Black and Blue

Saw Rick go down in a heap last night after getting what looked like a knee in the head. You'll forgive this long-time Islanders fan if the fear went through me as I saw the highlights. We've been sort of conditioned to wait for the other shoe to drop whenever something goes well for our boys.

The great thrill of Garth Snow swinging the deal for Ryan Smyth was tempered by The Incident For Which We Cannot Speak. Now this. Of course, DiPietro could just have been a little woozy and this could all be an over-reaction but...

Second on the agenda is the inclusion of the mighty Van Halen into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. And yes, this will sort of tie together with my first point, I swear.

Talk about dysfunction! If VH1 was to resurrect the Behind the Music shows, the Van Halen episode would have to be produced as an epic miniseries over three or four nights.

We all know the stories and we won't rehash them here other than to say that one of my closest friends in the world is a HUGE VH fan and after knowing him for fifteen years, I can tell you that being a VH supporter is a lot like being an Islanders fan during The Fish Stick Regime. He spends his day wanting to hold onto any morsel of positivity that there may be surrounding the band but when the particulars are so messed up and beyond any help, the fans are the ones who get most abused in the situation. And yet, they have an undying devotion that never quits even though the band (or the team) seems not to give two shits about how the fanbase reacts. It's just an unending train or questions without answers and payoffs that are not desirable.

When the band (sort of) announced that they were going to tour this summer, my buddy was cautiously optimistic. He didn't want to get his hopes up because Van Halen had been rumored to be getting back together with David Lee Roth before; only to have his hopes dashed. Of course, more drama continued as Michael Anthony was not brought back to play bass and Eddie's son Wolfgang replaced him with the band. Now, Eddie is off to rehab and only Sammy Hagar and Mike were on hand for the Hall of Fame ceremony.

Yeah, it was apparently pretty bad. Velvet Revolver apparently gave a horrible performance and their induction speech was reportedly bad as well. Chris is pretty bummed about the whole thing. Ed is in rehab and Dave didn't go because he said that they wouldn't let him perform; which has to be crap because why would the HOF NOT want him to perform? Makes no sense. Someone is full of it here.

That begs an even bigger question as to why is there even a Rock-n-Roll HOF in the first place. And who picks the people who get in there? If it is all critics then they are going to want to induct bands and performers that "you should have liked" versus bands that the general populace actually plunked down money for and enjoyed. I mean, how is Kiss not in something called The Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame? I'm not a big fan of the band and Gene's excessive marketing techniques, but a jillion Kiss fans can't be wrong. So what if the Kiss Army is a little weird. Can anyone tell me that they are any worse than the dirty hippies who followed the Grateful Dead around? If push came to shove, who would you rather deliver a punking to? I don't know what you're gonna say, but I am giving the hippie five across the eyes more often than not.

And we will end this today with a quote from that gold-digging one-hopper, Heather Mills McCartney, who is about to appear on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars":

Mills says her participation on the show is "going to help a lot of kids with disabilities and adults that want to get up and learn to dance, and know that with an artificial leg, you can dance."

Sure, that may be true...but if she can dance competitively on the one good leg and the falsie then she should be more than willing to give up her cripple parking pass. I am just saying.

Get well quickly, Rick. And we'll be eyeing the Islanders' website for updates throughout the afternoon. No slight on rusty Mike Dunham, but the playoff push without Ricky is going to lose stream very, very quickly.