Hoop Scoop

Trying to win the race to be first made the nice guy finish last when the 24-hour news cycle reared its ugly head.

Matt Painter heading to Mizzou was the soup du jour for sports pundits, especially those in West Lafayette, Indiana, and Columbia, Missouri, was all over the airwaves and Twitter feeds, with leads from covert sources and counter updates from both sides of the fence flying.

At about 11 AM Bernie Miklasz, one of the better reporters in the country and a guy that has repeatedly kept St. Louisans in the know about all things sports for decades, reported an unofficial official report that Painter was coming. It's now 5:30...and he's not coming.

Now, nobody knows whether Bernie's source inside the Mizzou athletic department was correct in saying that Painter had accepted the Mizzou job. Maybe Bernie got some bad information. Or maybe Painter was ready to come to Columbia, and then changed his mind. Maybe he never cast his lot with Mizzou and was always going to stay in West Lafayette. Only a few people will know for sure, and I'm going to go ahead and assume none of those few are reading this blog.

What we do know is that because of the Internet, specifically Twitter and messages boards on sites like stltoday.com, this whole mess became, well, a mess. Bernie and the rest of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch led everybody to believe that this was a slam dunk. Instead, for some people, this turned into a sloppy turnover. A guy that has years of credibility has now mislead a fanbase (one that, like most others, can become very rabid) and given away all those points he'd built up.

The Post-Dispatch even published a story called "Mizzou didn't steal Painter, it attracted him". The link now leads to this story. The story led off with a line about how people will look back at how Mizzou was able to get Painter to sign, as if it was already done. That is irresponsible.

To be fair, Bernie work today came with the caveat that nothing was official. But that's not enough. The Internet has made it so there is less accountability among journalists. Think about how this would have played out before the Internet. This morning we would have woken up and read a story about how Painter and Mizzou AD Mike Alden were to meet in Florida. Then, tomorrow we would have woken up to news that Painter was staying in Purdue. That's it and that's all. Simple and easy, nobody's reporting getting questioned, no fanbases taken for a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Now, I'm not saying Bernie necessarily did anything wrong, especially with taking into account the aforementioned points about us laypeople not really knowing went on behind closed doors. Perhaps the only concrete thing to come out of today's media maelstrom is that always being able to devour up to the minute sports media isn't always a great idea.

3.9.11

I'm tri-polar.

Sometimes I'm happy.

Sometimes I'm sad.

Sometimes I'm a bear.

2011 Oscarzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So with all sorts of mainstream media and the 24-hour news cycle on the Internet (ever heard of it?), if you don't throw up your thoughts immediately then you're pretty much behind the game.

Regardless of that, here are some random ramblings on the Oscars nap we all took last weekend"

(Quick note: Many of the things that I spoke about with friends and viewing partners were written about by the excellent Alan Sepinwall and can be read here.)

• James Franco and Anne Hathaway were a train wreck. Franco looked like he thought he was too cool for school (he's clearly not, seeing as he's currently attending NYU), and Hathaway's (contrived?) excitement came across as fake and made her look flaky. The producers clearly thought they could just throw these two young attractive mugs onto the stage and that it would work out. I think the overwhelming response from just about everybody proves it didn't. Sidenote: I want to like James Franco more than I do, and his sense of humour and body of work seems right in my wheelhouse - a mainstream actor with a hint of indie coolness responsible for stuff like Freaks and Geeks and this video from Funny or Die. However, is it possible that he's not inherently that funny? He seems like a cool enough guy and would be fun to hang out with, but part of me seems like he's a bit too cool for me (but, again, not for school).

• Franco and Hathaway look even worse coming just a year after great performances by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin in their 2010 hosting. Didn't read too much about why they didn't come back, but if they weren't asked back then that's a pretty big blemish on the producers.

• As far as 2010 went for movies, I think it was a pretty good year. Maybe it didn't have a full slate of classics, but movies such as The Social Network, The King's Speech, Inception, The Fighter, 127 Hours, Toy Story 3 and True Grit made it a pretty solid year.
  

• While The King's Speech was very well done and quite enjoyable, I would have much rather seen The Fighter or The Social Network win the Battle of the Movies starting with "the" title by taking out Best Picture. It's ironic that Franco and Hathaway hosted in an effort to represent a younger and hipper incarnation of the sometimes stale awards show, and then the Best Picture award was given to a very typical Oscar movie like The King's Speech.

• Were there funny movies in 2010? I can't remember any. The only one I can think of is Easy A, which was more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

So, the Oscars were a snooze, yes. Debating who won and lost is another post for another time, but hopefully the vitriolic response from the viewing public and the media will help shape the show a bit and next year the producers will get it right.

All Star Review

Or is that revue?

Some random thoughts while watching some festivities from NBA All-Star Weekend.

• Licensing stuff is just getting silly. Changing H-O-R-S-E to G-E-I-C-O is S-T-U-P-I-D. Unfortunately I'm not really that surprised. So every year will this event have a different name?

• The NBA is somehow extremely more marketable than any of the other three major sports. Why is that? Is it the personalities of the athletes that are more interesting/flashy? It's probably got something to do with that and the game itself. Baseball is a slower, grinding type of sport, and the players don't tend to be as flashy. Those that are - say Ken Griffey, Jr. circa the early 90's - do become bigger stars, more like NBA players are. Football is probably the most team-oriented game of the four, so individuals don't stand out as much. Aside from big time QBs (Manning, Brady), players are hidden beneath those helmets and tend to disappear. And, let's face it, too many people don't really know or care about hockey, despite the best efforts of these guys.
  

• Even though I'd consider myself a baseball purist, I think I've decided that the Dunk Contest is better than the Home Run Derby. The variety and aforementioned personalities make the event much more exciting. Also, props to Nate Robinson and the Kryptonite theme and hopping over Superman. Opposite of props to Kenny Smith and Reggie Miller, who were quick to criticize many of the dunks. It's a dunk contest, not Game 7 of the Finals. Relax.
  

• Listening to Shaq talk to Craig Sager on the bench during the 4th quarter of the game about it possibly being his last All-Star Game made me realize that he's one of the only athletes that really broke into the league when I was old enough to start really caring about sports (1992, I was 7 years old) and is still around. As far as my life when it comes to being interested in sports, the Big Aristotle has been a constant. How could you not miss this guy?
  

Thank you two times

So, you're entering some sort of building, and there's two sets of doors. You walk into one, there's a small entry way, and then there's another set a few feet away. Say you're walking behind somebody and they open the first door for you. You say thank you, naturally. Then, they open the next door. Do you say thank you again? Do you have to repeat your gratitude or is it just implied that you are grateful by your first thanking? Is it considered bad manners to not say thank you again? I don't think a second full thank you is necessary. Some sort of secondary recognition is probably required. Maybe a head nod or something like that. The person opening the doors for you should understand that the first thank you carries over to the entire encounter. Saying thanks once establishes you as a polite person, and the door opener should be happy with that. I mean, they had to open the door for themselves, anyway. They don't have a lot of room to be snobby about it.

Short Circuit City

I may be the biggest, but I'm definitely not the brightest tool in the box. There are things I know about - sports, comic books, Tina Fey - and things I don't - politics, religion, current affairs, anything that is really actually important. Because of this, I am writing with a shaker full of salt lodged between the letters on my keyboard.

The economy sucks. Duh. We've known this for months and nothing has really changed to make us think any differently. And just as we all decided that Yes We Could, we come to the realization that 2009 has the potential to be even worse. Hooray. Did I understand that America was struggling? Yes, but only on the most basic of fronts. But that all changed today. Something happened that hit me dead between the eyes.

Circuit City closed its doors. Well, not all of its doors, but over 560 of them. That's right, Best Buy's overshadowed little brother is laying off thousands of employees after filing for bankruptcy. Now, I've never shopped at Circuit City. Not once. I've always been a Best Buy man myself. But ever since I can remember I've seen those gaudy red blocky building fronts from the road. I've had friends stand in line there at 5 a.m. to buy laptop computers. I've watched their terrible commercials for years. I've recycled dozens of their ads in the weekend newspaper. And now they're gone.

So this is what the economic crisis is all about. Just down the road an IHOP closed down. A place more popular on Sunday mornings than a free money machine in Las Vegas is now dark. I've heard that the closing is just temporary, and that it might not even be for economic reasons. But it got me thinking. Tonight I was talking to some friends about Netflix and Red Box and all the alternative ways to rent movies these days. I hardly know anybody that actually goes to the movie store to rent movies anymore. Could you imagine all Blockbusters just shutting down? While some of this has to do with alternative outlets and marketing strategies, the weak economy has to be to blame for some of it, right?

Businesses are darkening all over America. Just think of your favorite shopping center of 10-15 stores. In the coming years they could one by one be going dark, like a storefront sign with some of the letters burnt out.

No Circuit City, IHOP or Blockbuster? Troubling times indeed, my friend.

Funny or Die...I'll take funny, please

If you don't recognize any of the performers in this video from funnyordie.com, you probably shouldn't be reading this...or living.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones