I have to say that one of the best things that ESPN has done over the past year or so was to start offering some real investment into getting some first class blogs going on their site. Hashmarks, their NFL blog, and TrueHoop, their NBA blog are both loaded with excellent writing, insightful analysis, some great interviews (the guys who write Hashmarks especially, as they are good with getting interviews with GM’s, team presidents, and other high ranking officials), and an in-depth look at stats.
My point is that I would love to see ESPN start up a similar blog for baseball. Right now, they have “blogs” from several of their correspondents that read more like daily dispatches from around the league than real blogs. I do like some of them. Rob Neyer has some decent dispatches that look at what newspaper writers around the league have to say about what’s happening in baseball which are insightful, but it lacks the real dedication that a permanent blogger can add to the mix because all the baseball guys are either TV analysists or columnists for the website in addition and you can tell in the quality of their work that this is the place where the put most of their concentration. It would make a great addition to the world of ESPN to see a baseball blog that’s as in depth and insightful as their excellent NBA and NFL blogs.
Technorati Tags: baseball, blogs, espn, hashmarks, truehoop
So I log into my Flickr account today and I see this, and the first thing I think was that LOL Speak may have finally jumped the shark once and for all…
Technorati Tags: flickr, jump the shark, lolspeak
Yes, seriously.
Honestly, I don’t know what would ever motivate anyone to dress themselves up as a super hero with a giant Wiimote on the front of themselves, but then again, what the hell do I know?
The best part? The Wiimote on the chest actually fucking works. That just raises the hilarity level up by a factor of 100 at least.
(h/t Engadget)
Technorati Tags: wiiman superhero
I admit that I will follow the results of American Idol in passing, mostly thanks to my mom who really likes the show. I’m always amused when people get up in arms about how people who were deserving got kicked off the show because they were outvoted, like has happened with Michael Johns last week. I think this highlights AI’s biggest weakness as a vehicle of finding new talent. At the end of the day, the show can dissolve into little more than a personality contest with people voting for a particular singer even if they don’t deserve it because they like them, or they hate that the judges are mean to them, etc. Remember that little girl Jasmine Trias that was on a few years back? Simon was especially mean to her because she was not a great singer, but the voters banded together (especially in Hawaii, where she was from) and kept her on the show until damn near the bitter end. Who knows if they finally just rigged the voting to get her off because it would have been a travesty to have her win? Cowell was only doing his job. Music industry people aren’t paid to be nice to mediocre talent. They’re paid to find someone who will make huge loads of money by selling a large number of albums. This is the way of things.
The fact remains that the fact that who moves on is based on the voters has really highlighted the mixed success of the show. Kelly Clarkson is the only winner to really “make it” after her time on the show. Could anyone have imagined she would turn into a worldwide pop superstar? Maybe only she did, but it happened. The other success stories from Idol have all come from people like Chris Daughtry who were voted off the show by fickle fans only to have been memorable enough to launch their own careers.
At the end of the day, people who get so involved with the singers on this show need to sit back and remember the reality of what this show is. It can be a launch pad to a career if a singer plays it right. Beyond that, though, it’s a popularity contest; a spectacle left up to the will of voters who seem to love generic blonde country wannabes and those who they feel the judges have come down way too hard on. Nothing more and nothing less.
Technorati Tags: american idol, jasmine trias, michael johns
So I’m finally bringing back a feature of the old (old!) d6 with the return of the MeroMusic Minute; some quick thoughts about what’s new in music
I’ve decided to focus the first MMM installment on Gnarls Barkley’s The Odd Couple, the successor to 2006’s St. Elsewhere. The album’s first single, Run, is a fun and catchy tune with an even catchier video (with a fun Justin Timberlake cameo and the possibility of inducing an epeletic seizure). Sadly, it’s the only really great song on the album. Whereas St. Elsewhere shined with a number of memorable cuts, The Odd Couple flounders in places as Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo try some new musical terrain. The album feels a bit more down-tempo, and I think that might be where it flounders.
I won’t call it a sophomore slump, because the album was enjoyable overall, but it’s definately not St. Elsewhere 2.0.
Technorati Tags: gnarls barkley, st. elsewhere, the odd couple
