4 hours ago
Thursday, January 30, 2003
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
FROM THE HALL OF TERRIBLE FRANCHISE NAMES: The WNBA finally made their way into the Mohegan Sun Arena in the form of the Orlando Miracle--now called the Connecticut Sun:
The WNBA is hurting. The league needs a victory. The league needs a victory now.
"What they need is a three-pointer like that Villanova shot at the end of the first half in the UConn [men's] game the other day," said Eric Zachs, part of the Hartford LAZ group that lost out to the Mohegans for the state's WNBA franchise. "They need to change the momentum."
The WNBA's three-point shot has turned out to be a gambling casino.
The WNBA has rolled the dice with the roll of the dice.
Now we'll see if the shot from outside the arc of prevailing sports wisdom is good.
Yes, when I think "Connecticut" I think "Sun." The Hartford Gamblers would have been about a million times better, if only as reference to the departed USFL Houston Gamblers. Though invoking the most famous of failed big time sports leagues is maybe not what the WNBA is going for here.
Flip Bondy offers this wackiest of NBA conspiracy theories:
The NBA itself has played exhibitions at Mohegan Sun, though it is hard to imagine its owners approving permanent relocation to the place. The NBA hasn't yet entered the more lucrative Las Vegas market.
Back in 1999, the NBA board of governors passed a motion in New York supporting the idea of Las Vegas as a potential site for a future franchise.
"Las Vegas (is) a first-class NBA-type city and would no doubt be an excellent location for a professional franchise," Stern said, then. "The only issue ... is the subject of betting on NBA basketball."
Is the WNBA in Uncasville being used by Stern as a trial balloon for possible future expansion by the NBA into Las Vegas? That theory may be a bit conspiratorial.
Yes, but it's a cool theory nonetheless. Las Vegas--the glitz city--and the NBA--the glitz pro sport--would seem to go hand in hand, and as Vegas becomes more of a community its citizens will tend to demand national recognition the American way: by getting a pro sports franchise. All they have to do is take basketball betting off the books, and I have no idea how much of a loss that would be but I can't imagine a sport as unpredictable as basketball would attract that much betting. But what do I know? The Mind of the Gambler is foreign to my own. Anyhow, Bondy dismisses his own theory with:
More likely, this is further proof of the parent league's indifference toward the WNBA's future during tough economic times.
Title IX, alone, must stand guard against this sort of paternalistic neglect at the scholastic level. The law ought to be strengthened, not weakened, while universities continue to throw outrageous money at their bloated football and basketball programs.
"To suggest that it's okay for a federal law to allow women to be treated in a manner that is inferior to men is unfathomable in this day and age," Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, told the commission.
If the Education Department can't imagine what it would be like for schoolgirls in a world without regulation, the commissioners might ake a look at how the NBA is treating the WNBA. This once promising women's league is a casino sideshow now. All bets are off.
Interesting.
The WNBA is hurting. The league needs a victory. The league needs a victory now.
"What they need is a three-pointer like that Villanova shot at the end of the first half in the UConn [men's] game the other day," said Eric Zachs, part of the Hartford LAZ group that lost out to the Mohegans for the state's WNBA franchise. "They need to change the momentum."
The WNBA's three-point shot has turned out to be a gambling casino.
The WNBA has rolled the dice with the roll of the dice.
Now we'll see if the shot from outside the arc of prevailing sports wisdom is good.
Yes, when I think "Connecticut" I think "Sun." The Hartford Gamblers would have been about a million times better, if only as reference to the departed USFL Houston Gamblers. Though invoking the most famous of failed big time sports leagues is maybe not what the WNBA is going for here.
Flip Bondy offers this wackiest of NBA conspiracy theories:
The NBA itself has played exhibitions at Mohegan Sun, though it is hard to imagine its owners approving permanent relocation to the place. The NBA hasn't yet entered the more lucrative Las Vegas market.
Back in 1999, the NBA board of governors passed a motion in New York supporting the idea of Las Vegas as a potential site for a future franchise.
"Las Vegas (is) a first-class NBA-type city and would no doubt be an excellent location for a professional franchise," Stern said, then. "The only issue ... is the subject of betting on NBA basketball."
Is the WNBA in Uncasville being used by Stern as a trial balloon for possible future expansion by the NBA into Las Vegas? That theory may be a bit conspiratorial.
Yes, but it's a cool theory nonetheless. Las Vegas--the glitz city--and the NBA--the glitz pro sport--would seem to go hand in hand, and as Vegas becomes more of a community its citizens will tend to demand national recognition the American way: by getting a pro sports franchise. All they have to do is take basketball betting off the books, and I have no idea how much of a loss that would be but I can't imagine a sport as unpredictable as basketball would attract that much betting. But what do I know? The Mind of the Gambler is foreign to my own. Anyhow, Bondy dismisses his own theory with:
More likely, this is further proof of the parent league's indifference toward the WNBA's future during tough economic times.
Title IX, alone, must stand guard against this sort of paternalistic neglect at the scholastic level. The law ought to be strengthened, not weakened, while universities continue to throw outrageous money at their bloated football and basketball programs.
"To suggest that it's okay for a federal law to allow women to be treated in a manner that is inferior to men is unfathomable in this day and age," Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, told the commission.
If the Education Department can't imagine what it would be like for schoolgirls in a world without regulation, the commissioners might ake a look at how the NBA is treating the WNBA. This once promising women's league is a casino sideshow now. All bets are off.
Interesting.
DIGITAL MAN BITES SENIOR CITIZEN DOG: KaZaA sues entire entertainment industry.
Sharman Networks Ltd. filed its counterclaim Monday in response to a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by several recording labels and movie studios. That lawsuit accuses Sharman of providing free access to copyright music and films to millions of Internet users in the United States.
The latest filing came two weeks after U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson dismissed Sharman's claim that it could not be sued in the United States because it is based in Australia and incorporated in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.
Wilson had found Sharman subject to U.S. copyright laws because it has substantial usage by Californians and its actions are alleged to contribute to commercial piracy within the United States.
Sharman's counterclaim alleges copyright misuse, monopolization, and deceptive acts and practices.
"In seeking to simultaneously stop illegal copying and to maintain their dominant position in the distribution of musical and movie content, the industry plaintiffs have obscenely overreached," Sharman said.
It seeks a jury trial, damages, attorney fees and a permanent injunction against the entertainment industry so that it can't "enforce any of their United States copyrights against any person or entity."
Via the Savant forum. Now that's balls-out.
Sharman Networks Ltd. filed its counterclaim Monday in response to a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by several recording labels and movie studios. That lawsuit accuses Sharman of providing free access to copyright music and films to millions of Internet users in the United States.
The latest filing came two weeks after U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson dismissed Sharman's claim that it could not be sued in the United States because it is based in Australia and incorporated in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.
Wilson had found Sharman subject to U.S. copyright laws because it has substantial usage by Californians and its actions are alleged to contribute to commercial piracy within the United States.
Sharman's counterclaim alleges copyright misuse, monopolization, and deceptive acts and practices.
"In seeking to simultaneously stop illegal copying and to maintain their dominant position in the distribution of musical and movie content, the industry plaintiffs have obscenely overreached," Sharman said.
It seeks a jury trial, damages, attorney fees and a permanent injunction against the entertainment industry so that it can't "enforce any of their United States copyrights against any person or entity."
Via the Savant forum. Now that's balls-out.
GARDEN STATE FILE: Most New Jerseyans Unhappy With Life In The State. Otherwise known as the My State Is Populated By Cretins File--you all were the ones who put McGreevey in there. So this is no surprise:
"For the first time in six years of polling, a majority of New Jersey voters are not satisfied with the way things are going in their state," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac's polling institute.
"They are not only unhappy with Gov. McGreevey, whose approval ratings are stagnating in negative territory, they are particularly fed up with high taxes and auto insurance rates," he said.
Forty percent of respondents said they approve of the way McGreevey is handling his job, while 41 percent disapproved. That was a slight improvement from the last Quinnipiac poll in December, when the governor's approval rating was 37 percent and his disapproval rate was 42.
Because Bret Schundler was going to take away your right to choose or something. Whatever.
"For the first time in six years of polling, a majority of New Jersey voters are not satisfied with the way things are going in their state," said Clay F. Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac's polling institute.
"They are not only unhappy with Gov. McGreevey, whose approval ratings are stagnating in negative territory, they are particularly fed up with high taxes and auto insurance rates," he said.
Forty percent of respondents said they approve of the way McGreevey is handling his job, while 41 percent disapproved. That was a slight improvement from the last Quinnipiac poll in December, when the governor's approval rating was 37 percent and his disapproval rate was 42.
Because Bret Schundler was going to take away your right to choose or something. Whatever.
INSOLVENT REPUBLIC OF JAPAN: And when I say that Indian pop culture basically has no effect on American cultural life, am, of course, contrasting it with Japan, a nation whose pop culture has a great deal of influence--or at least acceptance--here in the States. Witness Slate today:
So, is there anything good at all to say about Japan these days? It took the ultimate establishment gray-hair, Yotaro Kobayashi, head of the Japan association of corporate executives, to find it. And even then it was in the most unlikely place: youth culture. He stood up to praise an article published last year by Douglas McGray in Foreign Policy magazine, titled "Japan's Gross National Cool." Even as industrial Japan crumbles, McGray argues in the piece, its street culture, from fashion to art to music, has become ever more vibrant and is having an unprecedented influence on the rest of the world.
There is manga and anime (comics and cartoons), innovative product design, and the emergent "thumb culture" of the i-mode generation, who see the world through a cell phone screen. Pokémon, Digimon, and the other gotta-have-them-all menageries designed to colonize kids' brains; PlayStation, GameCube, and the lion's share of the titles driving the booming video-game business. And then the H-bomb of Japanese culture hacking, Hello Kitty, who sells in Japan because she is Western and sells in the West because she is Japanese. "A regular Davos cat," quips McGray.
As Japan's recession gets worse, the country's youth culture only gets more vibrant. Since this is the World Economic Forum, a mechanistic explanation must be found. For starters, the breakdown in Japan's lifetime employment system and rigid social hierarchy has put a lot of young people on the street (or, more often, in dead-end part-time jobs); their energy is now finding other outlets, from cultural obsessions to entrepreneurship. It's also easier to take risks when you're small; the last decade has seen a wave of creative little businesses, from one-man music labels to clubs and micro-niche magazines, that are rising in the rubble of the collapsing conglomerates. Big companies don't work that way, and increasingly in Japan they don't work at all.
Japan: cool but collapsing. As its cultural influence grows, its economic influence shrinks. Even as the country rises as a style superpower, its failing finances limits its ability to exploit that energy.
That Douglas McGray Foreign Policy article looks pretty choice too.
So, is there anything good at all to say about Japan these days? It took the ultimate establishment gray-hair, Yotaro Kobayashi, head of the Japan association of corporate executives, to find it. And even then it was in the most unlikely place: youth culture. He stood up to praise an article published last year by Douglas McGray in Foreign Policy magazine, titled "Japan's Gross National Cool." Even as industrial Japan crumbles, McGray argues in the piece, its street culture, from fashion to art to music, has become ever more vibrant and is having an unprecedented influence on the rest of the world.
There is manga and anime (comics and cartoons), innovative product design, and the emergent "thumb culture" of the i-mode generation, who see the world through a cell phone screen. Pokémon, Digimon, and the other gotta-have-them-all menageries designed to colonize kids' brains; PlayStation, GameCube, and the lion's share of the titles driving the booming video-game business. And then the H-bomb of Japanese culture hacking, Hello Kitty, who sells in Japan because she is Western and sells in the West because she is Japanese. "A regular Davos cat," quips McGray.
As Japan's recession gets worse, the country's youth culture only gets more vibrant. Since this is the World Economic Forum, a mechanistic explanation must be found. For starters, the breakdown in Japan's lifetime employment system and rigid social hierarchy has put a lot of young people on the street (or, more often, in dead-end part-time jobs); their energy is now finding other outlets, from cultural obsessions to entrepreneurship. It's also easier to take risks when you're small; the last decade has seen a wave of creative little businesses, from one-man music labels to clubs and micro-niche magazines, that are rising in the rubble of the collapsing conglomerates. Big companies don't work that way, and increasingly in Japan they don't work at all.
Japan: cool but collapsing. As its cultural influence grows, its economic influence shrinks. Even as the country rises as a style superpower, its failing finances limits its ability to exploit that energy.
That Douglas McGray Foreign Policy article looks pretty choice too.
COMICS BUSINESS HAPPY STORY: How the comics-purchasing community banded together and saved Top Shelf. Via Bugpowder. Awwww....
BOLLYWOOD: Ever wonder why Indian movies--despite being hyper-popular worldwide and despite there being over a thousand of them made yearly--have an impact on American cultural life that approaches nil? Besides the cultural barriers (i.e., whether Americans want to see sprwaling three-hour musicals) there seem to be business reasons too:
Why is it that the world's biggest, noisiest and most colorful entertainment phenomenon hasn't yet reached the consciousness of mainstream America?
Most of the people I've asked agree on one thing: marketing. "I think the marketing and distribution has been a little undisciplined and unprofessionally handled," observes Amitabh Bachchan, at 60 still a reigning superstar and the only Indian star to be immortalized at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Bachchan also heads the International Indian Film Academy Awards, a huge, yearly event with revolving international venues. "I wish some of America's discipline and management philosophy would be taken by India," he says. "We are the largest filmmaking country in the world, and the sheer demographics would put our stars as more visible than some of the Hollywood stars."
Sometimes, too, Indian filmmakers pull some pretty stupendous gaffes. Last year, "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" made over $1 million on only 73 screens in its opening weekend in the United States. It was the biggest ever opening for an Indian movie here, but its producers didn't report the figures to Variety or Exhibitor Relations promptly, losing out on the chance to place the film in the U.S. top 10 and make international news.
Another mainstream Hindi film that's just hit theaters, and stars the sultry Bipasha Basu, has the title "Jism." The word means "body" in Hindi, by the way. Yes, the filmmaker and actors all speak English (but apparently not well enough).
Outside the ethnic press aimed at Indian immigrants, Bollywood films are rarely advertised or promoted to U.S. audiences. And let's not forget the piracy, death threats and scary Mafia connections (one major star, the Stallone-esque Sanjay Dutt of "Kaante," has even served hard time for stockpiling weapons). The industry's lack of discipline is legendary; it's not unheard of for an Indian film star to turn up hours late for a shoot, or for films to be shot without scripts. Sons, daughters, nieces and remote third cousins of industry players are regularly foisted on the public as "new discoveries" who, thankfully, tend to burn out after a single film.
Why is it that the world's biggest, noisiest and most colorful entertainment phenomenon hasn't yet reached the consciousness of mainstream America?
Most of the people I've asked agree on one thing: marketing. "I think the marketing and distribution has been a little undisciplined and unprofessionally handled," observes Amitabh Bachchan, at 60 still a reigning superstar and the only Indian star to be immortalized at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Bachchan also heads the International Indian Film Academy Awards, a huge, yearly event with revolving international venues. "I wish some of America's discipline and management philosophy would be taken by India," he says. "We are the largest filmmaking country in the world, and the sheer demographics would put our stars as more visible than some of the Hollywood stars."
Sometimes, too, Indian filmmakers pull some pretty stupendous gaffes. Last year, "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" made over $1 million on only 73 screens in its opening weekend in the United States. It was the biggest ever opening for an Indian movie here, but its producers didn't report the figures to Variety or Exhibitor Relations promptly, losing out on the chance to place the film in the U.S. top 10 and make international news.
Another mainstream Hindi film that's just hit theaters, and stars the sultry Bipasha Basu, has the title "Jism." The word means "body" in Hindi, by the way. Yes, the filmmaker and actors all speak English (but apparently not well enough).
Outside the ethnic press aimed at Indian immigrants, Bollywood films are rarely advertised or promoted to U.S. audiences. And let's not forget the piracy, death threats and scary Mafia connections (one major star, the Stallone-esque Sanjay Dutt of "Kaante," has even served hard time for stockpiling weapons). The industry's lack of discipline is legendary; it's not unheard of for an Indian film star to turn up hours late for a shoot, or for films to be shot without scripts. Sons, daughters, nieces and remote third cousins of industry players are regularly foisted on the public as "new discoveries" who, thankfully, tend to burn out after a single film.
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
COMICS THAT ARRIVED ON MY DOORSTEP THIS WEEK: With apologies to Franklin Harris:
100 BULLETS 41
AQUAMAN 2
BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST 112
BIRDS OF PREY 51
EDENS TRAIL 3
FABLES 9
FANTASTIC FOUR UNSTABLE MOLECULES 1
FUTURAMA SIMPSONS SPECIAL CROSSOVER CRISIS 2
GI JOE FRONTLINE 3
GREEN LANTERN 158
JSA 44
KARE KANO VOL 1 GN
KILLRAVEN 4
POWERPUFF GIRLS 34
POWERS 27
PRIEST VOL 4
THE PRO
RAGNAROK VOL 5 GN
STORMWATCH TEAM ACHILLES 7
SUPER MANGA BLAST 27
SUPERGIRL 78
VAMPI #24
WAR STORY CONDORS
Y THE LAST MAN 7
COMMENTS:
--Yes, there's a lot of goofy crap in this shipment. But this was my distributor for goofy crap.
--Garth Ennis' WAR STORY comics are the best American war comics ever. That I've seen, anyway. If you consider American war comics as something starting out of FRONTLINE COMBAT and TWO-FISTED TALES and EC Comics and going through the 60s and 70s and G.I. COMBAT and OUR ARMY AT WAR and a million different DC war titles, half done by Joe Kubert, moving through the 80s and G.I. JOE--a military comic that reflected the covert wars of its time--then--yes--Garth Ennis WAR STORY comics are the best I've ever read. CONDORS is about four guys hiding out in a foxhole in the Spanish Civil War and how they got their, and to reveal much more would be to reveal everything, but this is great as have been all the WAR STORY titles I've read.
--Garth Ennis' THE PRO, on the other hand, is a silly little superhero story by somebody who (I've heard) hates superheroes, concerning a prostitute who is given superpowers by a goofball The Watcher stand-in. She ends up saving the day and not really subverting the genre as much as I thought this thing would. It wasn't a be-all end-all genre-KILLER!, more of a mild hate letter to the American comics industry for depending on superheroes and endless continuity to sell books and shrinking the audience for comics so much. I mean--there's no good reason you're not reading WAR STORY.
--RAGNAROK and PRIEST are the first TokyoPop comics I've bought that read the right way and not the right-to-left Japanese way. Do Koreans read the patriotic American way too? I certainly hope so.
--KARE KANO is a girls' manga I'm looking forward to. I always dig POWERS. That's about it. I think I bought too much, but everything looks so good when you preorder.
100 BULLETS 41
AQUAMAN 2
BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST 112
BIRDS OF PREY 51
EDENS TRAIL 3
FABLES 9
FANTASTIC FOUR UNSTABLE MOLECULES 1
FUTURAMA SIMPSONS SPECIAL CROSSOVER CRISIS 2
GI JOE FRONTLINE 3
GREEN LANTERN 158
JSA 44
KARE KANO VOL 1 GN
KILLRAVEN 4
POWERPUFF GIRLS 34
POWERS 27
PRIEST VOL 4
THE PRO
RAGNAROK VOL 5 GN
STORMWATCH TEAM ACHILLES 7
SUPER MANGA BLAST 27
SUPERGIRL 78
VAMPI #24
WAR STORY CONDORS
Y THE LAST MAN 7
COMMENTS:
--Yes, there's a lot of goofy crap in this shipment. But this was my distributor for goofy crap.
--Garth Ennis' WAR STORY comics are the best American war comics ever. That I've seen, anyway. If you consider American war comics as something starting out of FRONTLINE COMBAT and TWO-FISTED TALES and EC Comics and going through the 60s and 70s and G.I. COMBAT and OUR ARMY AT WAR and a million different DC war titles, half done by Joe Kubert, moving through the 80s and G.I. JOE--a military comic that reflected the covert wars of its time--then--yes--Garth Ennis WAR STORY comics are the best I've ever read. CONDORS is about four guys hiding out in a foxhole in the Spanish Civil War and how they got their, and to reveal much more would be to reveal everything, but this is great as have been all the WAR STORY titles I've read.
--Garth Ennis' THE PRO, on the other hand, is a silly little superhero story by somebody who (I've heard) hates superheroes, concerning a prostitute who is given superpowers by a goofball The Watcher stand-in. She ends up saving the day and not really subverting the genre as much as I thought this thing would. It wasn't a be-all end-all genre-KILLER!, more of a mild hate letter to the American comics industry for depending on superheroes and endless continuity to sell books and shrinking the audience for comics so much. I mean--there's no good reason you're not reading WAR STORY.
--RAGNAROK and PRIEST are the first TokyoPop comics I've bought that read the right way and not the right-to-left Japanese way. Do Koreans read the patriotic American way too? I certainly hope so.
--KARE KANO is a girls' manga I'm looking forward to. I always dig POWERS. That's about it. I think I bought too much, but everything looks so good when you preorder.
Monday, January 27, 2003
ALL THE ANALYSIS OF THE SUPERBOWL (THE GAME, NOT THE ADS) YOU NEED: "RAIDERS ON SAME CYCLE: TOO BLOATED, MOODY TO PERFORM IN BIG GAME." Dean Rasmussen, ladies and gentlemen.
WHY I LOVE HARVEY PEKAR: The film based on his lifelong work American Splendor wins at Sundance and his comment is:
"I don't know about awards," Pekar continued. "I mean, if a film like 'Forrest Gump' can win the Academy Award, how much can they mean?"
Which is funnier out of context than in context:
"I don't know about awards," Pekar continued. "I mean, if a film like 'Forrest Gump' can win the Academy Award, how much can they mean? But I'm happy for the people who made it. They're very, very nice, they're bright, they're talented. If I had contact with people like that every day, I wouldn't be depressed and everything."
Via Dirk Deppey. The film itself sounds so meta:
Last night, Pekar brought home the gold to Cleveland. "American Splendor," the film based on his comic books and shot entirely in Cleveland, won the grand jury prize, the top dramatic award, at the Sundance Film Festival.
"I'm real happy," said Pekar, who had already returned to Cleveland from Park City, Utah, where he had helped promote the film earlier in the week with his wife and co-writer, Joyce Brabner, and their foster daughter, Danielle Batone. All three appear in the film as themselves, with actors Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis and Madalyn Sweeten portraying them as fictional characters.
I want to see this. American Splendor has gotten me through so many times when I felt like crap for working as a hospital office flunky--which is Harvey's life and what he writes about. I could look at that and think, "See? He's in the same boat as you, and he's writing freakin' American Splendor." So there you go.
"I don't know about awards," Pekar continued. "I mean, if a film like 'Forrest Gump' can win the Academy Award, how much can they mean?"
Which is funnier out of context than in context:
"I don't know about awards," Pekar continued. "I mean, if a film like 'Forrest Gump' can win the Academy Award, how much can they mean? But I'm happy for the people who made it. They're very, very nice, they're bright, they're talented. If I had contact with people like that every day, I wouldn't be depressed and everything."
Via Dirk Deppey. The film itself sounds so meta:
Last night, Pekar brought home the gold to Cleveland. "American Splendor," the film based on his comic books and shot entirely in Cleveland, won the grand jury prize, the top dramatic award, at the Sundance Film Festival.
"I'm real happy," said Pekar, who had already returned to Cleveland from Park City, Utah, where he had helped promote the film earlier in the week with his wife and co-writer, Joyce Brabner, and their foster daughter, Danielle Batone. All three appear in the film as themselves, with actors Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis and Madalyn Sweeten portraying them as fictional characters.
I want to see this. American Splendor has gotten me through so many times when I felt like crap for working as a hospital office flunky--which is Harvey's life and what he writes about. I could look at that and think, "See? He's in the same boat as you, and he's writing freakin' American Splendor." So there you go.
Friday, January 24, 2003
DETAILS, DETAILS: NBA gossip king Peter Vecsey fills in the blanks for the recent nonsensical-seeming Rasheed Wallace suspension:
One of the most important precepts taught to officials is not to provoke a confrontation, and walk away should one occur. Yet another reason I couldn't be a ref.
Evidently, Tim Donaghy can't walk away from trouble, either. When Rasheed Wallace verbally abused him as he was leaving the Rose Garden Jan. 15 an hour after the Grizzlies-Blazers game with his partners (Javie and Scott Wall), he met venom with venom.
So, I presume Donaghy wasn't exactly startled when 'Sheed's spew of vile escalated in intensity. In an idyllic setting, he doesn't need much of a motive to snap, crackle and pop at a teammate, coach or an official. Imagine 'Sheed's anger when challenged by a ref.
It wasn't pretty. According to sources, 'Sheed went totally ballistic, cursing Donaghy's and threatening him with violence. Somehow, onlookers were able to restrain him, and the three refs took the opportunity to pass through the arena doors onto the loading dock. That's when 'Sheed took a menacing run at Donaghy and faked an intimidating, roundhouse punch. Involuntary muscle reaction and common sense compelled him to cover up.
"I knew you'd flinch, you punk (fill in the blanks), 'Sheed ranted incoherently, earning him a well-warranted seven-game suspension.
At the same time, thankless job aside, a number of refs, including Donaghy, are not helping their cause, or evoking spasms of sympathy by bungling critical calls . . . worst yet, taking pride in being belligerent. That's the longest and loudest complaint heard today from all slants of the sphere.
Via Lang Whitaker, who also takes on ESPN today:
Oh, and to call the worldwide follower in sports out...last night on SportsCenter, and then again today on ESPN.com, they said that LeBron James has said he won't play for the Cavs since they fired John Lucas. And two people emailed me this quote from today's ESPN.com NBA Outsider column, where you pay money and then don't find out any good trade rumors. They said:
"The aftermath of the John Lucas firing continues to haunt the Cavs. The latest? High school phenom LeBron James told the Cleveland Plain Dealer Thursday that he won't play for the Cavs if they draft him with the No. 1 pick. That's a huge blow to a team that traded away its best player and basically tanked the season just to get a 25 percent chance of landing Bron Bron."
My question is, When did LeBron say this? Because the story I read in the Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted "a source close to the St. Vincent-St. Mary team," and the Cleveland Plain-Dealer even mentioned, "Although James has not said so publicly..." So where did LeBron tell them anything? Let's don't go putting any words in LeBron's mouth, please. I know ESPN's huge, but surely someone there went to journalism school and learned that you're not allowed to just make up quotes from people. Come on...
This is different from the Sportsfilter argument contra ESPN--which is that it's this huge Microsoft-esque corporation threatening to monopolize people's choices for sports information--but I prefer an argument where ESPN is taken to task for actual shortcomings, not for market share oppressiveness. Which is also the kind of anti-Microsoft arguments I prefer.
One of the most important precepts taught to officials is not to provoke a confrontation, and walk away should one occur. Yet another reason I couldn't be a ref.
Evidently, Tim Donaghy can't walk away from trouble, either. When Rasheed Wallace verbally abused him as he was leaving the Rose Garden Jan. 15 an hour after the Grizzlies-Blazers game with his partners (Javie and Scott Wall), he met venom with venom.
So, I presume Donaghy wasn't exactly startled when 'Sheed's spew of vile escalated in intensity. In an idyllic setting, he doesn't need much of a motive to snap, crackle and pop at a teammate, coach or an official. Imagine 'Sheed's anger when challenged by a ref.
It wasn't pretty. According to sources, 'Sheed went totally ballistic, cursing Donaghy's and threatening him with violence. Somehow, onlookers were able to restrain him, and the three refs took the opportunity to pass through the arena doors onto the loading dock. That's when 'Sheed took a menacing run at Donaghy and faked an intimidating, roundhouse punch. Involuntary muscle reaction and common sense compelled him to cover up.
"I knew you'd flinch, you punk (fill in the blanks), 'Sheed ranted incoherently, earning him a well-warranted seven-game suspension.
At the same time, thankless job aside, a number of refs, including Donaghy, are not helping their cause, or evoking spasms of sympathy by bungling critical calls . . . worst yet, taking pride in being belligerent. That's the longest and loudest complaint heard today from all slants of the sphere.
Via Lang Whitaker, who also takes on ESPN today:
Oh, and to call the worldwide follower in sports out...last night on SportsCenter, and then again today on ESPN.com, they said that LeBron James has said he won't play for the Cavs since they fired John Lucas. And two people emailed me this quote from today's ESPN.com NBA Outsider column, where you pay money and then don't find out any good trade rumors. They said:
"The aftermath of the John Lucas firing continues to haunt the Cavs. The latest? High school phenom LeBron James told the Cleveland Plain Dealer Thursday that he won't play for the Cavs if they draft him with the No. 1 pick. That's a huge blow to a team that traded away its best player and basically tanked the season just to get a 25 percent chance of landing Bron Bron."
My question is, When did LeBron say this? Because the story I read in the Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted "a source close to the St. Vincent-St. Mary team," and the Cleveland Plain-Dealer even mentioned, "Although James has not said so publicly..." So where did LeBron tell them anything? Let's don't go putting any words in LeBron's mouth, please. I know ESPN's huge, but surely someone there went to journalism school and learned that you're not allowed to just make up quotes from people. Come on...
This is different from the Sportsfilter argument contra ESPN--which is that it's this huge Microsoft-esque corporation threatening to monopolize people's choices for sports information--but I prefer an argument where ESPN is taken to task for actual shortcomings, not for market share oppressiveness. Which is also the kind of anti-Microsoft arguments I prefer.
FAST FOOD I NEED TO TRY: Sonic's Pickle-O's--"sliced dill pickles made crispy and perfect for dipping." And Robyn says they eat them with melted cheese too. Aww man, that's great, if only I could get this damn Sonic locater to work. Unless there are just no Sonics in either Jersey or Pennsylvania. Dang.
SPEAKING OF THOSE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS: They beat The Beloved Nets last night in another game where a non-scorer had his biggest game points-wise of the season (Jason Kidd, who had 41 points.) I don't know if this is Eric Musselman's plan or something, but hey, whatever works. The Warriors are threatening to take the Suns' spot as Dramatic Turnaround Team of the season; I guess which one is more improved comes down to whether you prefer your turnarounds lousy team to mediocre record yet exciting team, or from mediocre, blah team to playoff team. I lean towards the former.
DAILY DIME, CUT AND PASTED FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT: Some good Marc Stein today:
The Lakers, in case you missed it, can no longer live up to the saucy guarantee Robert Horry gave ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher. Following L.A's Christmas Day loss to Sacramento, Horry predicted that the Lakers would be "above .500" by the end of January. Best they can do now is 22-22 ... and that'll take a sweep of New Jersey (home), Phoenix and Sacramento (the latter two on the road). How do you say panic button in Zen?
And:
A second win over the Lakers. A nationally televised victory over the Nets. With Golden State, now a stunning 19-23 after going 21-61 last season, you don't know which Cinderella story to cover first. Sixth Man Award contender Earl Boykins? Most Improved Player hopeful Troy Murphy. Or is it Eric Musselman? Muss isn't going to win an award but has to get a Coach of the Year vote or three if this keeps up.
The Lakers, in case you missed it, can no longer live up to the saucy guarantee Robert Horry gave ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher. Following L.A's Christmas Day loss to Sacramento, Horry predicted that the Lakers would be "above .500" by the end of January. Best they can do now is 22-22 ... and that'll take a sweep of New Jersey (home), Phoenix and Sacramento (the latter two on the road). How do you say panic button in Zen?
And:
A second win over the Lakers. A nationally televised victory over the Nets. With Golden State, now a stunning 19-23 after going 21-61 last season, you don't know which Cinderella story to cover first. Sixth Man Award contender Earl Boykins? Most Improved Player hopeful Troy Murphy. Or is it Eric Musselman? Muss isn't going to win an award but has to get a Coach of the Year vote or three if this keeps up.
ONLY IN JAPAN WATCH: Female office workers and sex workers style their pubic hair to resemble that of David Beckham. Thank you, snarkey malarkey. The "only in Japan" part implying that only in Japan would something this bizarre be a phenomenon.
Thursday, January 23, 2003
CLIPPERS WATCH: Clippers defeat Jazz in a game whose final 90 seconds took approximately ten years. Excruciating to watch, kind of like watching the Jazz has always been.
ABORTION FOE: Eve Tushnet, peoples. On this little Amptoon which--OH MAN!--says that (ready?) pro-life people care more about the unborn than the born. That's CLASSIC. It's like when Jeffy blames the Not Me gnome, funny because it's true. (Say in Homer Simpson voice, it's a Homer Simpson quote, or something very much like it.) This is probably way too harsh on Ampersand, but, I mean--Eve thought it was going for cheap points and I agree. No mention of the dread other A-word that never surfaces in abortion arguments because it actually makes sense--A-D-O-P-T-I-O-N.
LOTR LOL: Eric Olson on Lord Of The Rings:
I finally finished rereading The Return of the King, about 25 years after the first time I read it. I find it preposterous that the series has been voted the greatest work of literature of the 20th century, or even the millennium by one poll: this is a great story with an amazing depth of mythic detail behind it, not a work of great literature. "Literature" at its greatest shines an uncanny light upon human relationships and exposes something so surprisingly true about ourselves that we stare into space in wonder and even fright. Depth of character and the complexity of relationships is what Tolkien does least well.
What he does almost miraculously well is create an alternative world, people it with solid, if thin, characters, and set them off on a, to slip into reviewer-ese, "ripping good yarn" with a powerful surprise ending and a deeply satisfying set of morals. In conjunction with this tale told of a parallel, pre-firearm, cusp-of-the-Industrial-Revolution earth, the unself-conscious values of honor, courage, commitment, and attachment to kith, kin and the land are presented so naturally and powerfully that by the end of the series we are ready to take up arms and stride purposefully out the door seeking to eviscerate evil, in between draughts of good ale, of course.
Charlie Murtaugh pointed this out. Eric pointed out this Orrin Judd response to his review:
As a threshold point, one fails to see how it can be argued that a great read that creates its own mythology of "amazing depth" can fail to be considered great literature. By comparison, I'm currently reading Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy, which has won awards and much critical acclaim, but as you read it there is no sense that the characters have any life or history beyond what appears on the page and serves the plot at that moment. Part of the unique genius of Tolkien is that he created Middle Earth, its languages, religions, literature, songs, peoples, history, etc. and only then wrote the novels. It may be fair to say that characters don't have the "psychological depth" we require in the age of James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Oprah, but they have an entirely different kind of depth: to the extent such a thing is possible, they exist outside the books.
More:
If the cleverest trick of the devil truly is to convince us that he doesn't exist, then one of his greatest modern opponents is J.R.R. Tolkien--whose writings have reached millions, by now perhaps hundreds of millions. The Lord of the Rings teaches us that evil is real and that it is compelling, that even the best of us will be attracted to it. This is one of the oldest truths of Western Civilization, yet somehow it still surprises people, as Mr. Olsen demands that great literature must. And because it does and because this truth is so vital to a proper understanding of what it means to be human, it seems to me at least that it must be considered one of the greatest works of literature our civilization has produced.
Eric responded to this with "I think it comes down to semantics." And I agree--I interpret Eric (if I can be that presumptious) to be saying that literature is a form of written art wherein insight on the human condition is expressed via the psychological relationships between characters or depictions of the internal lives of characters. Something like that. Or as Eric actually said:
Yes, I agree that the characters exist outside the books, but they do so very thinly. Yes, all of the characters go through their own struggle with the ring, but the struggle is seen from the outside: I don't really know what that struggle feels like to the characters.
I don't think this necessarily diminishes the trilogy as a story, but it does take it out of the realm of literature, by my definition.
And I really love his definition--because it turns literature into just another genre with no special claims on insight into the human condition. That rules. It means LOTR, the ultimate fantasy novel, can be art without being literature because it uses none of the conventions of literature. Which, in my eyes, solves a whole lot of problems with lit-crit types looking down on genres because their high art non-genre gave them special insight. Which was never so because it was a genre all along. Kewl.
I mean, maybe slapping labels on things doesn't change anything. But I think arguing that a book is great should not have to mean you have to argue a book is great literature--those things do not have to go hand in hand.
I finally finished rereading The Return of the King, about 25 years after the first time I read it. I find it preposterous that the series has been voted the greatest work of literature of the 20th century, or even the millennium by one poll: this is a great story with an amazing depth of mythic detail behind it, not a work of great literature. "Literature" at its greatest shines an uncanny light upon human relationships and exposes something so surprisingly true about ourselves that we stare into space in wonder and even fright. Depth of character and the complexity of relationships is what Tolkien does least well.
What he does almost miraculously well is create an alternative world, people it with solid, if thin, characters, and set them off on a, to slip into reviewer-ese, "ripping good yarn" with a powerful surprise ending and a deeply satisfying set of morals. In conjunction with this tale told of a parallel, pre-firearm, cusp-of-the-Industrial-Revolution earth, the unself-conscious values of honor, courage, commitment, and attachment to kith, kin and the land are presented so naturally and powerfully that by the end of the series we are ready to take up arms and stride purposefully out the door seeking to eviscerate evil, in between draughts of good ale, of course.
Charlie Murtaugh pointed this out. Eric pointed out this Orrin Judd response to his review:
As a threshold point, one fails to see how it can be argued that a great read that creates its own mythology of "amazing depth" can fail to be considered great literature. By comparison, I'm currently reading Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy, which has won awards and much critical acclaim, but as you read it there is no sense that the characters have any life or history beyond what appears on the page and serves the plot at that moment. Part of the unique genius of Tolkien is that he created Middle Earth, its languages, religions, literature, songs, peoples, history, etc. and only then wrote the novels. It may be fair to say that characters don't have the "psychological depth" we require in the age of James Joyce, Marcel Proust, and Oprah, but they have an entirely different kind of depth: to the extent such a thing is possible, they exist outside the books.
More:
If the cleverest trick of the devil truly is to convince us that he doesn't exist, then one of his greatest modern opponents is J.R.R. Tolkien--whose writings have reached millions, by now perhaps hundreds of millions. The Lord of the Rings teaches us that evil is real and that it is compelling, that even the best of us will be attracted to it. This is one of the oldest truths of Western Civilization, yet somehow it still surprises people, as Mr. Olsen demands that great literature must. And because it does and because this truth is so vital to a proper understanding of what it means to be human, it seems to me at least that it must be considered one of the greatest works of literature our civilization has produced.
Eric responded to this with "I think it comes down to semantics." And I agree--I interpret Eric (if I can be that presumptious) to be saying that literature is a form of written art wherein insight on the human condition is expressed via the psychological relationships between characters or depictions of the internal lives of characters. Something like that. Or as Eric actually said:
Yes, I agree that the characters exist outside the books, but they do so very thinly. Yes, all of the characters go through their own struggle with the ring, but the struggle is seen from the outside: I don't really know what that struggle feels like to the characters.
I don't think this necessarily diminishes the trilogy as a story, but it does take it out of the realm of literature, by my definition.
And I really love his definition--because it turns literature into just another genre with no special claims on insight into the human condition. That rules. It means LOTR, the ultimate fantasy novel, can be art without being literature because it uses none of the conventions of literature. Which, in my eyes, solves a whole lot of problems with lit-crit types looking down on genres because their high art non-genre gave them special insight. Which was never so because it was a genre all along. Kewl.
I mean, maybe slapping labels on things doesn't change anything. But I think arguing that a book is great should not have to mean you have to argue a book is great literature--those things do not have to go hand in hand.
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