BELA FREAKING LOVES GYMNASTICS

August 15th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

More Bela Karolyi freakout video, courtesy of AA:

SHE IS OLYMPIC CHAMPION. YES.

See, I have no idea what Bela is cheering about — the girl is just dancing, you know? But I have a feeling that my friends/roommates/innocent bystanders feel the same way about me when I’m watching soccer. I’m prone to freakouts, even if the stakes look relatively minor to the untrained eye.

So, you see, Bela Karolyi. We’re not so different, you and I. Except you’re a gymnastics coach, so you’re kind of creepy. But in a good way.

Bela Karolyi is an enthusiastic fellow

August 13th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

This video is probably already going to be down by the time I hit publish on this post, but hot damn: look at the enthusiasm dripping off Bela Karolyi during last night’s gymnastics competition. It’s really remarkable this dude agreed to do coverage with Bob Costas and not actually be in Beijing.

I suppose this is sort of akin to Bob Villa having to watch someone building a house without him there actively instructing. (Was that the worst analogy ever? Yes. Yes, it was.)

Either way, It’s good to see someone get excited about something they love so much. Unless it’s murder. Then, that wouldn’t be so cool.

(Vid HT to AA, as if I had to even tell you that.)

More quick Bissinger thoughts

April 29th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

So, of course Buzz Bissinger’s little tirade — which should be making the Youtube rounds any minute now — has aroused a few passions here. First thought was anger. Second thought was incredulity. Third thought was sadness, or some semblance of it, that Bissinger can be such an interesting writer and still so extremely out of touch. The last thought, I think, the one I’ve settled on, is merely resignation. Bissinger, and the hordes of old Murray Chass-types cheering him on last night, are beyond any convincing. Buzz Bissinger isn’t going to listen to reason about blogs. He’s not going to spend some time exploring. He’s just going to get scared and swear at you and say extremely stupid, inarticulate things, something that should be a crime for someone who’s spent, as he proudly proclaimed, “40 years perfecting his craft.” (40 years of respect, Buzz? That’s them, drizzling down the drain.)

Anyway, it’s resignation. There’s no point in trying to convince people that feel as Bissinger does. There’s no point in getting as worked up as Bissinger did. Because unlike them, we understand not only the past but the future. Bissinger only sees the past, fears the future, and has lost sight of both in the meantime. He and his ilk have failed to adapt, or they will continue to fail, and like all creatures that fail to adapt, they will die off. We thank them for the contributions and wish them luck with swift, painless, metaphorical death.

Feel that, Buzz? Cold, isn’t it? That’s the gloaming. I would tell you to embrace it, but you already have.

Oh, and it’s Big Daddy DREW, you dumb fuck.

Buzz Bissinger: LOLZ!

April 29th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Anyone watching the Will Leitch-Buzz Bissinger-Braylon Edwards-Bob Costas clusterfuck right now was just treated to the greatest narrative performance of all-time by one Buzz Bissinger. For someone who seems to disdain lowered discourse, he sure does like to scream. And swear. And come off as a crazy, deranged old man both out of touch with reality and flailing in a lost medium.

Just … wow.

Colin Cowherd isn’t calling you losers a name. He’s criticizing. Duh.

March 17th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

First, listen to the audio here. Go on, do it. It doesn’t hurt as much as you think. (Blog goodness starts around the 2:05 mark.)

Done? Good. Because you see, it’s so easy to draw dumb distinctions. Blogger = bad. Reporter = good. If you call someone a name, even if you are an accredited member of the media, that makes you a blogger, unless, of course, your name is Bob Costas, in which case you can say this:

But it’s one thing if somebody just sets up a blog from their mother’s basement in Albuquerque and they are who they are, and they’re a pathetic get-a-life loser, but now that pathetic get-a-life loser can piggyback onto someone who actually has some level of professional accountability and they can be comment No. 17 on Dan Le Batard’s column or Bernie Miklasz’ column in St. Louis. That, in most cases, grants a forum to somebody who has no particular insight or responsibility. Most of it is a combination of ignorance or invective.”

What bothers Costas — and he’s not alone — is Internet and talk radio commentary that “confuses simple mean-spiritedness and stupidity with edginess. Just because I can call someone a name doesn’t mean I’m insightful or tough and edgy. It means I’m an idiot.

“It’s just a high-tech place for idiots to do what they used to do on bar stools or in school yards, if they were school yard bullies, or on men’s room walls in gas stations. That doesn’t mean that anyone with half a brain should respect it.”

… and you’re not calling a name, you’re merely criticizing. When one is Colin Cowherd, one can draw these distinctions, even if one really has no clue what one is talking about.

Since Cowherd agrees that most bloggers are “wannabes” and “get-a-life losers” (that hyphenated adjective never fails to crack me up), I think it’s then fair that we agree that most talk radio hosts are not employed for their sports insight or their knowledge, but instead their ability to captivate listeners with rhetoric that borders on what Costas would surely call “invective.” But since we wouldn’t want to paint all radio hosts, or newspaper reporters, with the same brush, it’s fair to call Cowherd the sad Schrutebag douchetard got-worked-over-by-Ombudslady excuse for a radio host that he is without implicating his colleagues.

Whoops. Am I calling names now? Or merely criticizing?

Thanks to Big A for the audio.