the unlikely orange

i love this guy. he was at heinz field last night at the steeler game, the tv cameras spotted him, and i'm pretty sure that he's the reason they won. i mean, without that moustache, do the steelers stop the ravens in overtime? without that slightly seperated hyphen of hair on intense-man's upper lip, does mewelde moore get the steelers into field goal position? without that hitler-esque facial fashion statement, does reed just get that kick inside the goalpost? i doubt it. thank you, intense moustache fan man. thank you for maintaining that ridiculous thing. its worth it for all of us.

during the steelers monday night game against the ravens, i kept track of my thoughts during the game, and i thought i would include them here. warning: this is a long post, so if football bores you, don't bother reading it. but if you want a look at what goes on in the mind of a rabid steelers fan watching the game at home in his basement, read on. these were my thoughts: wow. so much intensity to start this game and then it all comes crashing back to reality with andre frazier lying on the ground. i hope he's alright. it sure does remind you that this is only a game. a violent game, to be sure. but only a game, in the end. haha. flacco fumbles first snap. i hope the steelers are able to take advantage of his rookie status. second down: loss of a yard. third down: incomplete. three and out, baby. let's roll! as big ben comes out for the first possession, i am crossing my fingers that he is able to stay standing most of the game. after the first first down, a pass to santo...

"convergence of gray" paper collage on cardboard panel gregory a. milinovich above is a collage that i made over four years ago. i've been going through my collages again and trying to document them all so i can keep good records of them, and one of the things that this process made me realize is just how long i've been doing this now: nine years. close to 200 collages. one of the joys of my life. as you may or may not realize, the website that used to feature some of my art shut down and so i was encouraged to put some of my work up on etsy.com. so, i've been working on it, and you can check out my progress at www.agentorangerecords.etsy.com . get something for your walls, or for a christmas present! leave me a nice comment or something. i'll get more up soon, so check back in. enjoy.

while i was away from internet/tv this week (at a gorgeous retreat center right on the atlantic ocean), i did have the opportunity to see a film that i had been wanting to see for some time. antwone fisher is the story of a young man who comes to term with his past. this is denzel washington's directorial debut, and as such is really well done. it isn't perhaps the greatest movie in the world, and tends to have a made-for-tv feel to it (as many 'inspired by a true story' movies often do), but the story is so strong, the redemption so sweet, that it is worth seeing. the cast is generally unknown to me, which i like, because i don't see actors so much as real people. --- i think we've all got some demons in our past, and the fact that antwone is able to face his (and his are really awful) with courage and integrity is absolutely inspiring. and its not just the past. his commitment to this journey can inspire us to deal with our present, too, and the way we...

here is my most recent attempt to make a video. i'm having fun with it. at least enjoy the playfulness of my kids. i wish i was half as playful as they are.

thank you for that, shannon. last time i ask you for anything. yes, friends, i've been away at part one of a four-part leadership seminar for some united methodist clergy. while it was incredibly exciting, it did indeed lack an internet connection, which, contrary to what shannon told you, was by far the hardest part for me. i clearly have become an e-junkie. however, i just got back this afternoon, and should be back in the swing of things after i sort through my myriad of emails. and load up on junk food. its good to be back...

greg asked me (shannon, his wife) to share with you that he is currently marooned at a retreat center on the jersey shore. he thought he would have internet access, but he has been denied. he is at a training for a few days and little did he know he has no access to internet, tv, or snacks. i think the last one has hit him the hardest -- he is sneaking bananas from dinner to eat at night - i think he said he had three already today! his obsessive compulsive nature would not allow bilbo and frodo's birthdays to remain his last post, so he gave me the privilege to post for him... now i have to start scheming for tomorrow's post... this is almost too much power... but alas, i fear that when he returns he will get even, so i will leave you with this: pray for greg, he has the shakes from not eating junk food at night, he hasn't watched sports since the steelers lost on sunday, he hasn't been able to change his facebook profile picture (which tells people to go to his ...

happy birthday, bilbo and frodo!

okay. so see this picture? it is pretty cool, because it is apparently is a picture of the only play in the entire game in which big ben was not sacked by the philadelphia defense. overall, it was an ugly football game, as many of the steelers games are, and the steelers defense played very well, but the eagles defense played that much better, and i have to give them credit: they took it to the steelers offense, particularly the o-line. the steelers front 6 and 7 looked lost, confused, and overmatched. most disturbing of all, for me, was the fact that the steelers couldn't adjust at halftime. this is not a good sign for the steelers. i don't think the eagles are really that good. if we can't even beat the eagles (without westbrook, too), then i'm not sure we're as good as we had hoped. well, we've got a week to figure it out and prepare for the tough baltimore defense next monday night.

today is the last day of baseball for the cathedral in the bronx known as yankee stadium, so often visited my such characters as mystique and aura, victory and championship, even, once in a while by those must elusive of guests, no-hitter and perfect game. much has been written and will be written during this time about the grandeur of this place, the history and mystery of this baseball stadium, a concrete sanctuary where the sultan of swat swang and the yankee clipper amazed and the mick powered his way to popularity and maris made history. much respect will be paid to this arena for gehrig, and his 'luckiest man on the face of the earth' speech, for jeter, and his dive into the stands, even for boone and bucky. much will be said. and most will say it much better than i. but i didn't want this day to pass without at least stopping to recognize the symbol that this stadium has been for me. as much as i have written about baseball in the past, romanticizing it to an ...

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating

now that i have learned how to do this, look for more home videos that you really don't want to see, coming soon to this blog. like this one. jack decides to get all funky and drop it like its hot. crazy beatboxing provided by yours truly. enjoy.

so, just last night, after putting his favorite pajamas on him, and after i've been lamenting the fact that he hasn't been saying much at all, other than an occasional "mama," cade did this. adam west, wherever you are, i give you an airfive.

watch out, bro. that collar is about to hurt somebody.

okay. here's a football trivia question to get us ready for sunday afternoon's football game in the city of brotherly love: the keystone state has two nfl franchises. one of them has five superbowl rings, and the other has zero superbowl rings. which team has won five superbowls?

jack keeps saying the cutest things, and i keep trying to remember them or write them down so that we'll remember these things years from now. -- the other night, in his best announcer voice, he was trying to say, "LADIES AND GENTLEMENNNN", but instead it came out like this, -- "LADIES AND JUMBO MINTS!!" -- freshly amused, greg.

ka-plunk. ka-plunk. ka-plunk. ka-plunk. ka-plunk. ka-plunk. ka-plunk. imagine that i wrote that word over and over and over again, literally millions of times over every day on this blog for the next 3-4 weeks. not only would that be ridiculous, it would also be incredibly monotonous. welcome to my garage. --- last year i bought a rock tumbler at a yard sale. i remember having a rock tumbler when i was a little boy, and so i thought that it might be fun thing to do with jack and cade as they grow up. the box has been sitting on a shelf in the garage all year, driving jack crazy. he has just known that there is some kind of toy in that box, and has been asking me for it over and over. finally, a few weeks ago we busted it out, realized that we needed some grit, ordered it off the internet, and waited. the grit arrived a few days later, so we threw the rocks and the grit and some water into the barrel and plugged the machine in. and ka-plunk, we got smooth rocks. well, not exactly. the r...

shheeww. they did it. as you look at your afc north standings this morning, you see that the pittsburgh steelers are 2-0 and that the cleveland browns are 0-2. in a league where every win counts, that's all that matters. and in a season where all the afc north teams have pretty brutal schedules, this is a head start that the steelers should not relinquish over the next 14 games. if you look at the standings, that's basically what you see. and if you look at the facts of the thing, you've got continued dominance by the steelers. they've now won 10 straight over the browns, and 16 of the last 17. if you look at the historical facts, that's basically what you see. but unless you watched the game, you didn't really get an accurate picture. and given the offensive impotence of both teams, the slow pace, and the lack of anything even approaching excitement, i don't think there were many (besides steelers and browns fans) who watched the game. i, of course...

its game day, and i know it is hard to name this post 'finish the deal' when its only week two, but i'm not talking about finishing the season (i'm under no delusions about the steelers. they beat the texans in game 1. there are alot of games to go). however, after the beating that ohio state took from usc last night , i'm hoping that the steelers can finish the deal and leave the whole state of ohio with an erie feeling of being completely dominated (i know i spelled erie wrong, people. c'mon, give me some credit). the steelers need to go out to cleveland and make a statement about the force that they intend to be in the afc this year, especially with the recent problems in san diego and new england. also, with the touch schedule the steelers have, divisional games are pretty much must-wins. so we need to beat the cleveland clowns tonight. go stillers!!! greg. ps. i know i misspelled steelers. its a pittsburgh thing. if you don't know, now you k...

yesterday was an emotionally exhausting day for me. i stayed up late wednesday night watching the film "world trade center," which isn't likely the best film ever made, but is certainly a way to get yourself crying like a baby on your couch at 1:30 in the morning. i followed that up yesterday afternoon by watching a cbs documentary about 9/11 called "what we saw," which is basically much of the newscast they had on that day. i sat on the same couch and cried some more. later last night, after the kids were in bed, i was flipping through the channels and couldn't flip past the history channel where they were airing a show called "102 minutes" which basically tells the 9/11 story through the lenses of 6 or 7 people who documented the day on their own handheld camcorders. absolutely fascinating to see a completely different perspective than what i have seen before. same couch, same result. so i am exhausted today. and i am thinking a great deal a...

september 11th, 2001. i will never forget. i mean that. but not necessarily in the way that i think it is often meant. i see many pictures of that day and the aftermath with the caption "never forget," as if to say that we should continue to hunt down those who did this and retaliate. the underlying thinking is that if we hold on to our pain it is easier to maintain the kind of anger and hatred that it takes to sustain a war. but that's not why i'm remembering. my commitment not to forget that day and the pain i felt and the pain our whole nation felt and the incredible amount of loss we all felt is not about anger or resentment or hatred or revenge. it is about something altogether different. i never want to forget the intense reality of brokenness which that day represents for me. it is the most poignant reminder for me of the 'not-yet-ness' of God's kingdom, as in, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." we yearn for...

living with a toddler is a roller coaster, in many, many ways. one of my favorite parts of the whole thing is the use and misuse of words that occurs as he grows into an understanding of language and tries on all the new vocabulary that he is hearing. sometimes it is really cute. like yesterday. he had his first full day of school, and one of the themes for the month is the story of creation, so when i asked him what he learned about in school, i knew what to expect. after i told me he learned about God, i pressed for more information by asking what God did. "God decorated the moon and the sun," he confidently replied, earning not only a lollipop, but also a couple of giggles from mom and dad. sometimes its just a simple thing, but very interesting as a parent. like the fact that all day yesterday he was singing the name of one of his classmates. and not just any classmate. "gabriella, gabriella, gabriella," he sang all day. hmmmm.... and sometimes it is...

many of you probably haven't heard about my new endeavor. i can't believe its happening, it just kind of materialized and now its taking off. click on the link to see a short video from the local news! http://www.inews3.com/topstory.php?id=477265677c4d696c696e6f76696368

oh yeah baby. its football season, and the steelers started things off right with a 38-17 drubbing of the houston texans. the score doesn't even do justice to the game they played though, because after it was 35-3 the steelers pretty much put it in cruise control and let a bunch of backups play. it was absolutely dominant. ben looked good (so dang efficient). willie looked good. the run blocking looked good. hines looked good. the defense looked hungry and angry (just like a steelers defense should look). it was basically awesome. next week we've got cleveland on sunday night. cleveland took one to the chin by the cowboys yesterday, so they'll be up for this game, but i think it is time to (once again) show the brownies that the steelers own the afc north. i'm already looking forward to it.

its been a good sports summer, for the most part. i mean, the olympics were really fun to watch, especially with michael phelps making the rest of us look like mere humans. the women's beach volleyball was also an easy watch, for several reasons. we had some good golf and tennis. baseball, one of my two favorite sports, is always fun (for me), especially on a lazy saturday afternoon in july, when i just want to sit there with a bag of chips and a cold one (see core issues in previous post) and watch these guys chase around a little white ball. i really enjoy it. .... but, alas, both of my teams (pirates, yankees) have fallen short this year and it looks like, even with much baseball yet to play, a kind of hum-drum ending to this baseball season. .... but all hope is not lost. while you were watching mccain's acceptance speech, he was watching the washington redskins lose to the new york giants in the first nfl game of the season. okay, maybe he wasn't watching, but his spe...

you know you've got some issues with your core (a fancy way of saying "gut") when you're eating watermelon with your family at the dinner table and you tell your three old not to eat the black seeds because a watermelon will grow in his belly, just like it did with you... ...and he believes you. his eyes got real big and he wanted to touch it and for days afterwards he was convinced that i had a watermelon under my skin. i could see it in his saucer-like eyes: "oooohhh, that explains it," he was thinking. "now i understand why daddy's belly is so big!" now that's motivation when i'm working out. if only i could shrink that watermelon to a cantaloupe or even a large naval orange, i would be much happier, right down to my core. seedy, greg.

so, i know i've had some pressure to give equal ink to mccain's speech as i gave to obama's last week, so here i am to share my thoughts. here goes: -what was with those backgrounds? what was he doing, delivering the speech in front of a hollywood blue screen so that we can later put in a CGI president? like jar jar or gollum? weird. -not that this matters AT ALL, but the man is hard for me to look at. i just keep thinking of men in black, how there are aliens among us. when i watch john mccain, i can't help but think that there's an alien in there and we are all in for a takeover. -as to tone, i really appreciated mccain's speech over palin's. palin seemed so sarcastic and downright mean, while mccain seemed respectful. i appreciated that. -as to substance, mccain's speech felt long and boring. i mean, don't get me wrong, his story of being a p.o.w. is absolutely amazing and compelling, but it doesn't necessarily make him the right p...

well, here's the little peanut all ready for school. we had a great first day. i got to take him, and he was extremely excited about it. once we got there, however, and the newness of new space and new people kind of jumped at him, the shyness set in. still, by the end of the time there he was warming up and enjoying craft time and snack time. i enjoyed watching him interact with the other children. right before we walked into the school he told me that no animals live in new jersey. i told him, "good thing you're going to school, son. you've got lots to learn." with lots to learn (still), greg.

september, 2008 dear jack, as i write this letter you are snug in your bed, trying to find sleep, although it is hard to locate through your excitement. you just called me into your room, and you told me that you are scared of your bookshelf. i know that you were making it up because you said it with a smile. in other words, you just wanted me to come into your room so you could postpone sleep a little longer. and, to be honest, i can't blame you. i mean, tomorrow is an exciting day for you. tomorrow you begin a journey that will last for at least the next 15 years. (you just called me into your room- again - because you couldn't find your stuffed monkey. seriously dude, its time to sleep). tomorrow is your first ever day of school, a day to meet your teachers and your classmates, a day to wear your batman backpack. tomorrow, in many ways, begins a whole new part of your life. that's not to say that you haven't been learning. you've been learning so so mu...

jack went fishing this weekend in delaware with his uncle shawn and cousins adam and alise. this was his first time fishing, and so expectations were low. however, even as they normally catch little bluegills, jack somehow landed an 18-inch carp! here are pictures for proof. it only goes downhill from here, jack! now he wants me to take him fishing, which is a bit of a problem since i haven't been fishing since i was 12. i'm afraid if i caught a fish i would freak out and not know what to do! maybe i need to take lessons from uncle shawn... here's the young man and the lake. and here's the amazing catch. jack said, "i even touched him! he was slimy and rough!"

take a look at these images on the right. pretty normal little pieces of our culture, right? you've got your american idol, a piece of money (albeit a piece that most of us would never really see), and the logo for you tube, the increasingly popular web video site. you might be asking yourself, "what do these things have in common?" well, i found them in a church. let me explain... ... this summer i went on a mission trip with our young people to west virginia. we stayed at a non-denominational church out there, that was surprisingly big and fancified for rural west virginia. anyway, on a wall in the hallway leading into their gymnasium/auditorium were dozens of different kinds of cards, mostly business card size, with these kinds of logos on them. they certainly attracted the eye, as well as the hand. knowing that all the youth would want to take these, they asked us not to take them. oops. i couldn't resist. i knew that i wanted to write about these here...

happy labor day. as gustav makes landfall today, i can't help but think about katrina, and remember all the death and wreckage and water. i remember the mess. i remember how the government wasn't much of a help. i remember going to mississippi a couple of years ago to help with some of the rebuilding effort there, and being amazed at how raped the land still seemed to be. i was at revelation generation this weekend, which is a small scale christian music festival. i'm not really into much of the music that was featured there, but i always enjoy tobymac as an entertainer and showman (not as a theologian). the one band that i was very impressed with was the myriad, whom i have written about before . they only played a short set, but they were very good, at least in my opinion. one of their songs, the first track on their new album, is called "you waste time like a grandfather clock," which aside from having a very clunky title, is a song which always remind...