Mark Madness, take II

 The Elite Eight is over, it’s now down to the Final Four in both the men’s and women’s NCAA Division I basketball playoffs.

More than 350 Division I college teams in both men’s and women’s leagues, play in the United States. Sixty-eight of those teams reach March Madness, and the team that wins six games in a row becomes champions.  

The teams that won and lost in the Sweet 16 and the Elite Eight have experienced the equitized ecstasy of victory or the gnawing pain of defeat.

Stanford forward, Cameron Brink reveal's in joy

Stanford Guard, Kiana Williams buries a bucket 

The highlight of Wednesday night’s match-up between the UCLA Bruins and the Michigan Wolverines was UCLA’s Johnny Juzang, pictured on top. Juzang literally carried his team in the first ten to fifteen minutes of the game. Juzang scored 14 of the Bruins first 16 points and finished with 28. No other player on the Bruins scored more the 14 points.

UCLA Guard, Johnny Juzang wards off tough defense to score.

The 11^th seeded Bruins upset the number one seeded Wolverines, 49-51, and now the Bruins face the mighty Gonzaga Bulldogs on Saturday. The Spokane, Washington Bulldogs are the odds-on favorite to win this year’s title. The 30-0 Bulldogs have pulverized their opponents this year. The Zags are riding a 27-game winning streak with double digit wins and have not been behind in a game since before the Sweet 16.

The Bruins are the only Final Four team in the men’s bracket that has won a championship, when the team won the title in 1995.

I’m looking forward to watching Johnny Juzang play on Saturday and would love to see him go the Golden State Warriors.

I also watched the Stanford Cardinal women against the Louisville Cardinals. Louisville dominated the first half of Wednesday nights game, and then, Stanford conquered the Cardinals in the second half, doing exactly what some ESPN commentators said would happen. The 29-2, Stanford team buried three throws, took the ball to the paint and played tenacious defense in the second half, to win the game, 78-63. Stanford trailed Louisville at halftime, 38-26.

Senior Dana Evans weeps in defeat, which ends her college basketball career. 

Watching Stanford come back in the second half was impressive basketball, but also disappointing for myself. I was pulling for the underdog Louisville Cardinals and Dana Evans, the highlight of the women’s tournament for me. Evans did her part in scoring 24 points, but the well-rounded number one seeded Stanford team displayed why their ranked number one this year.

Louisville guard, Dana Evans answers questions after her teams first half dominance

Evans spews her basketball wisdom to her teammates 

Evans buries a basket

Stanford teammates feeling their power on the court 

Stanford enjoying the ecstasy of victory 

On Friday, the Stanford women play South Carolina, and the Arizona women face Connecticut. On Saturday, in the men’s Final Four, UCLA matches up against the Zags, and Houston goes against Baylor.

Mark Izzy Schurr  

Mark Madness, A Short Take

 

Sports fans across the globe who are engulfed in March Madness, are going to watch various teams via for this year’s national championship in both the men’s and women’s NCAA basketball tournament.

I’m keeping it simple; I’m looking forward to Tuesday nights match-up in the women’s Elite Eight match-up between the Louisville Cardinals and the Stanford Cardinals.

After watching the Louisville Cardinals demolish the injury riddled Oregon Ducks Sunday night, I admired the star power of Dana Evans, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year. Evans matched her career high by scoring 29 points against the Ducks with some awesome assist help from her teammate Mykasa Robinson.

On paper, the Stanford Cardinals are the better team. Stanford can bury threes or take it to the paint and play defense with the best of teams, and the Louisville Cardinals are going to need more then Mykasa Robinson and Dana Evans on Tuesday, or so it’s been said by an ESPN commentator.

Dana Evans buries an NBA distance three-pointer. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

President Joe Biden Speaks Well

 On March 11, 2020, the Coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

“A year ago, we were hit with a virus that was met with silence and spread unchecked. Denials for days, weeks, then months that led to more deaths and more infections.” President Joe Biden said.   

The total deaths of American people from the Coronavirus is 527,726 people. More deaths than World War I and II, the Vietnam War and 9/11 combined.  

President Biden talked about the division of states and the American people because of this pandemic. Too often we’ve turned against one another Biden said. Asian Americans have been harassed, attacked and scapegoated, and this behavior toward them is wrong and unamerican Biden said, and I completely agree with him.

Biden made it clear, all U.S. citizens, 18-years-old, and older will be eligible to receive the Coronavirus vaccine by May 1, of this year.

The American Rescue Plan, Biden signed into law not only gets many American’s $1,400.00, but also aids many unemployed people, helps small businesses, lowers health care premiums for many, and will cut child poverty in half according to experts Biden said.

Biden again expressed sympathy for Coronavirus victims and those close to the virus victims, something Trump never did.  

Mark Izzy Schurr

The Colosal and Chaotic Allure of Cosmic Mind Adventures

Two empires, each with different obsessions, but their obsessions were all consuming and they attempted once again to achieve total dominance.

From out of the magellanic cloud came the death ships of dread, the Skrull Empire. 

Now obliterator, you will tell us the secrets of the elders, the most important secrets in all the universe. The elder who lives only to destroy was stripped of his weapons by the Sliver Surfer.

“Everything here (Earth) consists of two opposing forces, death and eternity,” the Silver Said

Englehart’s writing style stimulated intrigue into the subconscious thoughts of knowledge and wonder. Before this universe was born, another one vanished into sub-atomic probability, then bursts fourth again, and its energy spiraled its forces into the cooling darkness of a new beginning. (Englehart / Izzy Schurr)  

In “Seeds of War,” the Silver Surfer has a chance to love and his love is reciprocated by an alluring woman. Is it no surprise that a long and serious romance is suddenly halted by the threat of an intergalactic war?

“Seeds of War” triggered mind journeys into the emotions of harmony and bloodshed.      

The next two issues have nothing to do with the continuing saga of “Seeds of War,” for reasons unknown, even to myself, yet the three issue’s gel well together when read in unison.

My future seems uncharted, there are no foes to fight, no quests to complete. I should be glad for the respite, but I feel strangely useless. Where goes the warrior when there are no more battles to be fought? Where goes one who has no home? (“Conflicting Emotions,” 1992)

The passions of love and hate thrust themselves into the atoms of eternity. The cosmic creature of chaos has once again released his powers into the dusts of desire, zeal and truth in 1992s saga of love and hate. 

Princess Alaisa from the Kharta’een empire sets her sites on Chrome Dome. The Mistress of Love is summoned from the magical mayhem, existing in the realms of fantasy, bestowed upon readers of the Silver Surfer comic books.

Where love goes, hate follows. Master Hate attempts to acquire the formidable powers of love and use this ultimate power to full fill his demented passions.

Steve Carr, Deryl Skelton, Tom Christopher and Tom Vincent’s artwork is crafted brilliantly with the writing of Ron Marz in "Conflicting Emotions."

Perhaps our entire subterranean journey was an elaborate exercise pointing us in her direction. (Ron Marz, October, 1994)

“Temptation: Greed,” showcases the love between Nova and the Silver Surfer. Does the planet Tultac harbor the vast streams of gold which too often poisons the hearts of lovers?

Terrax, unlike the Silver Surfer is not cursed with mortality, or so he says, and thus, the seeds of violent conflict begin to grow in the immortal wind’s of creation and destruction.

Mark Izzy Schurr

Hulu’s original Into the Dark production of “My Valentine” is a mixture of retro pop music and a post teen relationship gone criminally askew. 

Britt Baron portrays the leading lady, Valentine Fawkes who has recently moved on from an abusive relationship with her boyfriend and music manager, Royal. Valentine and her guitar player and best friend Julie (Anna Akana) have just begun to revive their music career when Royal shows up at their music gig with a very sharp knife, and an insane prospective on dating and music production.

Things really get creepy, when Royal manages to block off all the exists from the club when all the patrons have left and destroys Valentines and Julie's cell phones. 

Royal brings his new girlfriend to the gig, Trezzure (Anna Lore) who he wants to be the new Valentine in his wacked quest for show business success. Trezzure has her own bizarre views and on stealing Valentine's music and she soon develops Royals taste for blood. 

 

Things swirl into excessive violence and murder when Valentine refuses to write music for Trezzure.

This movie is geared for teenagers and perhaps even teenyboppers, but I really liked it, even the music. A solid two thumbs up for “My Valentine.”

Mark Izzy Schurr  

Love Warriors, Two Lovers thrust Into Combat

Nothing could be dearer to me then to soar the skies of my world again, save for my beloved Shalla-bal. (Ron Marz, 1994)

“The Princess of Zenn—La,” the April, 1994 issue of the Silver Surfer displays the cerebral allure of being in love when it’s reciprocated. The sweet passions of love are quickly halted by the threat of another civil war on the planet Zenn-La.

Norrin Radd, aka, Chrome Dome, the Silver Surfer and the sentinel of space ways is back on his home planet after a prolonged leave. Zenn-La’s Warlord and her army of trained barbarians are back and yearning for another civil war.

Zenn-La, is a planet which has evolved from the follies of alcohol and drug abuse. Zenn-La sans crime and is a world dominated by love and laughter. Will Zenn-La fall again into the dark ages of another blood-soaked civil war? I was impressed by Marz’s writing wit.  

Thrust into combat, the Silver Surfer and his lover Shalla-Bal fight side by side in battles where lives are slain in the throngs of war. The Surf Man tries to forbid his lover from harnessing her fighting skills amid the front lines of combat.

“I’m trained, I’m armed, I can fight just as well as your men, probably better,” she said.

 

Even in dreams, the threat of political poison threatens the passion of true loves caress. Yet again, a Silver Surfer comic book has embedded itself into the deepest caverns of my infinite imagination. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

 

"People of the Lie" Reviewed

 

Mental heath is an ongoing dedication to reality at all costs, and we need to be open to people, and not at war with them, M. Scott Peck M.D. said. 

“People of the Lie” was a mind adventure into truth and understanding. The mystical marvel of words on the printed pages of time from Peck's 1983 book is a true testament toward individuality, intelligence, integrity and understanding. Truth is not something we possess, it’s a goal we hopefully strive for, Peck said.

Beware who guides you through intellectual labyrinths. The poorly informed employ scientific findings and concepts for dubious purposes, Peck said.

We have the A-bomb because of science, it was politicians who made the decision to build it, and the military who dropped it on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Approximately a 129,000-226,000 people were killed instantly on Aug., 6th and 9th, 1945. One definition of evil is the exercise of political power Peck said.

Evil is a vicious cycle, particularly in wars. “People of the Lie” focus’s primarily on the human brain, and Peck suggests psychiatrist, and other mental health experts should explore the nature of evil and try to understand its reasoning. Peck wants to make evil a scientific study. If the reasoning of evil could be fully understood, perhaps there would be none, or a a lot less of it.

Peck briefly mentions the heinous acts of war in “People of the Lie,” but when he does, it really illustrates the vital need to end all wars. Politicians were responsible for the deaths of more than 55,000 American soldiers in Vietnam. The average age of American troops killed in the Vietnam war were 19-years old. More than 2 million Vietnamese, many of which were unarmed, women and children were killed in the Vietnam war.

President Lyndon B. Johnson and other politicians with a sadistic conscience took pleasure in sending other people’s children to die in a meaningless war.

On March 16, 1968, American soldiers slaughtered between 500 and 600 unarmed women, children and old men in My Lai. Vietcong soldiers were the real enemy of American troops, but they were just defending their county which we invaded for no sane reason. 

Some American soldiers were killed by Vietnamese civilians, including children, posing as friends, then planting bombs amidst the unsuspecting American troops, thus trigging the murderous events in My Lai. When you’re in someone else’s country strutting around in full battle gear, you better be ready for some action, George Carlin said.

Triggers are pulled by individuals, orders are given by individuals and executed by individuals. No one is blameless in the brutal slaughter of the harmless civilians in My Lai, and perhaps if our educational system encouraged more distinctive thinking, the soldiers of C Company would have told their superiors to go fuck themselves and not have killed a single person in My Lai. The troops of C Company were criminals of ignorance. We constantly need to learn and grow, Peck said.

“People of the Lie” is a very solid two thumbs ups. I have a healthy fascination with death since, I’ve read this book, and it’s not problematic to think about death, if you think right! Read the book if you want more information on this subject.  

Adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves to a higher power, one way or another, whether this power is God, truth, love or some other ideal, Peck said.

Mark Izzy Schurr