Javon Walker says his days in Green Bay are over, except he has one more year left on his contract. Walker “wanted” more money, but now he just wants out of Green Bay.

Walker has had one good season and believed last year he deserved a huge contract. If Walker had gone about it another way last year, he might have gotten a contract extension. Instead, he relied on Drew Rosenhaus to bully the Packers, which ultimately failed and Walker ended up blowing out his knee.

Now, Walker says he’d rather retire than play another game in Green Bay. One thing I know for sure, Walker won’t retire at his age and give up millions. Remember, this about money for Javon. Two things: Either Javon is just plain stupid, or he’s bluffing badly. If Green Bay doesn’t trade him and he holds his ground and doesn’t play another game for Green Bay, his career will be over. Not only would it be over, but he’ll lose his salary for the upcoming season, he’ll be fined, and he’ll still be under contract for one more year with the Packers.

I believe Walker is bluffing and will come back to play just enough games to get him out of his contract, just like Mike McKenzie. Even if he does this, Thompson could place the franchise tag on him the following year, and at that point, he’d be making lots of money, but it would only be a one year contract, and he’d still be wearing Green and Gold.

I’m surprised Thompson hasn’t allowed Walker’s agent to shop him around, but I’m glad Thompson hasn’t been giving in to any of his demands. As of right now, Thompson doesn’t really have a lot of options, except to wait and see. There have been rumors that maybe Denver might be interested in a trade, but no offers have been made at this point.

If I were Thompson here’s the choices I’d give Javon:

1) Perform well this year and you’ll be a rich man.

2) Sign an extension now with tons of escalators protecting the Packers if he doesn’t perform.

3) Trade him for a 1st round pick or nothing at all.

4) Otherwise, make him play out his contract, franchise him next year, and then trade him.

I’ve been playing volleyball for years, and I have never been witness to such a horrific referee as Glenn from Keva. Normally, when I get a bad ref, I keep my mouth shut and hope for a better game. I may ask them to look for something or argue a call, but I show them respect, butt tonight, ol’ Glenn crossed a line.

Keva is a an expensive place to play league volleyball, so all I ask for is a competent referee. Glenn is absolutely cluess. I’m not complaining because they guy made a few bad calls against our team, rather it’s that he makes bad calls in general, regardless of the team.

The team we played tonight kept attacking the ball on our side of the net, which is illegal. He argued that it isn’t illegal. Glenn, it IS legal to block on the opponent’s side of the net, but it is NOT legal to attack the ball. I brought this to his attention several times, and he said I was wrong.
The final straw came tonight in a tournament game when we came back from 17-22 deficit to tie it up. He said a team only has to win by one. Well, last week we had to win by two. Plus, every game I’ve ever played at Keva, teams must win by two. Before we knew it, they scored a rally point, and the game was over. Ol’ Glenn seemed to be more interested in getting back on his cellphone to call whoever he was talking to between each game.
We complained to the front desk and they had us fill out a complaint form. The lady at the front desk was understanding and tried to help us as much as possible. Thank you, by the way.
Keva obviously doesn’t care about how the teams are treated since they have plenty of teams that want to join their leagues. Keva is one of the most expensive leagues in the Madison area, so couldn’t they at least keep an an eye out for bad referees like Glenn?

My girlfriend’s dad is one of the coaches for the Roncalli Jets varsity basketball team, so I’ve been following them all season. They haven’t lost a game all year long, except for today in the first round of the division 3 semi-finals at the Kohl Center.

Roncalli led for most of the game, only to have a few questionable fouls hurt them at the end, and they couldn’t quite come back before time expired. The Jets are one of the best coached goup of basketball players I’ve ever seen. They play really good defense, have incredible ball control, and every single one of them can shoot a three-pointer.

The big difference between Roncalli and Racine is their size. For example, Roncalli’s two biggest starters are forward Chris Netzel at 6′2″ and Eric Pozorski at 6′1″. Racine’s two starting forwards are Devron Bostick at 6′5″ and Reggie Bunch, also at 6′5″. They also have a 6′10″ center, which didn’t seem to make much of an impact.

Either way, the Roncalli Jets played much bigger than their physical stature. Those boys absolutely played their hearts out today, and deserved a better officiated game, but unfortunately that’s how the chips fell for them this year. They had a great season and should be proud of what they’ve accomplished. Good job boys!

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Something to Believe In

The Swing

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Coming Down

Local artist Lorenzo’s Music is now offering up their music for free on their website, so I couldn’t resist emailing lead singer Tom Ray to find out why…

I see the band is now offering up all of it’s music for free. How did this come about?

We realized that we were giving away a lot of cd’s to family, friends and fans. I thought it was odd to charge some people and not others, when all we really wanted to do was get our music out for people to hear. I have seen immediate results on our website, people really seem to like the idea.

I saw that you got listed on digg.com. Have you guys seen a lot of extra traffic on your site, or gotten feedback?

Yes. I am noticing a lot of exposure in other countries like England, Australia and New Zealand. Places that would never normally have a chance to hear our music. I have also noticed we are getting a lot more emails regarding Viagra and Cialis.

Now that the music is free, how does the band plan to make money?

We are not really worried about that right now, we just want people to hear what we are about and see how our music has grown. We are in the process of setting up a tour, and the exposure of the free downloads should even things out. People will already know who we are and what we are about.

Is there another cd in the works?

Yes, we are currently in the song writing stage. We don’t like to rush things.

What lies ahead for Lorenzo’s Music?

The band is quite busy working on a tour, the new album and potentially another video.

Latah,

Tom Ray

As a musician, I’ve met many hard-working musicians who deserve more than they’re getting from the music industry, and Edie Carey is one of them. She’s a ridiculously talented songwriter that tours the country all by herself; just her, her acoustic guitar and her car.

I met Edie during the Summer of 2003 when I was booking the Maxwell Street Days music stage. Kelli, from Pop the Clutch, gave me a list of artists which she knew, and Edie was one of them. Edie happened to be touring through the area at that time, so I thought she’d be a nice change of pace. I was a little worried since she was performing by herself, but that didn’t stop her from captivating everyone onlookers. It was almost fate that she was coming through town that same time in 2004, so I ended up booking her again.

The last time she was in town I was lucky enough to have dinner with her and my girlfriend. Edie is one of the most down to earth musicians I’ve ever met. No arrogance of any kind, just a kind-hearted person that believes in what she’s doing, and it comes out in her music.

I bought her CD, “When I Was Made”, and I wasn’t sure what I was in for, since I’ve only seen her perform by herself and the CD had a full band. She told me she records in New York and has a set of musicians she typically works with. She said she wishes she could take the band out on tour with her, but as of right now, the cost is prohibitive. It’s not the kind of music I typically listen too, but I can’t stop playing it.

Edie is playing March 8th at Cafe’ Montmartre. I honestly believe Edie’s time for fame is on the horizon. So, go see her, and someday you can say you got to see her perform at small club in Madison.

See her March 8th at Cafe’ Montmartre. Show starts at 9:00pm, $7 to get in.