Does Anybody Really Know What Time It is?: Cavs vs. Bulls Behind The Box Score
February 13, 2015Rookie Tribe Manager Frank Robinson Grants a Tryout to T.J. O’Hays
February 13, 2015It’s February, the Cavs are headed to the All-Star break, the Indians aren’t yet reported to Goodyear, and I just don’t have a lot of sports takes. But I do have things to discuss on this Friday the 13th. Thanks for sticking with us through a relatively quiet time in sports.
Farewell to Joe Lull… for now…
Just wanted to give a shout-out to a friend of the site, Joe Lull. For whatever reason, Lull will no longer be with 92.3 The Fan. It sounds like he’s going to relax for a bit and figure out what’s next. Regardless, we’ve been fans of Joe and he’s been supportive of us, so I wanted to make a big public display of wishing Joe well from all of us at WFNY.
As of today, I am no longer with @923TheFan. Id like to thank management for giving me a chance and all of you who have listened…
— Joe Lull (@LullOnSports) February 12, 2015
Feeling really good about Cleveland sports…
Since I don’t believe in superstition and jinxes (except when I do) I’m just going to gloat for a minute about what the sports world is like right now. The Cleveland Cavaliers speak for themselves, even after dropping one to the Bulls on the way to the All-Star break. They have about as good a chance as any team in the NBA to win a championship this year. I know the odds might favor other teams at various points of time, depending on what injuries or streaks are happening, but the Cavs really have as good a chance as anyone to have a parade in their honor this year.
The Cleveland Indians are far from on the Cavaliers’ level, but according to one site I looked at, the Indians are a 25/1 shot to take the World Series. Last year’s participants in the World Series – teams that actually made it there last year – are 15/1 and 30/1. That’s right. The Kansas City Royals are a worse chance than the Tribe. I know they lost James Shields and all, but it’s still kind of instructive. The Indians have a real chance to have a magical season.
Hell, even the Browns are a seven win team. Despite all the garbage that seems to be happening, they are a seven win team with a pretty darn good defense, a lot of returning players, tons of cap space and two first round draft picks. As a non-playoff team, I don’t know how much better a situation you could ask for. The St. Louis Rams are probably in a better spot, but really, by how much?
Just saying, it’s early in 2015 and I’m feeling alright.
Does live music really just suck?
Well, that’s really more of a personal question. For me, the answer is unequivocally “NO!” Live music certainly and absolutely doesn’t suck. Even that said, I think the author of this article at Talking Points Memo makes a decent case.
He speaks of how boring it can be to watch musicians you don’t know playing music you don’t know. That’s certainly far more common than falling in love with that random opener, though it does happen. He laments disappointing headliners as well, and I must admit that happens as well. Then he gets to the meat and potatoes.
In other words, there’s an unresolvable tension between Wanting To Hear Songs Exactly Like They Are On The Radio, and Wanting To Hear Those Same Songs Substantially And Objectively Improved Since We Paid Money For This. (Which is further complicated by Why Can’t We Even Hear The Vocals At All, Who Is This Jackass Sound Guy.)
I encourage you all to read the whole thing because I do find the perspective interesting. And to a huge extent I agree with tons of his points. The fact remains that you could take his perspective and apply to to anything in the entertainment realm, including movies that aren’t even spontaneous performances. I like to go to the movies, but I don’t like all movies.
In the end, I’ve found my own little rules and niches that make seeing live music tolerable for me. First of all, I’ll see anything in a small venue. My reasoning is one of escapability. When I saw Iron and Wine, a band I’d previously been infatuated with, turn their catalog of music into some mid-tempo folk / country electro / acoustic hybrid at the Grog Shop, I left early. Sure I was disappointed, but I got out of there.
Point being that a bad time in a small venue is so much better than a bad time at a large one. Having the “should I stay or should I go” conversation at The Q, or Blossom is a nightmare to me. As a result I haven’t been to Blossom in over a decade for any show. I am super picky and would much rather just not see a band I want to see in a larger venue because those are the rules that fit me and what I want to do.
But to think I might take a stance about live music that could potentially keep me out of life-altering experiences with my favorite bands is unconscionable. Just last year Andrew and I had one of the more amazing musical experiences of my life seeing Cloud Nothings for the first time. I fulfilled a dream almost twenty years in the making when I got to see Mineral play their reunion tour this year. I nearly cried at that show, had goosebumps for the majority of it and have goosebumps again sitting here as I type these words. And don’t even get me started on the Sigur Ros show I saw in late 2013. I got to see the band that provided the soundtrack for the first moments of my son’s life in the delivery room. That one still lives in my dreams and I got to share that experience with my wife.
So no. Live music doesn’t suck and despite the experiences being a pain at times, the highs are totally worth the lows.
We need to choose our leaders very carefully…
I really appreciated the tone of the conversation a few weeks ago when I talked about freedom of speech, and while this isn’t wholly related, it kind of feels important to the overall topic. It speaks to a number of issues in our “GOTCHA!” culture that we’ve created that looks to shame people for statements and Tweets and looks to define people by their mistakes. I’m not talking abotu Brian Williams, although that might be an interesting conversation. I’m speaking of smaller name folks who have been thrown to the hordes of online jurors who seem to have an endless sense of bloodlust for anyone who makes a mistake.
Remember Justine Sacco? She was a P.R. person who made an off-color AIDS joke on Twitter while getting on a flight. While she was out of communication the tweet went viral, in part thanks to a special post on Gawker Media’s ValleyWag blog. In the New York Times Magazine, we catch up on the brutal fallout from this mistake-gone-viral.
Four months after we first met, Justine Sacco made good on her promise. We met for lunch at a French bistro downtown. I told her what Biddle had said — about how she was probably fine now. I was sure he wasn’t being deliberately glib, but like everyone who participates in mass online destruction, uninterested in learning that it comes with a cost.
“Well, I’m not fine yet,” Sacco said to me. “I had a great career, and I loved my job, and it was taken away from me, and there was a lot of glory in that. Everybody else was very happy about that.”Sacco pushed her food around on her plate, and let me in on one of the hidden costs of her experience. “I’m single; so it’s not like I can date, because we Google everyone we might date,” she said. “That’s been taken away from me too.” She was down, but I did notice one positive change in her. When I first met her, she talked about the shame she had brought on her family. But she no longer felt that way. Instead, she said, she just felt personally humiliated.
I just find it wholly interesting in a lot of ways. One of the most important things to me is who we’re allowing to define people in this world. Nobody should have ever known Sacco or her off-color joke. Whether it was funny or not, it was clearly a joke when she said that white people couldn’t get AIDS.
That doesn’t mean you can’t be offended that someone would make a joke, but this hounding of people to shame them is really ugly. Even after Sacco left the country for a month to work in Ethiopia, her return to New York was AGAIN covered by ValleyWag in order to renew the story once again.
There’s a lesson to be learned here about crime, punishment and being far more judicious with whom we allow to be the unofficial foreman of our juries.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
I probably give too much love to the keepers, but I have to again this week. Kick save and a beauty!
38 Comments
The PC police scour the internet with unrivaled meticulous zeal. Their wrath is instantaneous, overwhelming and brutal.
All the more reason not to live your life online. Keep your circle small and tight.
Thanks for the intelligent, even-handed insights as always Craig. It’s a refreshing way to start the day.
I’ve seen countless “good bands” at tiny venues with my music snob friends. Even with music I’m unfamiliar with, it’s usually a decent time.
But still, the best concerts I’ve ever been to have been the heavy metal arena shows of the 80’s. Great sound, great stage show. I spent a large portion of my youth at the old Coliseum, going home deaf and happy with 15000 other people.
m/
Re: The Indians – they have yet to show up in David Schoenfield’s power rankings in which he’s unveiled teams 30-7, which can only mean someone has them in their top 6!
http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/55054/ranking-the-teams-12-through-7-2
Re: Live music – saw Joshua Radin at HOB last night. Second show I’ve seen there in ~a month and both were downstairs only. I’m not one to stand in the pit close to the stage, so I watched both shows from the back, and I gotta say, the audio was terrible. Surprising from a venue such as HOB that the audio quality would be lacking from anywhere you can watch. I’m going back in a week for Tripping Billies (which may have to serve as my DMB concert of the year since somehow when I logged into the presale Monday morning, there were ZERO pavilion seats available), hoping the upstairs is at least open as I’ve never really noticed a problem even standing upstairs.
Any news on who will be replacing Lull on Saturday mornings? His uber-condescending treatment of callers was the highlight of my donut drives on the weekends.
You know why live music doesn’t suck? Because it’s wildly unpredictable and things like this can randomly happen at any time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hzaPRa76yQ
OK, what happened to Sacco is sad. Her line was obviously intended to be funny/self-effacing rather than racist, a joke a self-aware liberal would crack to a friend. But she’s smart and accomplished and had tweeted raw meat stuff before and should have already known that typing from afar is not snickering with like-minded friends in a safe place. You’re shouting it as loud as you can in a crowded public bus where everyone else feels just as safe behind their own keyboards to attack you. No doubt she’s a swell person but she was in PR, for goodness sakes.
Twitter is like being a a stand-up comedian in front of a large crowd you can’t see with the stage lights in your eyes. She wanted the largest possible number of strangers think she was a hoot. Once you volunteer to get up on that stage, don’t complain that the vicious mouth-breathing crowd ruined your life. She’s a media savvy person who sought that level attention. We should feel worse for the dense athlete who tweets stupidity and gets shat upon than smart, experienced Justine.
And I was just able to get pavilion seats when they went on sale to the public right now…THANKS FOR NOTHING, CITI CARD!
A few more reasons why live music doesn’t suck; The Black Angels, The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, etc.
Watching these types of bands weave their way in and out of their own music, unreal covers and spot jams is why you go to shows.
If it all sounded like the radio/digital copy… I’d just stay at home and listen to that ON MY ULTRA HIGH DEFINITION STEREO CAUSE PAYING FOR TICKETS IS TOO MUCH.
Never seen The Black Angels or BRMC, but I would love to at some point.
Yep, the internet has not learned the lesson of judge not lest you be judged.
It’s difficult to keep that circle tight though. You may think your post on this page is within our close-knit community, but if a post or comment goes viral, then it will be for all the world to see. Facebook, twitter, etc. makes the sharing of information easy and instantaneous for good or bad.
Schoenfield has always loved the Indians. He is also one of my favorite baseball writers because he also knows his stuff and is willing to go against the common narrative if he feels it is wrong.
All of you are making me feel guilty for living in one of the premier live music cities in the world, but rarely taking advantage of it 🙂
Anyone who thinks that highly of the Indians is alright in my book!
I understand your perspective on it, but I still feel that there has to be a way for society to function without such attacks. I guess I have just grown weary of the “everyone get mad about this thing” or “everyone sympathize with this tragedy” movements that get everyone fired up but do not take root in any actual change. If people getting mad about the joke led to actual positive action instead of destructive action, then I would feel differently about it I suppose (like the ice bucket challenge was silly, but at least it helped a cause).
The anonymity of the keyboard has empowered legions trolls, who otherwise would be be too cowardly to actually engage a real live person with their vile invective.
http://1uy3cq2n2f9g3qnq4h2b79im.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/aVOK4Zn_700b.jpg
who wants to see a goalkeeper save on the weekly soccer zen?!?!!?! Certainly not this striker!
Seriously… keeping Psych Fest all to yourself like that. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED.
i think you’re talking about a bygone era. Would i rather see Zeppelin at the stadium than Iron and Wine at the Grog shop? Of course. And don’t argue that you could see Zeppelin at the Grog or Iron and Wine at a stadium because the Grog would be destroyed if Zeppelin played there, and Iron and Wine couldn’t fill the first 6 rows of a stadium.
But i do think it’s unfair to put those amazing 80’s metal stadium shows in the same category as a coffeehouse band.
Those old stadium shows were amazing.
Yes, until that anonymity veil is lifted because they went one step too far.
100%. Did not mean to imply the reactors are absolved for using twitter as an outlet for stupidity or vicious trolling. Just seems to me that unlike a website like WFNY, which through both formal and informal means attempts to set the parameters of dialogue, twitter does not and she could post her edgy humor on a personal website. Twitter’s not just a hipster club, it’s also a biker bar (almost done with the nonstop analogies), but she still went in there seeking snarky yuks. No, bikers shouldn’t throw crap and wait for you in the alley but geez, the experienced tourist needs to know where she is.
https://40.media.tumblr.com/77d0866c94fc93e9ef41796a9606d0c5/tumblr_mjx6ubOZxE1rp78t3o1_500.png
What is Psych Fest? (runs and hides)
Holy smokes: http://www.austinpsychfest.com/
That is quite the lineup. And, I never knew. Too many “fests” here. SXSW is coming up in a few weeks, I might try to make some of it, but it’s just not something I go out of my way to do.
agree. Big brother and all….
Comedy, to me, is sacred. There is NOTHING off-limits in comedy. And that is because we NEED to laugh, and sometimes at ourselves. Comedians need to be able to say stuff to make you laugh. Howard Stern comes to my mind because he sells that sort of thing completely. He doesn’t believe some of the things he says but he knows they’re funny. He also knows the arena for saying thing like this. Sadly, for her, Sacco found out she doesn’t.
ya know…..the joke just doesn’t work when it’s written out.
The live music scene in Savannah sucks. Unless you like the current style du jour…folksy/bluegrassy/hipstery beard bands. Blech.
No good rock, blues, or rockabilly bands to be found here.
Yeah, I could totally see getting lost in the amount of music events in Austin.
And I don’t blame you for not “going out of your way” for SXSW stuff, friends of mine who have lived in Austin most of their lives say that they actually “go out of their way” to avoid everything to do with that event.
So much tourist, so much dirty, so much sweaty, so much rude hoardes of people descending on the city.
[overt violation of Before You Comment, but here I sit lol-ing]
Yeah, I know, I couldn’t resist. It was too perfect.
Cut him some slack, Jack!
First, if you have been to Austin, then you know that we supply the unshowered hoardes.
It’s impossible to avoid now. They have it covering music, movies, sports, and tech fields. It takes up every available conference room, every willing restaurant, and the only saving grace is that UTx is on spring break so the traffic just stays normal (rather than getting ridiculous).
Chump don’ want no help, chump don’t GET da help!
Same with St. Patrick’s day in Savannah. 400,000 thousand idiots from around the country/world descend on the city to get extra super drunk and stupid.
We leave and take a vacation out of town.
This goalkeeper dug it with an extra large spoon.
Lay em down, an smack um yack um!
All the likes. I’ve never seen this clip. It’s incredible.
Browns – go 3-3 in div they have a shot.
Tribe – may have to throw a few bones on the long shot. $40 and it would be like the cold glass of milk after the icing on the cake
Yeah Savannah is awe…. um yeah