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70s Night at the Garden
Tuesday, August 6 2002
I spent large fractions of the day up on the roof installing a wireless access point and connecting the wires necessary to give it electrical power and an ethernet connection. First I picked up some supplies at the hardware store on 7th Avenue and 2nd Street: cable ties, electrical tape, various metal U-clamps, and a plastic bucket. While putting up flyers for my computer repair business on the way home, I ran across a random potential customer who tore off one of my tearoffs and said she'd call me later. If I treated flyer posting more like theatre and less like a crime I might be caught doing, I could probably scare up business faster.
Using the U-clamps, I attached an old television antenna pole to a rooftop exhaust pipe and then used cable ties to lash the wireless router and power converter to the top of the pole. I then turned that plastic bucket upside down and placed it on top of the pole to protect the electronics from the weather, lashing the bucket's handle to the pole with cable ties to keep it centered.
To test my new wireless access point, I equipped a laptop loaned by Gretchen's father with a wireless ethernet card. After a few configuration headaches, I managed to get a wireless connection to the rooftop installation down in my first floor apartment, but only near the windows and back door. There are too many thick layers between floors in these old brownstones for me to effectively send a microwave signal through four stories. I also tried the laptop out on the street and was able to make weak connections near the top of President Street.
A little after 5pm I rode the Q to 34th Street to meet up with Gretchen at Madison Square Garden. Tonight we'd be seeing another women's basketball game, this time between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx. This game had all the makings for a rout, because while New York is first in the Eastern Division, the Lynx are last in the Western. We figured we could just kick back and enjoy a good old fashioned ass-pounding. The main reason we were even there was to get our copies of a free Coach Richie Adubato bobble-head doll. Adubato himself seemed unusually relaxed, decked out unusally in a cheesy 70s outfit (it was "70s Night" at the Garden).
But something funny happened on the way to the ass pounding. At first the Lynx were playing so badly that all we could do was wish them well. But then it seemed the Liberty decided to lower the overall quality of their play out of sympathy. This made the first third or so of the game resemble a matchup between the Three Stooges and the Keystone Cops. Balls rarely found baskets, and every other possession change seemed to result from a shotclock violation or a fumbled catch. And by the end of the first half, the Lynx were actually ahead.
Gretchen had been eagerly anticipating the halfgame show, because it would feature a two song performance by the disco diva Gloria Gaynor, famous for her karaoke standard "I Will Survive." Gloria started her set with a new electronica-influenced tune and had trouble keeping up with its breakneck beat. But then the crowd went nuts when she sang "I will Survive" as a Deathstar-sized disco ball descended from the ceiling, throwing sparkles all over the stands.
In the end the Lynx managed to win, but only by three points. Fans were unusually quiet and bowed their heads in shame as they headed up the aisles and out of the exits with their bobble-headed dolls and plastic The Yellow Book handclappers.
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