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Out-of-state travel is the cause of the latest interruption of blogging — plus it made me go cold turkey for several days from my hockey addiction. Rather than regaling readers with travel tales, here’s several items items I’ve noticed over the last week or so.
- Denise Ross has launched a website, including a blog, for her forthcoming documentary Unplanned Democracy: America’s First Vote on Abortion.
- South Dakota Moderate notes that the Clear Channel conglomerate reportedly sent out a memo saying not to play music from Springsteen’s Magic. Of course, the political content of the music has nothing to do with it. It’s that “Springsteen simply is too old to be played on rock stations.” Yeah, right, that’s the ticket.
- South Dakota Moderate also points out that college is dangerous. Maybe that’s because thinking is dangerous, if not at times outright revolutionary.
- The Intelligent Design Venn diagram.
- Scott Hudson accurately senses there’s a lot of Gomer, Goober, and Barney around here.
- It’s true. Sometimes a fire is just a fire.
- So why is it that most of the national press Dennis Kucinich gets is not because of his position on the issues but because of his wife or he honestly answers a question about having seen a flying object he couldn’t identify. Even area conservatives recognize we truly have moved from issues to inanity.
- Although I suspect its time has passed, the second X-Files movie is set for a July 2008 release. (Via.)
I often think back fondly on memories I haven’t repressed.
Stephen Colbert, I Am America (And So Can You!)
Okay, I’m addicted. And that’s the reason things have been sparse around here lately.
What am I addicted to? NHL Center Ice. In eight of the last 10 days or so, I’ve spent anywhere from two to four hours a night watching hockey on TV. The two days I missed were because I was at a Stampede game. I must confess, though, that one of those nights I returned home and switched back and forth between the U of M-Colorado College game and an NHL game for a while.
Last night and tonight are good examples. Last night Buffalo and Carolina played at 6 p.m., both teams with former Stampede players on regular shifts. Then the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames played at 8 p.m. Tonight its the Devils-Rangers at 6 and the Wild-Oilers at 9. I can’t/won’t DVR the games because when I check my fantasy hockey teams in the morning, I know how the games ended. So, I end up tuning in and watching most if not all of a game or two each night.
This is coming from a guy who for the last several years generally watched maybe four hours of TV a week — and most of that on the DVR to “zap” commercials and the like. While my wife is highly tolerant of my addiction (particularly when we’re on different floors of the house), this is far too relaxing and too much couch potato for me. I may have to adopt a rule of watching the first period of any hockey game from the treadmill. At least that way I’d get some exercise — or not turn on the games until the second period.
Imagine what it would be like if TV actually were good. It would be the end of everything we know.
Marvin Minsky, quoted in The Media Lab
Who’s been telling you about perfection?
And how did he get in here, that’s the question
“Play on Love,” Jefferson Starship, Red Octopus
Each year, The Hockey News publishes what it calls it’s “Bucks and Pucks” issue. This year’s edition hits newsstands next week with former Stampede player Thomas Vanek on the cover. According to The Hockey News, the cover story “examin[es] what life is like for Buffalo Sabres left-winger Thomas Vanek after his new contract makes him a $50-million man.”
Vanek played for the Stampede its first three seasons (1999-2002) before going on to the University of Minnesota. His freshman season the Gophers won the national championship with Vanek scoring the game-winning goals. He was the first round draft choice of the Sabres a couple months later and signed with the team after his second year of college hockey.
Vanek earned $942,000 in each of his first two seasons in the NHL. This summer, the Edmonton Oilers offered him a seven-year, $50 million contract. The Sabres matched the offer to keep Vanek, who led the NHL in plus/minus and was 7th in the league with goals scored with 43. For salary cap purposes, Vanek is reportedly being paid $10 million of the salary this year, one of only three players in the league who will earn that much this year.
In addition to the Hockey News cover story, last week Vanek was the subject of an “up close and personal” feature story on Inside the NHL on HDNet.
Vanek’s teams reinforce that hockey season is kicking into high gear for fans. The Sabres play tonight, Stampede play at home both tonight and tomorrow and the Gophers have their first WCHA games tonight and tomorrow.
Nothing like a big contract and some serious media attention to add a little pressure. Maybe a financial contribution toward better hockey facilities here in Sioux Falls might help ease any psychological burden.
I want to establish myself being on the ice and being a part of the team first. I’ll try to establish myself as the go-to guy sometime in the future.
Thomas Vanek, Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle, 2005
I’ve been a relative slackard over the last several months when it comes to actually doing reviews. It seems the only ones I get done are for books sent me for review purposes. As a result, I’m going to try to at least make these book briefs a semi-regular feature.
Clapton: The Autobiography, Eric Clapton — Clapton is at his best here when describing his worst periods of alcoholism and his time in rehab battling those demons. From a music history standpoint, though, the book seems to have less heart and often comes off as somewhat contradictory. For example, in the second chapter Clapton says he had a “real contempt” for pop music and, as a result, felt “genuinely uncomfortable” being in the Yardbirds. Less than 20 pages later, though, he recounts being “quite put out” because after leaving the band it had a string of pop hits. As such, the book rates as no more than an average autobiography but will undoubtedly attract the Clapton fan.
Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, Ben Ratliff — Continuing on the music track, this highly praised work is more analytical than biographical. Ratliff undoubtedly does an excellent job analyzing the development of John Coltrane’s music and performance and its impact on music as a whole. At the same time, parts of it can be a bit dry and somewhat technical for those of us who love music but for whom theory has never quite sunk in. While I personally would have preferred more of a focus on biography, I hesitate to criticize the analytical portions because it is so difficult to write about music. As has been variously attributed, it’s like dancing about architecture.
Finding George Orwell in Burma, Emma Larkin — This book takes a unique approach to both travel and foreign reporting. First, the travels through the country follow George Orwell’s stations when he was an imperial police officer in the country (experiences that led to his first novel, Burmese Days). But Orwell serves as a focus in another way. The author tries to take us inside the rampant government paranoia and repressiveness, comparing the country’s current state directly to Orwell’s 1984. I read the book roughly a month before the recent protests in Burma and it made me fully aware of just how brave the Buddhist monks were in taking the forefront in peaceful resistance to a horrible regime.
In the lowest moments of my life, the only reason I didn’t commit suicde was that I knew I wouldn’t be able to drink anymore if I was dead.
Eric Clapton, Clapton: The Autobiography
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