Indycar, My iPod, and Moz (a noir narrative)

On the shiny precipice of a new Indycar season and, in following the News of the Indycar world through February 15, I find myself again wondering, 

"What in the actual hell is going on?"

OK, ok... o....  (deep, cleansing breath).....  k... 

Been here before, I can manage it, just need to take a moment, go for a walk.
Escape into some music, to chill... 

     (grabs iPod, dons headphones) 

Let's hit Shuffle and see what comes up... 

     (surprised, knowing the amount of 80's 
      metal/punk/wave is on the 'pod..) 

OH! OK, perfect. Some nice, Jamaican-influenced pop? Johnny Nash it is...

     (presses play)

I can see clearly now, 

the rain is gone.

I can see all obstacles in my way.

Dammit. It's not working.. 

     (I begin rewriting lyrics in my head)

NOT gone are the dark clouds which had me blind.

It's a depressingly dark, dark Indycar day.

I can see clearly, that my affinity for parody lyrics and Indycar during Seasonal Affective Disorder isn't going to be helpful..

     (hits Shuffle...The Smiths - How Soon Is Now?)

Oh, sweet! Early-80s, right in my wheelhouse.. 
I love this song and the 80s recalls a much shinier day in Indycar... 

     (play)

YESSSSS, thank you Johnny Marr for the great reverb/modulated guitar intro...

"I am the son, and the heir, 

of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.

I am the son, and the heir, 

of nothing in particular.."

You shut your mouth, how can you say

I go about things the wrong way,

I am human and I need to be loved

just like everybody else does."

Hmpf. Comically apropo and all too representative of much of Indycar. 
Also not at all helping me get out of this funk, but let's ride it out to the end of the song...

"When you say it's gonna happen now, 

when exactly do you mean?

See, I've already waited too long

and all my hope is gone..."

Sonovabitch.

     (shakes head, perturbed, hits Shuffle again)
     (ironically, the algorithm pulls another Smiths tune..)

"I was happy in a haze of a drunken hour

but heaven knows I miserable now.."

     (looks skyward, hands out in a 'WTF was that?' pose)

"In my life, 

why do I give valuable time,

to people who don't care if I 

live or I die?"

Clearly, the universe is trying to tell me something.. to help me perhaps...



Almighty hell. Who am I to argue?

     (stops walking, stops iPod, 
      removes headphones, turns around)



I feel like going home and blogging some Indycar predictions for 2014...



Right after I listen to Rage Against the Machine... on 11.

"So whadda we do now? ...We wait"

The Superbowl not 24 hours old, Indycar fans who populate the Twitterverse almost immediately set about lamenting the amount of time we still have to wait for the 2013 Indycar season to start. 

This reminds me a bit of people (mostly younger, some old enough to know better) who choke down Thanksgiving dinner, speed through valued family time, and wait outside stores to be granted prime 'Black Friday' access. I prefer to sit back, wait until mid-December to go cut a fresh tree and decorate it before I go out and begin shopping. Just seems a more natural progression, allowing my enthusiasm to not be stretched to the limit.

So, while I can appreciate the eagerness to begin Indycar anew for 2013, I'm just not quite about to lament yet. I say, "Relaaaax people, there's too much that must come first."

Perhaps it is because I'm getting older (sometimes a week seems like three days) and my patience grows with every year, but I prefer that my spring builds up annually, traditionally, and quite steadily around the following events:

1. The NCAA basketball tournament (mid-March to early-April),
2. The Masters 'gawf toonamint' (to use the 'Hootie Johnson' accent, mid-April),
3. The Kentucky Derby (early May), 
4. The Indianapolis 500 (mid-late May).

It is clear for most sports fans to see that there is MUCH beloved and long-standing tradition in those sporting events and I wouldn't have it any other way. To fall in-line and march steadily through spring with those grand events is quite comforting (as our good friend George over at Oilpressure.com could most certainly attest). 

So, with apologies to all the über-obsessive Indycar acolytes, my personal clock will only allow the Indycar season to begin in earnest with the 500. Everything else prior, I consider a bonus. With this approach I find myself able to put the near-manic desire for open-wheel engine roars aside until May, leaving myself pleasantly surprised when the Sebring test pops up or the haulers load into St. Pete.

Meanwhile, y'all sit tight until late-March. As I noted back in October, I think the off-season is a GREAT time to bone-up on your Indycar history and maybe never so easy as to play some trivia to pass the time. 

Follow me on Twitter @groundedeffects and you'll see my (usually-) regular Indycar Trivia question (follow hashtag #DZsIndycarTrivia) which comes out approximately at Noon EST weekdays with the answer to follow approximately 1pm. No money, no prizes, just some Indycar fun over the lunch-hour and possibly some Twitterverse glory should you get an answer right! 

Ol' Jeff Spicoli had it right while he was 'learnin' about Cuba, havin' some food..', and certainly there's nothing wrong with a little feast on our time. So instead of Cuban history, learn some Indycar history in the process.

Indycar Fan Adrift for 40 Days and 40 Nights

With an innate sense of purpose, I've refused to post anything regarding the firing of Randy Bernard. Most of you have already heard my initial viewpoint via Twitter anyway ("I'm DONE with constantly being taken for a ride down a dark alley by Indycar").

Now 40 days on, and hopefully with the shock of the dismissal largely over, I wanted to fully assess what is going on with Indycar before I open my yapper.

Those who have read much I've written know I've been at different times supportive, critical, realistic, fatalistic, fanatical, and possibly overall even-handed with regard to Indycar, but above all, one stance I've maintained consistently over the many years since 1995 - apologist.  'Apologist' is a noun defined by Merriam-Webster as "one who speaks or writes in defense of something." I'm finding that position unbearable anymore.

Beginning with the dawn of the IRL in 1995, my position as fan has always been under attack either from the opposing side of the open-wheel war, lacking TV coverage, from the burgeoning masses clamoring for the lower common denominator that is NASCAR, to the fractious within IRL itself. 

The history of the 'whys and wherefores' is out there to be read and re-read and evaluated for perspective and factual basis, ad nauseum, AND, unlike more recent fans, I can actually recall living it. The fact remains that since the mid-90s, Indycar has put the sport and especially the fan in consistently less tenable positions.

So, Indycar, here's about where I am at this point: 
(NOT counting the 15 years following the sport prior to 1994) During your current 18-year slide into oblivion, I've done the following; 

• defended the sport, 
• supported the sport, 
• cajoled friends to watch on TV, 
• cajoled friends and family to see a race, 
• organized groups of 4-13 people to see 34 races, 
• bought numerous race tickets, 
• bought numerous camping passes, 
• bought merchandise, food, books, hats, shirts, videos, games, flags, museum trips, 
• made thousands of dollars in product sponsor purchases, 
• taken bus rides, taken indycar rides, 
• fan group memberships, bought paddock passes, 

and JUST when I begin to feel like maybe things were on the uptick and I can begin to think about not having to be an Apologist for the sport, you:

• eliminate the most fan-focused CEO of the sport since Tony Hulman, 
• replace Bernard with a prior, lackluster, and fan-indifferent CEO,
• proclaim status quo for 2013,
• promise to 'reach out to stakeholders' (i.e. everyone BUT the fans),
• eliminate the West Coast office which had a conduit to all the media and marketing potential that is L.A.,
• continued talk of 'paring down' budgets,
• look at extending already bad TV deals beyond 2018,
• lose IZOD as title sponsor prematurely,

And you're surprised that I am done taking your crap?!

You're goddamned right I am. Yes, I apparently am STILL mad as hell (truthfully since 1994), and I am NOT taking it anymore.

It is unfortunate that you, Indycar, are that unbelievably, stunningly, hopelessly out of touch with your most loyal, longest running, and engaged suckers ehr.. fans.

So you see, Indycar, it is not me who is letting you down, it is you. 

Don't worry about me though, Indycar, I'll be fine. I still have people I consider friends who understand where I'm coming from. I have old memories of how great it once was. I have tons of enjoyment to be found on old videos and YouTube and other sparkly internet places where we can recall a day when the product was a premium and the fan was well-served.

I won't be your apologist anymore.