You can barely see it but there’s a banner outside the arena too.

Once inside, the atmosphere was buzzing with Celtics fans ready to see another banner raised to the rafters. As if being at opening night for the World Champion Celtics against Lebron James and the Cavs wasn’t enough, they were also handing out free t-shirts! I love me some free t-shirts (who doesn’t) and the back is particularly sweet as it’s just a big ass banner.

If you weren't jealous of my tickets, check out this free shirt!

As we waited for the championship ceremony to begin, the crowd got very lively with the first wicked loud “Let’s Go Celtics” chant of the night and the season. My section (313, the best section in The Gahden) lit up with appreciative smiles at the decibel level of the chant. Our corner of the arena started it so we were proud that it got so loud.

The ceremony began with a video of last year’s highlights that got the crowd even more pumped (check in tomorrow or Friday for videos from last night). Then, NBA commissioner David Stern (who contrary to some reports did get booed as he was introduced) tried to give a speech, but the crowd got another wicked loud “Let’s Go Celtics” chant going that completely drowned out his words and forced Stern to simply sit down and shut up. It was one of the highlights of the nights.

This gap would be empty for only a few more minutes.

Then they began handing out championship rings to the Celtics staff. Danny Ainge got a big cheer and Doc Rivers got a huge, huge response from the crowd. Then, they started announcing the players. Huge responses for all the players but especially Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and last but certainly not least, Paul Pierce. After the rings were handed out, all the players walked over to the right side of the court, where a spotlight slowly illuminated a giant green and white championship banner. All the players grabbed a piece of rope and began lifting the banner in unison to the rafters.

The Celtics raise the banner the same way they earned it, with teamwork.

To the rafters!

Aaaah, now I can truly die a happy Bostonian sports fan!

After the ceremony, the starting lineups were announced, and then Paul Pierce came out onto the court for a special message. He began by telling the crowd that last season, up to tonight with the culmination of raising that championship has been a dream come true. With tears swelling in his eyes, Paul thanked the fans for sticking with him through the tough years and his friends and family for giving him support when he needed it most, and he ended it by thanking his mom and saying he loved her. Goosebumps traversed the entire arena and it got quite dusty all of a sudden.

Ahem.

Then there was a basketball game between the World Champion Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Lebron Jamesiers.

Tip-off.

Ray Allen shoots…

The Celtics dancers tearing up the court.

Paul Pierce wins the game and the match-up against Lebron James.

Overall, it was a great night. Paul Pierce scored 27 points, with Lebron scoring only 22 points, which proved to be the difference as the Celtics beat the Cavaliers 90 to 85. The C’s defense of the title started off great, hopefully it ends just as well! Check in either tomorrow or Friday as I post some videos from last night, including some of the introduction video and championship ceremony. In the meantime, you can check out all the pictures from last night in my photos section.

Wicked cool, eh?

Tip of the hat to the Bostonist for alerting me to this video.

As I turned around I saw another fire truck come rumbling down Roseclair, immediately followed another truck and an SUV. Moments later, the fourth and fifth truck showed up and within a minute the sixth and seventh truck arrived too. All of a sudden the whole street was lined with fire trucks, and as I stood on the corner of Roseclair and Greenhalge I saw yet one more truck making its way up the street!
This last truck was an ambulance and fire truck in one vehicle. Quite an impressive machine.

A few people were shocked at the sheer number of trucks but my thoughts are that I’d much, much rather see too many fire trucks than not enough!

Thank you to the brave men and women of the Boston Fire Department for doing such a great job. Our street has a few retired firefighters living here and we know that it is not easy work, especially on a warm day like today. Thank you again BFD, you all rock!

You can see more photos of the incident at my photos page.

If you look in Bill’s left hand you can see he’s holding a silver can of some sort, perhaps a silver bullet? Could it be the former president is slumming it with the common Coors Light?

Let’s take a closer look:

Hmm, a little tough to tell but it does seem to have the blue rim and the greyish-whitish rendition of the Rockies on the side.

Let’s compare with an actual Coors Light can (via ChuckThomas.com):

Hmm, still a bit too close to call definitively. I’ve asked my buddy to e-mail me the full resolution version of this photo when he gets a chance so hopefully we’ll know for sure soon.

Let me be clear, I do not disapprove of Bill throwing back a cold one. After all, he’s pretty much retired now so I say let him enjoy his time however he wants. If it is in fact a Coors Light, it’s a funny way to perhaps gain some favor amongst the people in the state of Colorado. Or maybe he was just thirsty.

I cleaned my bike up a few days ago and took the chance to snap a few photos of my bike before I went and gunked it all up again. Here’s a view of the whole bike from the side:

Sexy, eh?

Here’s a closeup of the crank:

Finally, here’s a view looking down the handlebars towards the rear of the bike:

Also, over the weekend I twittered that I got hit by an SUV. As I said via twitter, I’m 100% OK and so is my bike (the SUV had a small scratch). I was pedaling down Dorchester Avenue, and a block from the Savin Hill Ave intersection, the SUV to my left banged a sharp right to try to get into a parking spot as he did not realize I was pedaling right next to him. He quickly stopped as he heard my handlebar scraping his SUV and I quickly bounced to the right and swerved around his SUV, maintaining my balance the entire time.

No one was hurt and it seemed the driver learned a lesson of watching his blind side so no harm no foul. Everyone (bikers, pedestrians, drivers and others), be careful out there!

After taking a few photos of these ducks relaxing the day away I glanced across the water to spot a group of ducks with a child’s motorized boat following them!

The little boy and his boat weren’t satisfied with scaring just one group of ducks away. Nay, the little boy in fact ran up and down the shore until a huge group of ducks escaped into the safety of the water.

At this point the little boy was overwhelmed with joy by his duck terrorizing actions. His joy and awe of the situation lasted for about 20 seconds, at which point he began fiddling with his motorized boat again.

Luckily for the ducks, the little motorized boat only had so much range and so much speed and the ducks made a great escape across the water to true safety.

Apparently that commute only takes the bicyclist 15 minutes, a pretty good pace for a 3-4 mile trip!

Check it out, here’s me duplicating some of the art on my public web-site, Banksy to prove I am the real Banksy.

See. Clearly I am Banksy as that signature which I just wrote looks exactly like the one on the main Banksy site.

Yup, the whole being British thing and living in the U.K. was just a ploy to throw you off my scent. Though I’ve preferred to perform my art in anonymity, I must now come out and declare myself publicly to prevent that hack Robin Gunningham from getting the credit for my brilliance.

Here’s the me replicating the infamous gorilla from my menu page.

See. Identical.

Even the purple will make sense now. It’s a shout-out to my real public high school, the Boston Latin School, whose fine art department and classic education made me the rebel I am today.

So once again, do not believe the Mail on Sunday when they “report” that Robin Gunningham is Banksy.

No, I am Banksy.

I will now retire to my own personal island for I am rich.

Oh, and here’s one of my favorite Banksy / Adam Pieniazek pieces:

Don’t believe me?

Are you Banksy?

After going around in circles for a few minutes trying to pinpoint the fire sirens (they were on the other side of a hill) I finally found them, over a mile away at Trull Street, off Hancock Street. Loyal readers will recall that Hancock Street was also mentioned in this cycling encounter. No, I don’t know if this house is in anyway related to the driver from that story but even if it was in no way would I wish harm on that person or his family.

The fire must have been huge as there were a half dozen, if not more, fire trucks at the scene. By the time I arrived the firefighters had done an amazing job controlling the fire and had it nearly put out completely within minutes of my arrival. At that point they were mostly searching for anyone left in the house. The word on the street from people watching the scene was that everyone got out and firefighters were merely being cautious. Luckily it seems everyone made it out alive though I’m unsure of their conditions.

Here are a few pictures of the scene. My apologies for the sub-par quality; the pictures were taken with my iPhone which does not have a flash.

A lot of fire trucks were there when I showed up. This photo is from Hancock Street looking down Trull Street.

Here’s a photo closer to the home. The yellow at the top of the photo is a light or lights, not the fire, though there were flames near that light but the trees make it tough to see.

I did not know fire fighters also utilized bicycles but, as this photo shows, they do. Later on as I was leaving I saw a firefighter using the bicycle to get up Trull Street quickly to get to a supply van parked on Hancock Street to get a case of water bottles.

Finally, I saw this doll attached to the front of one of the fire trucks. All I know is I have the utmost respect and admiration for firefighters. Obviously they risk their life day in day out and though there are scandals (Boston recently had a firefighter collect disability pay while also moonlighting as a bodybuilder), the majority of fire fighters are hard working blue collar guys trying to help their communities. I didn’t ask but I’d assume this doll was either from a fire or from a family member for good luck. In either case it was a down to earth sign that firefighters are just regular people yet they constantly perform heroic acts.

There’s a few more pictures from this fire on my flickr page.

My condolences to the families involved in this traumatic event. Hopefully everyone made it out OK.

Here’s the squirrel just chilling while it observes what I’m doing:

As it realizes I’m not a threat, it goes on it’s way, doing whatever a spider squirrel does, which apparently means running on this ledge in a death-defying manner:

I love how 80-90% of its body, including its head, is below the ledge as it scampers about! BTW, the squirrel did make it safely around the pillar and back, fully, onto the ledge.

Spider squirrel, spider squirrel, does whatever a spider squirrel does!