well, i didn't get to go to the undisclosed location, but Candace called today and asked me to go to the Mavs game with her. so i got to see them beat the Kings 104-79. and we got coupons for free chalupas from Taco Bell as we left the double-AC, woohoo!!
if you know me, you know i'm a huge hockey fan and that basketball is about my least favorite sport. it has grown on me over the past few years, though, and i had a blast at the game tonight. i can't watch basketball on tv much, because they mic the floor for the broadcasts, and i can't stand hearing the shoes squeaking on the court, it drives me bonkers. when you're actually at the game, they don't broadcast the squeakness over the PA system, so it's all good.
and i learned tonight that Mavs fans are much better than Stars fans, and i say this as someone who has been to playoff games for both teams. i've seen the Stars in the playoffs against their arch-rivals the Edmonton Oilers, so i've been in as raucous a Stars crowd as there is (except maybe a game 7 against the Avs). and of course, i've thought all along that Stars fans are terrible fans, because they only make noise if 1) the Stars score or 2) the ONE MINUTE announcement has been made and the Stars are ahead; i also think it because, due to the high number of corporate seats and the high ticket prices, 1) there are a ton of empty seats, even at playoff Stars games, though the games are always sold out, and 2) a lot of people are the "cocaine and boob job" crowd (i think i picked that up from 1310 The Ticket), who are just there to see and be seen and whose extent of interest in the game is whether Mike Modano will want to date them if they stick out their chests and throw their hair around.
Mavs fans, on the other hand, are loud the entire game; now, i don't want to give undue credit, so i will point out that we were issued state-of-the-art hand-clapper thingies and those balloon thingies that you slap together to make noises. at Stars games, you get rally towels or something of the sort, so you might get a good wind blowing in there, but not much noise. also, at the basketball game they play music during practically the entire time of an offensive possession; hockey music stops when the faceoff is over, so the rhythmic clapping to the music at the basketball game is missing.
plus, if the noise does die down, it immediately pumps back up as soon as the Mavs score or substitute a player, or Mark Cuban comes on the screen, or Nellie starts yelling; it's not really fair to compare hockey to that, though, considering that hockey has line changes every 30-45 seconds and they're not announced (ha! can you imagine?), and considering that no one cares when Tom Hicks makes it onto the jumbo tron, and Dave Tippett doesn't get Hitch-animated often (though he is so nice to look at), and scoring just doesn't happen so often in hockey.
and then there's the fact that there aren't nearly as many empty seats at the basketball game, because the tickets are affordable and there aren't as many folks there who are just out looking for Mr. or Miss Right or Mr. or Miss Also Lonely.
oh, hey, there were celebs at the game tonight, though we were a little too far away from them for autographs (like 100 yards vertical). Troy Aikman & his wifey, Deion Sanders, Kelly Rowland and some famous guy whose name i didn't hear.
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