The Sky is the Limit- Corey Crawford Jumps 25.5 ft. for Indian Hills
Corey Crawford leaps into the #2 spot- Photo Credit: Jerry McCrea/Star Ledger
If you are a fan of great moments in sports, delicious pizza, Indian Hills High School or Oakland, NJ, here’s a story you might enjoy…
How would you feel as a high school athlete if the only person in the country that was stronger, better, & faster (for now) was Olympic superstar, Carl Lewis?… Exactly! Pretty damn good about yourself and ready to take on the world!
Corey Crawford, Indian Hills High School track & field phenom soared 25 & 1/2 feet in the long jump last Friday to earn the number 2 spot in the state and the number 2 spot in the nation for the best of all time. As a competitor, your natural instinct is to be happy at first and enjoy the moment, but the inevitable curiosity will always kick in… who is number one? I’d have to think that for a nice suburban kid from Oakland, NJ, the next thought would be… One of my idols?! Carl Lewis?! This is awesome! It’s like a basketball player finding out that Michael Jordan is the only one with better stats. (for now) Kudos and congrats to Corey! Onwards and upwards. Best wishes with your career.
Special thanks to my good friend, Vincent Velasquez, for bringing this story to my attention and for sharing his video interview. (also for the title prefix) Vincent travels the state every week to cover, re-cap and produce video productions of major sporting events for the Star Ledger. Velasquez has a cool tradition of finding a local pizza joint near every shoot that he works on. His latest stop on “the quest for the best slice in NJ” was at Oakland Pizza- one of my all time favs’. He had a “balsamic, roasted red pepper slice” that was “very good.” I’ll join you on that quest anytime Vincent. 
-mp
Chicago, My Kind of Town
Sweet Home Chicago, filled with stunning views, architecture, character, and history
White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle throws a no hitter on 7/23/09. The whole state was amped up!
It felt like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, only better. My colleagues and I enjoyed 5 days of business and pleasure in the windy city.
We experienced everything from a double decker bus tour of all the downtown landmarks (where Ferris had everybody Twisting and Shouting) to singing Karaoke at Harry Caray’s. I played Whirly Ball and Lazer Tag for the first time and finally got to have some deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati’s. (Even though Lou’s was delicious, Oakland Pizza in my hometown of Jersey, is still my favorite.)
On the business side, we had the opportunity to improve our performance skills at the famous Second City improv theater on day one, then to hone our CEO skill set from a former Burger King Corporation executive on day 2, and then to stimulate our creativity in an Apprentice competition for the finale.
Alumni- Chris Farley, Bill Murray, Mike Meyers & John Belushi
Second City trainers, Robyn and Colleen. Watch out Tina Fey!
I competed with and against 35 other entertainment-based entrepreneurs from all over the country to produce a Black and White themed dinner party at the Chicago Hilton.
We had 8 hours to brainstorm, hit the phones, work our butts off and bring our vision to reality. The idea was to stimulate and challenge our logistical prowess, leadership qualities, teamwork capabilities and delegation techniques. I’m delighted to report that the local event experts who came in that evening to judge the two teams, chose our over-all production as the winning effort.
My teammates included professional event producers and entertainers from Arizona, Miami, New York, Connecticut, Nashville, Los Angeles, Washington and Boston. Everybody rolled up their sleeves, handled the intense pressure and made it happen.
Black & Whitle table design and decor
Spandex screens and live shadow dancers
Post victory jam with Chicago's 'New Groove' band
Our concepts that came to life included an 11 piece band/dj combo, live shadow dancers, a Michael Jackson impersonator, plasma tv’s playing vintage black and white film footage, casual yet elegant table settings, a modern yet relaxed decor, and a group sing-a-long to the classic music video, Ebony and Ivory.
The judges were impressed and my team was pleased with my contribution, I couldn’t ask for more than that. It was a very rewarding way to end a great week.
Special thanks to my good friend and teammate from Miami, Jeffrey Greene, for sharing his photos for this entry.
PS – I didn’t want to take all the credit for being a good luck charm, but Mark Buehrle just happened to throw his no-hitter when I was in town.
Encore Gallery:
Our Michael Jackson impersonator, Alex, proved to be a winning touch
The Apprentice comes to Chi-town. Trump telling the competition, "You're Fired!"
L.E.D up-lit feature bar with custom old school b&w footage on 3 plasmas
