Bay Area Sports is Sick Right Now!

There’s a sickness in the Bay Area right now and it’s called playoff fever. The only remedy for it is elimination, something that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon. Both the San Jose Sharks and the Golden State Warriors are in the postseason and are looking good.

The Sharks start a second round series against the Detroit Red Wings, a team they’ve won three of four games from this year. The Warriors are in the playoffs for the first time in well over a decade, and are probably the hottest team in the entire NBA right now.

The Sharks are skating well, playing like a complete squad and focused on getting to the Stanley Cup Finals. With a great mix of veterans, rookies and role players, the Teal Team looks poised and ready to roll.

Team leader Joe Thornton had six assists in the first-round series against the Nashville Predators, and the team has benefited greatly by adding players like Bill Guerin and Craig Rivet late in the season. Team Captain Patrick Marleau is a scoring machine and a clutch playoff performer.

When the big fish start their series against the Red Wings tomorrow night, they’ll have to be very conscious of the fact that Detroit finished only six points ahead of them during the regular season. In the past, the Sharks might have had a reason to be intimidated by a perennial powerhouse like the Red Wings. Not this time. San Jose can beat this team and they know it.

Thirty miles to the North, the Golden State Warriors have made an amazing turnaround and are the talk of both the Bay and the NBA. Sage Coach Don Nelson, the cagey old codger with more basketball experience than the late Red Auerbach, is leading this team to the promised playoff land playing super smart “small ball.”

Tonight’s Game 2 against the Dallas Mavericks should be a real test for both teams, because the Mavs now realize that they’re entering a knockdown drag out series that should go the distance.

Point Guard Baron Davis is leading this team and if the Warriors hope to get to the next round, other players will have to contribute, especially if Dallas MVP front-runner Dirk Nowitzki starts playing at his usually high level. Jason Richardson, Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington and Mickael Pietrus all have the ability to step it up. If they do, Dallas is in big trouble. This could be one of the greatest Cinderella stories in the history of sports. It could also be a short, sad story. We’ll know a lot more after tonight.

With both teams in it to win it, the playoffs are the talk of the sports scene here in the Bay Area. It’s the very best professional hockey and basketball has to offer. If both the Sharks and Warriors get further into the postseason, you can be certain that the electricity in this area will be sizzling. On top of it all, the SF Giants are on a winning streak and the Oakland A’s are in first place. Maybe there’s even hope for the 49ers and/or Raiders to get considerably better by adding some young talent to their rosters during this weekend’s NFL Draft. There are a lot of positive things going on around here and if you’re into Bay Area sports at all – it’s a damn good time to be a fan.

Bulldogs are Beautiful Too!

You blew it, Jazzy: Jasmine had hoped her chic Doggles would carry her to victory in the Most Beautiful Bulldog Contest at the 28th Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. But if there's something the judges can't abide, it's drool bubbles.

I'm Voting for Boating

Now that the weather is warming up, it’s time to get out and start boating again. I love boating. In fact, there’s a friend of mine who has the nickname “Boater.” And I have always been secretly bummed because I thought I should have that nickname. There’s a great web site called http://www.boatersworld.com/ that has everything you’ll ever need to submerse yourself in the boating world. They carry all of the great name brands in boating, like Furuno, Garmin, Humminbird, Icom, Lowrance, Okuma, Penn, Raymarine, Shakespeare and Uniden. They have all kinds of fishing stuff, like rods and reels; they have global positioning systems; fishfinders and depth sounders; recreational watercraft and so much more.

Marisa Churchill: San Francisco's Top Chef

It’s amazing who you can meet at the grocery store. My fiancée and I were at the Marina Safeway in San Francisco yesterday when I saw a woman who looked familiar. I’m really bad at remembering names, but I never forget a face. I also don’t have a problem bothering celebrities in public. It took me a few minutes to figure out who she was, but then I realized it was one of the contestants from one of my favorite reality shows, Top Chef. Her name is Marisa Churchill and she lives in the Fillmore District. I walked up to her and immediately struck up a conversation.

In the Top Chef II series, they made Marisa look like a real shrew. She was eliminated about midway through the competition and came off as bitchy. But, when we met her yesterday, we were surprised to find out that she is actually really nice. We talked to her about Top Chef and her culinary for about ten minutes and she was just great.

Marisa did say one thing I hear quite often from people who’ve been on reality shows – that the producers really manipulate the storylines to come out the way they want to. She explained some scenes that were completely changed or other things that were left out to make her look really mean and super cutthroat. She gave me her card and I’m going to be interviewing for a full-blown article soon.

For what I’ve read in her bio, she seems like quite an amazing chef. Here is what Marisa says about herself on her Web site, www.marisachurchill.com:

“Marisa's love of cooking began early in life. As a young girl she cooked in the kitchen with her Greek grandmother. By her grandmother's side Marisa learned how to cure her own olives, make homemade breads and pastas, and how to make a wide variety of authentic Greek dishes.
In 1999 Marisa decided to turn her life-long passion for cooking into a career. She graduated from the California Culinary Academy specializing in baking and pastry, and later continued her education in both savory cooking and advanced pastry skills at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone. Marisa has worked at such notable restaurants as Rubicon, and The Slanted Door. In 2003 she became the executive pastry chef at restaurant LuLu, where food critic Michael Bauer named her desserts "clearly some of the best desserts around." In 2005 she became the executive pastry chef at Hiro Sone and Lissa Doumani's new restaurant Ame.

Marisa's desserts have been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, and have received positive mention in both Food Arts and Bon Appetit magazine. Marisa was the head chef for Showtime's "2002 Tales of the City," and has appeared on KRON, NBC11, Tokyo TV and on Bravo's Top Chef!

She recently completed her first cookbook "Chocolate Soup."
When Marisa isn't in the kitchen she can usually be found at the pool. Marisa strongly believes in the importance of physical fitness and is herself a competitive swimmer. Her favorite events are the 100 breaststroke, 50 and 200 freestyle, and 50 fly.”

The Bible is THE Book!

It’s THE Book. It’s THE Greatest Story Ever Written. And it’s lasted for centuries because it’s such an amazing work. The Catholic bible has held up to the test on time because it’s highly respected by so many people throughout the world, and not just Catholics. There are many different versions of the bible and you can purchase catholic bibles in a wide range of styles, interpretations and forms. When it comes to the history of publications, nothing can match it!

Ahh, the Incredible Van Rack

What can I say about a van rack that hasn’t already been said? The van rack technology is so advanced now. The great engineering minds of our time have contributed their knowledge, skill and expertise to the van rack industry and the results are incredible. Back in the old days, a van rack was good for just pretty much one thing – carrying items on a van. But with new advancements over the past decade, the van rack can be used for a wide variety of purposes. You can transport just about anything you’ll ever need with these new high-tech, stylish van racks.

Logo pens are a great form of advertising

Logo pens are so popular nowadays. Everyone wants to advertise on a pen and it really makes a lot of sense. I am personally a real sucker for a free pen. At all of the big tradeshows I go to all the time, they give away a bunch of free pens with their logos on them. It’s a very inexpensive way for companies to advertise their businesses and market their services to their customers. Identity advertising is a very important aspect of branding and ink pens are a very large portion of that burgeoning market.

Join the Consolidation Nation or Perish!

Financial consolidation is one of the most important and vital processes of any organization. Successfully managing your consolidation cycle times and shortening statutory reporting processes without sacrificing vital controls or compliance with laws and regulatory bodies has become of key importance to many organizations throughout the global marketplace. Some people don’t see the importance of this, and quite frankly – they’re losing out! If your company can’t consolidate increasingly complex corporate hierarchies, while managing key stakeholder relationships is fundamental to businesses, well – you’re up a creek without a paddle. That’s why you need reliable, high-quality, top performing consolidation software. It’s no longer a luxury, it’s now a necessity.

Is Sanjaya Destined to be a Karaoke King?

Sanjaya Malakar, probably the most controversial singer in American Idol's history, was finally asked to leave the premises during Wednesday night's elimination episode. He was escorted out by Paula Abdul’s body guards – a pair of dwarves who carry Abdul’s large cache of prescription painkillers wherever they go.

The 17-year-old from Washington state probably must have known his fate was sealed going into the show's final 20 minutes. By then, Ryan Seacrest had announced his name as one of a bottom three that would have been unthinkable only the night before. The other two singers were considered to be far superior -- LaKisha Jones and Blake Lewis. Jones sang a stirring rendition of “Row Row Row Your Boat” and Lewis wowed the crowd the night before with a heart wrenching version of “Kum by Yah.”

Simon Cowell, who never tried to conceal his annoyance at Sanjaya's longevity despite his “pitchiness” and a series of sub-par performances, all but licked his chops as he said, "I'm beginning to sense something here." In his white t-shirt, chimp-like haircut and bleached front teeth, Cowell looked satisfied and smug. In other words, he was just as annoying as usual. When his name was called, Sanjaya cried and wet himself, but his departure was dignified. His time on the show, as everyone knows, was not. Outside the audition room that earned him a ticket to Hollywood, his vocals proved unstable, unreliable and, to many, downright unlistenable. But he was telegenic in ways that the judges consistently underestimated; featuring a sense of style that was misguided and over-the-top but somehow also forgivably puppyish. He was good-natured about being treated by the judges like a punching bag. I think people voted for him because he was the anti-American Idol, less polished and more real.

What awaits Sanjaya now? Well, if you see him some late night five years from now, running a Karaoke contest at your local bowling alley, don’t be surprised. The poor kid will probably become a waiter at TGIF Fridays or the Cheesecake Factory, which means people will flock there from miles around to watch him sing “Happy Birthday” to starry-eyed teens.

There's a New Online Newspaper Broo-ing in SF!

I’ve been having a great time over the past few months writing for what's known as a “citizen newspaper” called BrooWaha. It's a fairly new phenomenon -- an online newspaper that is written completely by everyday people like you and me. They have BrooWaha publications in New York and Los Angeles, and they just recently started one here in San Francisco. It’s a wonderful idea – a paper where the common man can comment on politics, culture, entertainment and sports and broadcast his or her opinions to the world. The person who started it – his name is Ariel – acts as the editor and approves or rejects the articles as they come in. You can’t publish anything you want on BrooWaha, which is good, because it keeps the quality of the content up and discourages crazies from getting on the pages of BrooWaha (in most cases). Then, once your submission has been approved and appears on BrooWaha, other people can read your article and rate it. They have a rating system based on how the readers respond. If they like your stuff, you gain in popularity. If they don’t like what you’ve written, your rating will suffer. It’s a utopian concept where the readers dictate the content. I think it’s an awesome idea. I’ve been writing for SF BrooWaha almost every day since I found out about it. I encourage other writers and journalists to do the same.