Wyatt Baldwin

After dinner at The Farm, Philip and I went to a Blazers basketball game at the Rose Garden Arena. Philip got free tickets from somewhere, and I’m always down for a novel experience, which this definitely was for me. I’ve been to one other pro sporting event that I remember, a Red Sox baseball game in Boston back in the late 80s. I went to one Ducks basketball game while I was at the University of Oregon.

I’m no sports fan, but I love basketball as a game. It’s such a dance–part choreographed, part freestyle–conducted by intricate rules of timing, interaction, and boundaries.

Part of the fun was people watching. Watching them get excited when the Blazers scored or screwed up. Watching them ogle and take pictures of the cheerleaders. Watching them spend $6.50 on pints of Budweiser.

The arena takes great advantage of the large captive audience and advertises with all kinds of flashing lights, announcements, and giveaways of junk.

I took some pictures (of the game and crowd, not the cheerleaders) with my phone, but none of them are worth posting here.