the Wings and he'll have to do something he's never done before, win at Joe Louis Arena, if the Stars are to advance. Hopefully Osgood will remain steady for the Wings - I've not like any of the games Hasek has played coming off long breaks.

Can't wait for Thursday evening!

A new world radio column

2008-05-04T15:16:56Z

Despite various efforts to salvage some kind of presence in the Oakland Press and/or its sister papers the Macomb Daily and Daily Tribune, today is the first time the On the Radio column isn't being published by a newspaper. The up side is of course the freedom to write as much or as little as I see fit and to start backing off the news reporting and take the feature in a more column-like fashion. To me, that doesn't mean its going to be open season because I'm generally not that kind of person. Being free of a mid-week deadline will also be nice.

Anyhow, today I touch on the winter ratings for sports station WXYT, the Drew and Mike situation, and what's become my favorite morning show.

Read Michiguide.com's On the Radio here: XYT afternoon hosts dominate; What will Drew do.

Saturday, in the Park

2008-05-04T03:20:10Z

Well, actually, it was a Saturday in the Village. As in Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI for our annual visit with Sir Topham Hatt during a Day Out With Thomas. It's hard for us to believe, but we've been taking rides on Thomas the Tank Engine since a snow-flurry filled day back in 2002. Everett, our oldest son, has pretty much outgrown Thomas and all his buddies, but his brother Daniel was still visibly excited by today's events. There's just something cool about seeing a life-sized "toy" pulling a real train that even parents can appreciate.

One thing we did note about this year was that the crowds were smaller than in any of the previous years. The lines were shorter and there were even tickets still available for rides. That definitely was not the case the first few years we visited.

Although it's not the cheapest choice for entertainment, we hope that the memories and pictures of these outings will bring smiles to our kids years from now- making the expense well worth it.

A happy week for Detroit sports fans

2008-05-03T02:32:16Z

Red Wings sweep the Avalanche out of the NHL playoffs. Check.

Pistons move on to the second round by defeating Philadelphia in 6 games. Check.

Tigers sweep the Yankees in New York for the first time since 1966. Check.

Not a bad week of work, all of it culminating last night with all three teams on the road. We've been very fortunate in recent years here in Detroit with the successes of especially the Wings and Pistons and the return of the Tigers to being competitive. But there aren't very many evenings where all the good things lineup simultaneously. Obviously, there is much more to be accomplished for all three teams, but there's nothing wrong with us fans taking a little time to enjoy things along the way.

As for both the Pistons and Wings, the way both of those teams closed out their series' is somewhat encouraging for the next round. The Pistons should get a good challenge from Orlando, but should still be able to move on to the Eastern Conference finals in another six game series.

Right now it looks like the Red Wings will play Dallas in the Western Conference finals -- that'll prove to be a tough task and I'm guessing that even as well as the Wings looked against the devastated by injury Colorado Avalanche things are going to be much, much tougher against the Stars -- or the Sharks for that matter if they somehow mount an amazing comeback. The most intriguing thing about a matchup with Dallas is what to expect from Stars' goalie Marty Turco. He's struggled against the Wings in the past... but I bet he relishes the opportunity to help push his team past Detroit and into the Stanley Cup Finals.

I'll be watching.

Shoes Rule!

2008-05-01T13:48:10Z

Anyone that has known me from my high school days knows about 'The Shoes'. So its always a requirement to pay attention to stories like this from today's Detroit Free Press:

Weird 'shoe tree' in northern Michigan.

Now I know what we'll be doing on our next vacation! ;)

Good karma

2008-04-29T03:44:08Z

Sometimes you flat out just get lucky- even when something breaks.

Late last week, I was out running errands when I realized that I was less than a mile from the storage yard where we keep our camper. Earlier in the week I had received a postcard informing me that the owners of the yard had changed their security system and in order to keep 24x7 access, I had to stop by during business hours to swap out the keycard. I did so, and then did a drive-by to check on the camper. In years past, this was something I did at least once a month during the off-season, but hadn't done it at all this winter because nothing had ever happened before. So I was pretty upset with myself to see that the roof vent right in the middle of the trailer was wide open. Knowing that I hadn't left it open last fall, I feared finding the worst inside... ruined floor and seat cushions, mold, etc. Of course because I hadn't planned on being there that day, I didn't have the keys to get inside.

After a quick trip home to pick up some basic cleaning materials and the keys, I returned to find that there was absolutely nothing wrong inside. Apparently wind had recently done the damage and because we've been mostly rain free around here for the past three weeks incredibly everything was just fine inside. The only damage was to the roof vent itself which would not close with the crank. I had to remove the screen and force the thing closed then secure it shut with duct tape.

So, despite something going wrong, it happened at exactly the right time and I'm more than happy to just have to replace the vent itself.

Timing can be everything!

Throwing it all away

2008-04-28T03:11:52Z

With apologies to Genesis for the title of this post, today I did something I've never done before. Throw music away.

Back before there were car CD players and way before the creation of iPods, I made myself over 150 ninety-minute cassette tapes. A lot of 'em were just duplications of the CD's and albums I had purchased so that I could easily listen to them in the car. I think the last time I copied something to cassette was about 1990 - so those things have been sitting mostly idle in my various basements since then.

When I replaced a very old, wobbly stereo cabinet downstairs today, I had to move those things (again). And even though I still have a cassette deck (and turntable, but no vinyl) ... I figured the time had come to purge those cassettes. I did pretty well too - but still couldn't bear to part with several that I don't have in a digital format. Many years ago I gave away all my LPs because I stopped listening to them. Most of 'em had been replaced with CD's... but not all. So the question is, do I dare pop one of those cassettes in to see if they'll even play after about 15 years of sitting untouched in their little cases? Or just give up and ditch the rest of 'em too? If only the music industry gave credit for stuff you've already bought and gave you a 50% discount on replacing it with digital downloads...

Anyhow, it was pretty difficult to part with these things -- which really seems silly considering the only time they moved above ground level since the early 90's was when they were loaded and unloaded from moving trucks.

For a sports geek, a DVR is the best thing since sliced bread

2008-04-27T03:03:49Z

Just got done watching this afternoon's Red Wings/Avalanche game (hooray) and I wonder how I survived without having a DVR before now. Sure, taping programs on a VCR was always possible, but I often overlooked it, or forgot a step, or just got lazy and didn't bother. But using a DVR is so easy, there's no good reason for a lazy sports geek like me to miss another playoff or football game that I want to watch.

Not being home or doing other things is no longer a detriment -- in fact it's an advantage because watching a game when it's so easy to skip intermissions and commercials makes the viewing so much faster.

About the only downside to this technology is from an advertisers point of view. They are going to have to get much more creative in how they reach viewers as more and more of us discover the advantages of these things. Of course, watching something live is probably still advantageous... but no longer necessary.

Go Wings Go!

2008-04-26T02:05:05Z

Been kinda busy with various things around the house and have been ignoring this blog, but I have to comment that I'm happy to see the Red Wings take game one against their re-found rival, the dreaded Colorado Avalanche. Things were looking too easy for a time last night when the Wings held a 4-1 lead. But the Av's rightly didn't show any signs of quitting and fought back to make it a very, very close finish. Probably just like how the series will go.

My star of the game was unquestionably Chris Osgood - all because of the save he made with less than 10 seconds to go with the crowd chanting his name.

One thing's for sure, it's nice to have a series against Colorado to get people fired up about hockey again. You can bet this will be a very tough series for both teams and while I'd like to think the Wings will prevail after 6 or 7 games, it's anything but a sure thing.

Breaking up is hard to do

2008-04-24T00:39:19Z

No one should have been shocked with the news that the days of 'Drew and Mike' on WRIF are now over with the official exit of Drew Lane. He'd been the primary voice of the show until last September when he took what was called an unlimited leave of absence to help care for his ailing girlfriend. Only thing was, her recovery apparently has been completed for several months and yet Lane hadn't returned.

Rumors again became reality when it was revealed that the primary reason for Lane calling it quits was because he had grown tired of doing the early morning thing. The delay on the announcement was because he had hoped to get the program moved to a different time slot - something that didn't work out for whatever reason (and there will be lots of theories...).

Now an ugly breakup is underway with the two sides drawing different pictures of what happened over the past few months. Lane says everyone inside the show knew that he was fatigued from getting up so early every day and just wanted to spend more time with his family. Clark and crew claim to be out of the loop and surprised by the revelations first revealed by the Detroit Free Press yesterday.

Because these guys were so hugely successful, it's really not surprising to me that the egos have taken over and the breakup of what probably was Detroit's most popular morning show ever has become a battle of words in the paper and over the air. All of us on the sideline really won't ever know the whole story -- each person telling his version will be clouded by their own interpretations of what happened.

It'll be very interesting to see what happens next as WRIF's morning show has unquestionably been weakened with Lane's departure. For the immediate future, Clark and crew have no real competition and will probably do fine. But now that Lane is available and with Deminski and Doyle being allowed to return in just about 7 months... will someone else take a chance on an FM talk format?

If I were Clear Channel, I'd seriously look at figuring out a way to take 106.7 in that direction if they could figure out a strong morning show to anchor a lineup with D&D and Drew Lane in it. Maybe move some of the sports programming currently on WDFN to 106.7 and then take 1130 in a more mainstream-type (yes, syndicated) talk direction.

The Drew Lane/WRIF saga has been the most frequently asked question I've had since last fall. Although it's ugly, I'm glad at least now we know what the ending of this story is.

Happy Earth Day!

2008-04-22T20:26:05Z

No preaching here... just a flashback to childhood for those of us that grew up with Kermit the Frog.

It's definitely not easy being green!

Mother nature is putting on a show

2008-04-22T01:50:55Z

It's almost shocking to watch how quickly things are greening up and starting to bloom around here. After a long, painful winter it seems like the trees, flowers, and grass were as anxious as us people to have some good weather. In the period of just a couple of days, the grass has significantly greened up and will probably need to be cut soon, the buds on the trees have started expanding and opening, and the tulips and daffodils have started blooming. The birds have never sounded happier (is that possible?).

I really don't remember seeing a quicker green-up around here. I was truly impressed with how our drab brown landscape has switched over while driving around earlier today.

But I hate to say it ... we're really in need of some rain... it's been a bit too long since the last April shower and already I've seen people running their lawn sprinklers.

A last hurrah

2008-04-20T18:58:40Z

It looks like today's Oakland Press radio column is going to be the last. In fact, this one they didn't even bother to run in the paper- I was informed it was dropped because of lack of space. It's kind of ironic really. We've been writing (complaining) about how radio does nothing but cut back when times get tough, making the product even more watered-down and less interesting to customers. Newspapers have long been doing the same thing, and it finally happened to our little corner of the local fish wrap.

Co-columnist Art Vuolo and I have offered a number of different proposals to keep things going, but thus far we've had no response. The one I thought would work best for everyone involved would be to expand our coverage into the co-owned Macomb Daily and Daily Tribune (Royal Oak). There is still a chance something might happen, but I'm not at all optimistic.

This weeks column has information about the carjacking of a Hummer, the departure of a popular WOMC DJ, more awards for WRIF's Doug Podell along with some other tidbits. Read it here: Hot for a Hummer; Phillips exits WOMC.