Sad Day in the ‘Ville

…at least for the handful of hard-core hockey fans around here in middle Tennessee, including myself, Jo and Char to be sure.  But in the last two days comes word that the Canadian guy who made an unimaginable fortune in Blackberries (personally I role with an LG enV) has purchased (in principle*) the Nashville Predators.   Personally, I am a new convert to this wonderful sport and have really fallen in love (so much so I purchased a #71 J.P. Dumont jersey recently).  I actually kind of like the fact that it is kind of a niche sport, demanding far less national attention than the ‘big boys’  NFL and NASCAR or even the other major sports in the US (NBA, MLB, college b-ball, college football, golf, etc.).  The fact remains that hockey is a niche sport in the majority of this country (outside of the northeast and the north part of the mid-west), and that fact was painfully reinforced when I saw it on ESPN’s crawler last night….Preds sold….no plans to move the team (“yet”…I thought).  Understandably the mood around town was one that can be best characterized as totally uncertain.  While it remains presumable that the team will remain in town for the next year (in their newly sponsored building, the Sommet Center, btw), the long term future of the team is definitely up in the air.

Clearly growing a sport like hockey in the deep south is a difficult chore.  I grew up in the “hockey  capital of the south” (Huntsville, Al.), which is glossed as such because of the number of northern mid-west transplants and the fact that UAH (Ala. Huntsville) had a Div. II powerhouse hockey program.  But, growing up, I was not really exposed to the sport too much.  Contrast that to football and baseball, which I was exposed to at such a level that I grew to hate those sports for a time (now I just find baseball boring; football is brilliant).  With all of that said, I was invited by 2 good friends to go to a game 2 seasons ago and really enjoyed the time.  Since then I’ve been to about 7 games, and have sat really close a couple of times (it really is a “totally different game” down there, to quote Charlotte).   I realize the fact that there are probably tons of people around Nashville that have never been to a game but would love the sport if they ever went to one.  I realize the fact that there are probably tons of people around Nashville that have never been to a game but would love the sport if they ever went to one.  You really can’t get a good since for the speed and the hitting that goes on every minute without being in attendance (at least once). 

The talk now is that in a few years the new owner will potentially move the team to the Toronto area, which may be able to support 2 hockey teams, or at least to another Canadian market.  It just seems unfortunate because I feel that other non-traditional markets may have much worse problems (e.g. Phoenix, Atlanta, Florida — either of their teams and even the current Cup-holders, Carolina).  By the way, our attendance is at least getting better every year (compare that to some of the aforementioned markets!)  It also baffles me due to the fact that our average attendance may not be spectacular, we do sell-out our building pretty frequently on the week-ends and some well established teams, in traditional hockey markets, with legitimate super-stars, do NOT sell out until deep in to the play-offs (Detroit and Jersey are 2 prime examples).  These facts only indicate the utmost importance of corporate partnership, which has been an on-going problem for the Preds, even down to the ”naming rights” to the home building formerly the “GEC” and ”Nashville Arena” then finally (and recently) the ”Sommet Center”.   I guess the thing that we have to take from all of this is a reminder that so many things in this world are driven by a financial bottom-line.  With all of that said, it does put Pred fan in a very difficult position, which may be cleared-up in time.  On the one hand, the one thing that will save this team in this market is support from the fans.  However, if the evidence seems to point toward the fact that the long term future of this team in this market is doubtful, it will make it that nearly impossible for us here in town to support the team. 

*the deal will not be “officially” closed for about a month (for what it’s worth)

This news pr emitted my next post…thoughts on the new El-P L.P. “I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead”….which I’ll put up later this week-end.  (Schmidt I won’t make you wait…I love it!!)

End of an Era

 

I wanted to pick up on something over at new crack.  For years I have enjoyed the Sopranos and now it is coming to an end.  The show has clearly grown massively in popularity.  During the run of the show, I found most of it to be incredible, and (though some folks may consider this sacrilegious) there were some times that I honestly felt the show was kinda mediocre.  But for David Chase and the gang mediocre is better than 90% of the crap on the tube these days. 

Well now, through all of the whackings, hijackings, meetings in alleys, and cash-stuffed envelops, the journey is now coming to an end with only three eps left.  Due to the success, I understand the pressure that David Chase and the rest of the cast and crew had been under to keep the show going.  I really feel like they could kinda stretch things (maybe focus on different characters…I dunno); on the other hand, I am really glad that the show is coming to an end.  Some shows out-live their welcome and/or become less interesting towards then end and others try too hard to make the perfect last episode.  But the writers for the Sopranos seem to have had some great ideas for the end of the story.  In the last few eps the rules have been thrown out the window and anything seems possible at this point.  My only point of contention is that certain story-lines seem to get drop for long periods of time inexplicably.  For example Tony, owes his friend Hesh 200 grand (!), which is obviously straining the limits of their friendship. But they haven’t touched this thread in 2 weeks!  Then there is Uncle Junior declining into senility.  But I digress… In a way I really feel that the final episode of the Sopranos will be the biggest “Television moment” since the final episode of M*A*S*H or since Dallas asked the now famous question “Who shot J.R.?” In the next few weeks many of us (myself, especially) will be asking “What happens to Tony?”  And the answer will be something that we are likely to remember for years.

I Should Let the Turn-Tables Talk for Me at First…

…and then I just finish the rest! 

I don’t know really know anything about the X-Ecutioners (other than they are a group of d.j.s/turn-tablists), but they lay down a dope, old-school flavored beat here, on a tune entitled “Live (from the P.J.s [projects])”.  The song features 2 of my favorite MCs: Ghostface and Black Thought, plus Ghost’s protege, Trife.  I love this video cause it features elements from the beginnings of hip-hop: the m.c./mic battle, graffiti and break-dancing!  (Turn your volume way up for optimum enjoyment!)

By the way, got to love the style, Adidas track suits, belt-buckles, tight jeans, boom-boxes (a/k/a ghetto-blasters), knee-high socks, shoes with over-sized laces, etc.

For the longest time I thought it would be real cool if Ghost was saying “Sun Ra..” but after looking at lyrics on the web, and repeated listening he actually says “Son wow these…”

GRE Vocab

Sorry about the long delay; shoot, I can’t believe that’s it has been nearly a whole month since updating! 

Anyway, as some of you know, I recently took the GRE, and studying for it took up most of my recent free time.  I did pretty well and here are some of my new favorite (hyper-esoteric) vocabulary words that I picked up during the process:

prestidigitation – skill at slight of hand

vim – vigor

opprobrious – expressing offense or reproach

obstreperous – unruly, boisterous (for all those folks that said that they didn’t see ONE word they studied, I definitely got this one on the test)

stentorian – extremely loud, vocal

stultify  – to make useless; prove to be foolish

perfidious – disloyal

recondite – an esoteric word for esoteric

verisimilitude – having the quality/appearance of truth

There are so many others and I’m not looking at my book…I just wanted to give you guys a sample!

It’s a Tennessee Thing, Baby

The “Air Force One” video seemed to get a lot of good response, plus it brought up the subject of Southern Rap.  Here is my new favorite group doing a pretty interesting video taking off of “Being John Malkovich.”   Every time I’ve seen Juicy J lately (except in this video), he’s been wearing a cool Rock and Roll T-shirt (over-sized, of course).  But he’s sported T’s from bands like G’n'R,  the Clash, Ozzy, Iron Maiden, etc.  Enjoy!!

Springfield’s Obscure

About a year ago, Mac Brown and I were checking out that Simpson’s poster with about 500 characters on it.  He asked me who my favorite tertiary was.  He said that his was “Disco Stu.”   I didn’t have a definitive answer, though I recall Rainier Wolfcastle (a/k/a McBain) and Duff-Man were strong candidates.

 The recent (but not brand-new) episodes have been coming on in syndication.  I think my favorite tertiary character is author Thomas Pynchon had been writen into 3 episodes (voicing 2 of them himself), appearing with a bag over his head.  I know that I have seen both episodes in which he speaks (and maybe the 3rd).  I don’t know that much about him, but after discussing this with Rob (and a bit of reading on the wikipedia) I really understand the joke.  Pynchon is notorious for shunning the media, and lending his voice for the Simpsons was a way to make an effort to be “more public” while still snubbing mainstream media. 

Anyway, some people think that the show has really “jumped the shark” but smart bits like this one, and years of classic episodes have built up enough cache for me to still like the show.  It may not be as “laugh out loud” funny as it used to be, back in the day, but I feel like the writers are still doing things that are relevent through clever use of sarcasm, satire and crituque.

Air-Force Ones

Light your blunts and down your beers…

An Open Letter to Dish Clothe (et al.)

Your encouragement on joining fantasy baseball made me think seriously consider the invitation.  I did have a great time with fantasy football, but I love football, and there is very little maintenance (only updating once weekly can suffice).  Although Baseball was the sport that I was mostly connected to in my youth.  Now I simply find it boring, outside of the major story lines (you know, opening day and then the play-offs — the rest just feels like filler!)  So, in closing let me say that I wish that I could join in your camaraderie, but I think that your league will be stronger if you don’t have a player like me who will lose interest for stretches (like you see with this blog occasionally), which then falls into last place, which reinforces the lack of interest. 

For the other 1 and a half of you, I’ve got some more serious posts locked and loaded, I’ve been a bit busy, but will promise to be more involved in the blog scene

Like James Bond in the Octagon

Will and I have been talking about this lately, and I know that Grady is pretty into it, but have you guys checked out any of this Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) stuff (a/k/a UCF -Ultimate Championship Fighting, etc.)?  My first memories of this was some weird sport that came on during my teen years in the mid-90s and it would come on in the middle of the night on USA or HBO.   I’ve heard that the Pay Per View numbers are HUGE! Now, it seems to be emerging as a pretty main stream sport.  And honestly I think that it will continue to grow — the most popular sports in North America (US – Football and NASCAR; Canada – hockey) are also the most violent (by far).

 When the sport first started the idea was that Martial Arts enthusiasts wanted to find how different styles would match-up against each other in an open fighting scenario with few rules (no biting, eye-gouging, fish-hooking and hits to the neck/back of the head).  It didn’t take long to discover that one thing was clear — Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu dominated every other style.  The brief break-down on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: it was mainly developed by the Gracie family who studied Japanese Judo.  The signature of BJJ is the submission holds and “ground fighting”(Jordan, I think you would be great at this).  The philosophy is that a smaller fighter can leverage larger opponents, by neutralizing their legs and forcing them into holds against the mat, and clearly a punch thrown from the ground will not have any force behind it, so the aggressor from the above position has a distinct advantage in this regard.    Now all the fighters in this sport incorporate BJJ techniques.  They must all be able to defend against take-downs, and once in a hold must know the techniques to defend themselves in a disadvantaged position.  I saw one fighter using his legs to try and choke the other guy — he couldn’t quite do it, but it was still really intense! 

One of the more interesting aspects, for me, is how fit and well conditioned these guys are.  Also, the broad range of physical disciplines involved in training (cardio condition, grabbling/Greco-Roman wrestling/striking/dead lifting).  At this point most of the fighters have hybridized style and most have a general knowledge of BJJ.  I feel that it’s becoming more mainstream, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets more popular in the near future.

I used to wonder…

…if the pharmacutical companies put tons of thought into naming new, designer meds.  Some of the newer ones suggest the exact thing they do or condition they remedy.  I can think of two good ones off the top of my head: Exten-ze and Pro-lasta.  Can you guys think of others like these?