Browns overcome self-inflicted wounds to beat Falcons 26-24
November 23, 2014Cleveland Browns Week 12 Winners and Losers
November 24, 2014
Another Victory Monday? It’s getting to the point where I don’t know how to respond. As always, we’ll have plenty of Browns coverage over the coming hours (including one amazing essay that you won’t want to miss), but While We’re Waiting…
The 2014 American Music Awards were Sunday night. And if you weren’t watching Odell Beckham Jr. pull in one of the best catches in the history of football, only to fall victim to Dez Bryant and the Cowboys, you were likely one of the several million to tune in to what typically stands to kick off the annual Award Show Season. Like most others before it, the AMAs are largely a celebratory concert of sorts where the biggest names in pop music (in addition to a few others) perform the hits that allowed them to be a part of this year’s show. Taylor Swift, as expected, was a huge part of the night, leading off the show with a performance. Interestingly, however, it would be Katy Perry and One Direction (two other pop powerhouses) who would take home the biggest awards in that category with the British boy band winning Artist of the Year and Perry taking home Single of the Year with “Dark Horse.”
It was actually a big night for females as Iggy Azalea took home both Favorite Artist and Favorite Album in the Hip-Hop/Rap categories, beating out Eminem and Johnny Manziel’s boy Drake in both. (Much like Macklemore at last year’s Grammy’s, adding a pop flare to a rap album makes it a little more palatable to voters. Good for Iggy.) And to little surprise, Beyoncé brought home both of the same awards in the R&B category, though the world wasn’t treated to a ‘Yonce show this time around.
It was also a huge night for Twitter folks who can’t believe time has passed them by, providing a ton of snark almost every step of the way. Almost as if “pop” wasn’t short for “popular.” Wins all around!
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The last few weeks have provided plenty of discussion surrounding music, artists, and how they are compensated in the new-age day of streaming technology and subscription services. While the merits of services like Spotify can be debated until the next Wu-Tang Clan album gets released, this piece on Pandora (a HUGE service in the smartphone age) and how they fail to pay artists is worth the read. The most interesting part: Pandora’s contract with some of these royalty-based services ends soon, and they’re lobbying to have their payments lowered. This should be fun.
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David Chappelle is back—hopefully for good. One of this generations biggest stories (at least from a comedy standpoint) comes in the way of Chappelle going from the top of the mountain to outright disappearing with little in the way of logical, relatable explanation. Now, thanks to this excellent interview from Mark Anthony Green over at GQ, we have what may very well be the return of the (former? one time?) king of comedy.
For a while, about seven years, we heard little to nothing. We knew he lived on a farm in Yellow Springs, Ohio—a town of 3,500 people. And that he didn’t want to talk to the media. Dave Chappelle seemed to be, like a suede umbrella, an instrument whose very design and makeup is its biggest conflict—the funniest guy in the room who can’t stand to be looked at. About three years ago, he began to appear, impromptu, more frequently for sets at comedy clubs. Then a Twitter account appeared that was actually run by Dave until an impostor took it over. Chris Rock fueled rumors that they would start touring together, which never happened. But it wasn’t until the announcement this spring that Dave would play five—no, eight! no…ten!—shows at Radio City Music Hall that people began to think seeing Dave Chappelle be funny might be part of their lives again.
It could all be a huge tease. Chapelle could either kill it and disappear again, or worse, bomb—and disappear again. But much like the reuniting of a before-their-time band, Chappelle’s return signifies the mutual return of something that led to so much joy and laughter in the lives of others. At the very least, it allows us to go re-watch old footage (The Real World parody, please?), recite old lines with friends (those funny-named neighbors, perhaps?) and hope that maybe, just maybe, the guy has even more genius to share with the world.
I guess, in the end, that’s all we can ask for, right?
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YOU GET A TAKE! AND YOU GET A TAKE! EVERYBODY GETS A TAKE! Here’s this week’s #ActualSportswriting
“Carson Palmer’s Lasting Connection” by Dave Fleming (ESPN The Magazine): “Knowing her as they did, there was no question that Julie would want to become an organ and tissue donor; her gift would be to save or improve the lives of others. One of the people she eventually helped turned out to be a famous athlete. Quarterback Carson Palmer, after completely shredding his knee in the 2005 playoffs, was able to make a full recovery thanks to a new ACL reconstructed from De Rossi’s Achilles tendon. ‘It’s amazing that we can even do this,’ Palmer says now, ‘to use part of the body of someone who has passed on to help someone else walk or run or even keep their dream alive of playing sports again.'”1
“Travis Kelce Can’t Stop Dancing” by Robert Mays (Grantland): “Little about Kelce — or his second season with the Chiefs — has been quiet. It’s early November, and the temperature has just started to drop in Kansas City. Along with his cream-colored Gucci beanie, he’s wearing a white, long-sleeve Lululemon shirt and a shiny gold Rolex with a face the size of a child’s palm. Since the preseason, each of Kelce’s trips to the end zone has come with a memorable celebration — from handing the ball to Mike McGlynn for a lineman-size spike to a menagerie of meme-friendly dances. Suddenly, Kelce is one of the most exciting young players on one of the hottest teams in the NFL.”2
“What the F*** is Fightball?!” by Robert Silverman (The Cauldron): “Keeping in line with the sport’s name, it’s almost impossible to drive to the rim because there’s absolutely no way of knowing if a foul’s going to be called. Evidently, that 11 on the intense-o-meter means beyond-the-pale clutching, grabbing and horse-collar tackles may or may not be whistled. It’s not that they’re encouraging a full-blown scrum or actual combat, but let’s just say they do realize that a certain no-holds-barred, MMA-ish hue is a selling point.”3
“Witness to an anticlimax” by Joe Posnanski (Sportsworld): “East 4th Street grows ghostly as the night stretches to morning, and it is easy for a Clevelander’s mind to fall back to all those shattered hopes, to all those times through 50 years we believed that this time it would be Cleveland’s sports turn, this time for sure. Will LeBron’s return become the latest chapter in a half century of sports sadness? A part of me says yes. Will Kyrie and LeBron make beautiful music together? Another part of me says yes. Hope is not among those walking on East 4th Street now – the game is over, and the night is gone, and Hope is undoubtedly asleep along with most of Cleveland. She will wake up tomorrow. Hope always does.”4
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And finally, this week’s Brew du Jour: Holly Jolly from Fathead’s Brewery
There was an intriguing Twitter dialogue going on this past Saturday morning, wherein 92.3 The Fan’s Joe Lull took a page from this very column in discussing Great Lakes Brewery’s Christmas Ale in comparison to Thirsty Dog’s 12 Dogs of Christmas. Thankfully, once the dust settled and the crazies were thinned out, the discussion quickly turned to Fat Head’s Holly Jolly, which may very well be the brew to potentially unseat GLBC’s long-lasting reign.
Fathead’s has few things going against it, chief of which is distribution. Unless you’re in the local market, it’s unlikely that you can get your hands on a sixer of this delicious creation. It clocks in at 7.4 percent, which is closer to GLBC’s than Thirsty Dog’s. It pours a reddish brown, which may be a little lighter than many other winter warmers, but that thick, foamy head is front and center. The scents and tastes are very similar as both produce hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, honey, caramel and a little ginger—I’ve heard some compare it to a gingerbread cookie. All are very formidable and no unexpected aftertastes creep in, much like one of the big complaints surrounding the new recipe from GLBC.
At $10.99 a six pack, it’s a lower cost than many other crafts (Troegs, for example) and easily places it right in the mix with whatever your favorite Christmas Ale may be. I’ll leave the rest to WTAM’s Will Burge who put it better than I ever could.
http://twitter.com/willburge/status/536182559785639936
Happy Monday, you guys.
- I find it adorable that she had to Google Carson Palmer’s name. It’s stories like this that make something as trivial as sports and something as dirty as the last few years of the NFL feel, well, not quite so dirty. Science is spectacular. [↩]
- An entertaining takeout revolving around one of my favorite players in the NFL. If you’re one of those ‘Browns only’ types, not only do I feel sorry for you, but Kelce is a player worthy of that silly trend being completely bucked. Come for the excellent GIFs of The Nae Nae and Shmoney Dance, stay for the excellent story and quick-witted quips and vivid imagery. [↩]
- This is just crazy. It’s like Slamball meets Arch Rivals, all taking place in a dark and inconspicuous warehouse. [↩]
- This one is a bit dated, but still relevant among local basketball talk. Plus, it’s by Joe Posnasnski, which means it’s instantly worthy of your time. [↩]
7 Comments
Chapelle has been making surprise appearances in Denver lately, but only to watch (and partake in our legalized substances). He has been showing up in VERY underground comedy venues and has been extremely supportive and social with the local comics. It’s great to see, and he is a really good dude.
Random off the radar Chappelle I love is the Little Foot Long Foot clip from his Inside the actors studio sketch. “Get your damn hands off of me!”
Now that a white woman from Australia is the “reigning queen of hip hop”, I like to think Chuck D is furiously trying to build a time machine to go back and warn the likes of Native Tongues and BDP that it will all go terribly wrong.
“Now that a white woman from Australia is the “reigning queen of hip hop”, I like to think Chuck D is furiously trying to build a time machine to go back and warn the likes of Native Tongues and BDP that it will all go terribly wrong.”
Excellent.
Now that a white woman from Australia is the “reigning queen of hip hop” wrong in so many ways!
Acintyabedhabedhadasa til I looked at the paycheck that said $9162, I be certain that…my… neighbours mother could trully bringing in money in their spare time from their computer.. there moms best frend had bean doing this for only about 18 months and resantly paid for the mortgage on their mini mansion and bought themselves a Citroën DS. I went here,
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Listen, she clearly stated “she’s the realest” in her song.
As far as “street cred” goes, that’s good enough for most.
I have an expanded version in my head where Terminator X goes back in time to kill the “John Connor’s” of white rap. He goes around picking off Snow, 3rd Base, and Vanilla Ice, but is stopped cold by the Beasties when his circuits overload from the realization that White Castle Fries indeed do only come in one size.