Rainey Blogs on Some Days

Chris Rainey (MVTHS Class of 1982) has been nominated by himself to become a member of the MVTHS Sports Hall of Fame for outstanding lifetime achievement in athletics. Chris was a three-sport athlete in football, basketball, and baseball, despite having a writer’s body, contemplative outlook on life, running the 40-yard dash in 5.7 seconds, and only being able to throw a football 45-yards with a modest wind at his back. Despite all of these limitations, he burst onto the football scene in the fall of 1979 during his sophomore year, being promoted to varsity after starting quarterback Chris Berner retired following the opening game of the year to pursue other interests. Rainey led the Rams to a 4-1 record during his five starts that season and completed over 50% of his passes, despite not enough being old enough to have a driver’s license or even shave yet. He was also starting third baseman for the legendary 1982 Rams baseball team, which won the South Seven Conference that year but l...

My wife and I finally broke out of our routine about three weeks ago on a Monday night and went on a date to see a one-woman off-off Broadway show called “ Grapefruit ,” which was about a woman's experience with a tumor the size of one of those special fruits. The sobering subject of the play notwithstanding, I was reminded of why I love to live near New York City. While driving into the city on the West Side Highway, I finally was stopped at a traffic light for the first time in the 50s and looked over to my right to see two guys riding on a bicycle built for two. The person in front sat on seat that was the normal height. However, the rear of the bike had been modified so that the seat for the rider in the back was about six feet in the air, meaning the rider was sitting high in the air pedaling away. I had never seen anything quite like it, and the only thing that could have made it better would have been if the one in back had been wearing a Roman gladiator helmet with ...

New York. Fallen rock star Prince ’s musical comeback through last year’s CD and tour of the same name— Musicology —brought a mixed response from old and new fans. Long-time fans were excited about Prince’s return to the quality blend of rock and funk that made him a superstar in the 80s and early 90s. Unfortunately, Prince’s comeback was not without controversy among his newfound religious brethren. His etymological explanation of the term “musicology” frequently given at the nightly opening of his 34-city tour upset Jehovah’s Witness church officials. In each concert, Prince explained that the original Greek word behind the -ology portion of the word musicology is logos , a word that means "word" or "study." He then summarized his overall point by saying that the word musicology meant the study of music. As an example, when Prince opened his Madison Square Garden concert in New York, he emerged from a small guitar case in a haze of purple fog with black horned-ri...