I have a lot of thoughts on Blogworld which I will share in the coming days. However some more proactive bloggers have beaten me to the punch (probably because they actually got some sleep in Vegas and aren’t dragging butt like me today).
You should check out Dewey’s post on his blog which is awesome and does a tremendous job painting me as way more awesome than I really am. For those of you who don’t know Dewey, he is a beer drinking legend.
Also I had the great pleasure of meeting Elie Seckbach, who is pretty much one of the coolest web 2.0 dudes I know. Elie is cool enough to have his own Wikipedia entry which is actually harder to have than you would imagine. Below is his recap of Blogworld, which actually features me a couple of times. I actually was his cameraman for a couple of scenes. Not sure if I am proud or disappointed that I had to be bleeped out in the video.
Being new to Elie’s work I was really impressed with what he brings to the table in terms of content, editing, and of course his great sense of humor. You should check out his yo mama battle with Shaq.
One of the best youtube’s I have ever seen. Not sure what the context is for this video, and why George is miced up but its freaking awesome.
Update 9/24
….So I got an email from Jeffrey M. Zimmerman of Time Warner (loves that middle initial) with a formal ceast and desist letter about this video. Actually Jeff, didn’t send me this email someone named Alexis Schweitzer sent it because Jeff is too busy at the top of ladder running one biggest corporate coglomerates into the ground. Legal lemming Alexis unfortunately sent it to my spam box, which I should have never checked.
So the video is no longer here….but guess what? You can find right here for now. And for a limited time only, you can still go to that link and find the embed code so you too can get your own personal memo from the legal and administrative tag team of Jeff and Alexis.
Its my first video interview posted, and although I say “yeah” and “uh huh” too much its okay so I thought I would post it here as well as the site has been pretty crappy. I promise Monday all will be well and I’ll be back with a vengeance (as if you really cared)
Angels pitcher John Lackey is a pretty smart guy. He blogs for Yardbarker, lives by the ocean, and more importantly learned from former Angel,Bartolo Colon, that you can’t hit up the post game buffet after every game when you only pitch one out of five.
We were lucky enough to nab him after Wednesday’s game against the Oakland A’s and tried to find out more about the Angels fantasy league and what it would be like if the Angels had their own reality show.
After getting nudged a couple times by our lovely camera woman, I got the hint I should probably ask Lackey some questions about baseball (cut me some slack…. I didn’t major in journalism). We were also able to learn the best way to optimize a post game celebration as well as the food and drink combination needed to lead the AL in ERA. Apparently Cliff Lee got the note this year, but Colon didn’t.
I have given love to Electronic Arts in the past for solid commercials in the past. Today I am going with them again for a pair of solid commercial.
The first commercial doesn’t come off as anything special at first. However the end of this dude’s story is just crazy. One madden 2 point conversion for $100,000, that’s freaking epic.
Next is the new Tiger woods ad that leaves you thinking its got to be fake just like Ball girl, Lebron, Ronaldino, and other similar ads. However initial reaction thanks to this video is that it’s actually real.
I watched a pretty copious amount of football this weekend. Here are some things that have stuck out.
College
After the first two weeks of the season it looks like the Heisman race has tightened up. The biggest favorites (Chris Wells and Tim Tebow) have not distancted themselves with Wells status hurt by missing week 2.Pat White’s performance against East Carolina really kills his chances.
Guys who have made up some distance on that lead pack include a handful of players from the Big 12 including Sam Bradford, Chase Daniels, and why not Colt Mccoy. However the guy who is probably towards the top may be Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno. Big games loom in the coming weeks for a handful of these big contenders.
- East Carolina is legit
- Jimmy Clausen looked a lot better in the opener agaisnt San Diego State, although the Irish were very lucky in getting the win. 3 tough games coming up agaisnt Michigan, Purdue, and Michigan State. Should be interesting how the Irish fair.
- Cal put up 60+ on Washington State. Jahvid Best for Heisman? Early on Cal looks like the second beat team in the conference.
- I have boldly proclaimed this year the Big 12 will shine, although the SEC has been sharp thus far. As it stands now out of the top 13 teams in the country each conference has a whopping 5 teams. After the top 13, the SEC and the Big 12 have no more teams ranked in the top 25.
- Next week is a huge for the Big Ten, who hasn’t faired well thus far in 2008. Ohio State takes on USC, Michigan travels to Notre Dame, Purdue hosts Oregon, and Wisconsin has to take a very pesky Fresno State team. With 3 out of 4 games being on the road, it will be at telling slate of games for the confernce as a whole .
NFL
- The Bengals are the biggest underachievers in the NFL. They just don’t play with passion. Marvin Lewis get your resume ready.
- The AFC is reeling rigt now. The Colts open up their new staduim by getting trounced by Kyle Orton’s bears, the Patriots lose Tom Brady for the season, and the Chargers lose a nail biter to the Panthers. Anyone else envision a Steelers Cowboys superbowl?
- Teams that really stood out in a positive away include the Bears, Panthers, Falcons, Steelers, Eagles, and Bills.
- Teams that stood out in a bad way include Redskins, Texans, Rams, Seahawks, and Bengals.
I was mocking a Brent Jones commercial endorsement at work when a colleague brought my attention to Baltimore area auto dealership Eastern Motors. The jingle is catchy, the footage is terrible, but the celebrities are top tier.
They are almost so bad, that they are good.
Enjoy.
Shockingly if you search on youtube, this is just the tip of the iceberg for Eastern Motors who have a myriad of pretty substantial celebrity endorsements.
I have devoted the whole day to watching college football. Woke up at 7:45 just to make sure I watched some Gameday and the LSU vs. Appalachian State kickoff.I’ll update this from time to time today. Got both tv’s running and all the channels.
8:50- I thought Appalachian State would at least give LSU a good game. 17-0, and I don’t see this one tightening up at all. The difference in line play is huge.
Initially I questioned if Clemson vs Alabama really deserved Gameday over Illinois vs. Missouri. The Missouri game is and will be a better game, but Nick Saban gives the Alabama game more star power. No doubt if Saban was not at Alabama, Gameday would be elsewhere.
9:30- Terrelle Pryor is getting his first whole series in the Buckeyes third drive. 3 out of 4 first plays were passes. Ran first a first down on the nice draw. So far so good 3-3 passing. Drive stalled out in red zone, but it should be noted that he was with the second string offensive line. Would love to see him with the first string line. Looks to be attempt to get some experience under a lot of the freshmen’s bets (Shugarts, Pryor, Thomas, Brewster, Posey and Adams I think were all in on that drive.
Virginia Tech is struggling.
10:30- Good half for the Buckeyes. Defense was awesome, offense was ok but not dynamic.
Sean Glennon is pissing me off.
Akron is giving Wisky a good game. Florida and Tebow haven’t exploded yet.
10:55- Chris Wells could have a serious ankle injury…..I feel sick…. He isn’t putting any weight on it, what so ever. Really not encouraging. Hoping for the best…… Really worried about this.
God damnit. The cart to the locker room. Also Robiskie was banged up on his TD catch. This is not good. Need to be healthy for USC game.
11:04- I hope to god this isn’t a ruptured achilles. Honestly the way it looked, and the way they are looking at him, its very possible and that’s a horrible injury to come back from.
11:25- Terrelle Pryor got to have a drive with the first string O line and got to run the spread option a handful of times. Drive culminated with a real sweet Vince Young like 20 yard TD. Mind is still on Wells. Going to drink some beer and think positively. I am thinking that maybe if it is the achilles, he might come back next year to pump his draft stock up again next year.
11:30- Upset alert…Pitt is losing to Bowling Green 20-17 and looks to be getting the ball back… Stay tuned.
In way more important news, Wells is back on the sideline, limping with a boot on. The fact he is putting weight on it is encouraging. I handicap that there is a 50% chance he will be back for the USC game. Let’s see what the report is.
11:44 - East Carolina has made it a game with Virginia Tech. 2 point game with 3 minutes to go. …..
The rephs just blew a big one for Bowling Green. They scored a defensive TD off a fumble to take a 2 score lead. Unfortunately there was in advent whistle and they have to take possession around midfield instead of having the TD.
Below is a link to my latest article on Bucknuts. It doesn’t focus on the Buckeyes but rather stuff to keep an eye out for in the Big Ten and the country.
In one of the segments, I outline why the west coast is a little lacking in college football fanaticism compared to the rest of the country.
I attribute to 4 factors.
1) Pac 10 Schools are in major cities with pro sports teams
2) The Expansive Region the Conference Cover- Hard to follow teams on the road
3) The Time Difference- Gameday at 7:30 am?
4) Local importance on media, music, entertainment, and technology
Speaking of the Pac 10, I find this story from The Wiz of Odds fairly entertaining.Below is a picture of Arizona State’s new practice facility. As you can see it has a pressurrized bubble roof that keeps temperature down in the desert heat..
Interesting design, an airbag/tent design. Kind of seems like a bad idea. Well only weeks after its completion, it turns out it is. A huge storm whipped through the area and this what’s left of the facility. Below is the after picture.
It’s time for bed, but not before some interesting tidbits to come through in the last couple of days.
- The Big Ten Network and Time Warner Cable have reached a distribution agreement. Last week talks heated up as both sides engaged in a back and forth posturing/propoganda battle. This is huge for the BTN as another 2.5 million people will get the network on basic cable in the Big Ten region, and also sets the groudwork for future distribution on the sports tier for those outside the Big Ten Region.
The timing of this annoucement also coincides on the day that ESPN announced an extended agreement with the SEC, effectively killing the possibility of a launch of a rumored SEC Network.
- Pacino and De Niro in a new movie coming out? I couldn’t dig up much on Righteous Kill other than a trailer I saw earlier. Although its big news that these two have teamed up again, expectations on IMDB are very tepid with community members skeptical that 50 cent also stars in the movie. Another fan said that the title sounded more like a Stephen Seagal movie compared to a classic De Niro and Pacino film.
- Lastly I checked out the new MTV show tonight Exiled. I liked the concept. A bunch of bratty kids who had obnoxiously over the top Sweet 16 parties, are still brats (shocker!) and need some type of intervention. So why not send these MTV made prissy pre madonas to a third world country to toughen them up a bit?
MTV pays the bill and lines them up with some type of third world boot camp exotic destination in order to “open their eyes” to real life struggles.
The whole appeal to me was seeing these kids struggle and suffer. Yeah its basic schadenfreude, but these kids are in need of a thorough public belittling. Unfortunately though the show comes off as an extension of Sweet 16, with you ultimately end sympathizing with the kids and rooting for them.
The problem is that there is already a show like that called Made, where young kids overcome their shortcomings to achieve something that’s seems outlandish. Exiled was just more fluff that will most likely perpetuate these kids’ obnixious and pompous egos instead of a whole hearted reality check.
It all must snuck up on me, but watching the USA basketball team was a real treat. Being told it was on Sunday morning in the US (true except for on the West Coast), I thought I had a day until the big game. Having not seen any basketball this Olympics, it was great to see a very entertaining and competitive Gold medal game.
Below are some random thoughts
- I give a lot of credit to Mike Krzyzewski. Yeah he had the best talent by far, but he got the team playing their best ball, meshed together a bunch of guys who don’t play together, made defense a priority, and most importantly kept the team laser focused on the prize at hand.
For whatever reason Coach K is not really embraced by sports fans. Maybe its that he always wins, he is kind of boring, and Duke is overpimped by ESPN. Regardless of how you feel, you have to appreciate the job he did with this team.
- Dwyane Wade is back and played a hell of a game and tournament. No doubt he will be a top 5 player next year in the NBA. My questions is are the Heat a top ten team in the NBA next year? Sounds ridiculous considering they are in the East and last year they were one of the worst teams in the East.
Regardless Wade, Marion, and now Beasley present a nice trio of players. Although supporting talent is few and far between, its very possible that the Heat could still be be a top tier contender at least in the East.
- Marc Gasol will be an All Star in the NBA. The East has Bosh and Howard, but Gasol showed he can hang with them and at times even dominated the two All stars. With Memphis having Conley, Gay, Mayo, and now Gasol, they become a team to keep an eye on over the next handful of years as a possible up comer to challenge Boston, Detroit, and Cleveland. So Memphis plays in the West, something that slipped my mind. Regardless the Grizzlies are building out a nice squad with Conley, Gay, Mayo, and now Gasol. Gasol showed he can play at the same level as Bosh and Howard and will now look to get the Grizzlies into conetion again.
- Rudy Fernandez showed me some game and I am kind of thinking that its 3-1 that the Blazers win a championship in the next 3 years. Its very possible the Blazers will have three of the best rookies in the NBA next year with Oden coming back from injury, Fernandez who looks ready to contribute, and Jerryd Bayless running the point. These three to go along with Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge makes me think they are the most likely to succeed the Spurs as the premier Western Power House.
- A year ago and a half ago, I had a friend asked me if I were to build a 3 man basketball team, who would I pick. I went with Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, and Lebron James. At the time he didn’t know who Paul and Bosh were. I have to say I don’t know if I would change my answer now. In particular Bosh is a guy that continues to grow on me. Dependable, smart, and with good range for a big man. Its a shame he is lampooned in Toronto.
- Just one man’s opinion, but I thought it was pretty lame that Spain puts player’s first names on the back of their jerseys.
- The announcers were all over Ricky Rubio the young prodigy point guard, rumored to be a front runner for the top pick of the NBA in 2010. While its a little early, I can definitely see him being an elite point guard in the NBA. A little raw in some areas I would say he is on par with guys like DJ Augustin and Jerryd Bayless who were top picks on this year’s draft. That’s quite impressive considering he still has two more years to mature. Tonight he hung with DeRon Williams and Chris Paul, while making Jason Kidd look his old age.
Below is cool highlight reel with a lame soundtrack of Rubio.
