Has anyone ever been to a race? If possible, it’s in many ways worse than watching on TV. So freaking loud! There is plenty of tailgating/drinking though, so that’s good.
6.
gogol's wife
Too bad a much superior comedian didn’t warrant a memorial thread around here. Makes me very sad.
7.
raven
Just finished Hyde Park on the Hudson and we really liked it. Pretty weak reviews though.
@raven: You enjoy Drag Racing? Good lord why? How? What’s there to it?
Now, if it were Drag Queens in a foot race, that would be a different story.
12.
raven
@efgoldman: Nah, I posted my inclinations above. My hot rod pick up truck is a street rod. I used to eat breakfast with a bunch of gear heads that were way into NASCAR but I never got into it.
@Redshirt: When I was in high school we’d go to Oswego, West of Chicago and when I was in LA we’d go to the famous Lions Dragstrip in Long Beach. I hadn’t been in years but went up to Commerce, GA for the Super Chevy Show a few years back and enjoyed it. I drove trucks in the Army and have always had either a 60’s GMC or Chevy pickup. I gave up bikes many years ago except for the occasional Harley rental wit da boys.
16.
KG
Chael Sonnen sounds like a mid card professional wrestler from the 80s the way he’s talking up his fight with Jon Jones. I’m not sure if I like him more for that or less
I’m quite an F1 fan, and I’ll watch the occasional NASCAR race – Daytona, usually, mainly just to see what’s going on. But not any more. NRA is a bridge too far for me.
21.
raven
@Redshirt: Yea, it ain’t for everyone. Standing on the fence when the fuelers go by is insane. Even though you know what’s going to happen it so fucking loud that is sucks the air out of your lungs.
22.
raven
@? Martin: I would have loved to see Daytona when they ran on the beach.
23.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I went to Indy once. A friend had tickets so we drove over. Our seats were just opposite the pits, so they were pretty good but I don’t care for oval track racing. F1 or Le Mans series are okay.
24.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: All those years in Urbana and I never made it.
25.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: I remember the trip as much for the sea bass I had for dinner the night before as the race itself.
Had some serious fun running a built Austin-Cooper 1275S at Lions, Irwindale, Pomona, Fontana, etc. in the mid-Sixties. Best setup was to lock the rear suspension (Car had Hydrolastic and would unload on launch otherwise) run Quarter Midget slicks up front and drop the hammer six-and-a-half grand at the green light. Good times – even if I did keep BMC profitable through buying front inboard u-joints by the case.
I can kind of dig the appeal of F1, just because of course layout and how each driver handles it. I also could possibly enjoy Rally racing, due to the different locales and crazy conditions. Piss poor spectator sport though.
But oval racing? Or straight line racing? Do not understand.
29.
? Martin
@Redshirt: There’s a lot of variation in motor sport, but when it’s done right, the interplay between technology, strategy, teamwork, and driving skill can be pretty exciting. It requires a fair bit of knowledge about the sport though for that to emerge, but it’s not unlike baseball that way. To a new viewer, there doesn’t seem to be much depth to the game, yet true fans will know if a pitcher is weak against a left-handed hitter at a clutch point in the game and be excited to see a reliever come in. That’d be lost on causal viewers. Same thing. I’m sure cricket is exciting, but I’ve never been able to watch enough games to get more than a cursory understanding of the game.
30.
burnspbesq
Congrats to Yale on winning the NCAA men’s hockey championship in an all-ECAC final. Hopefully this will shut up all you ignorami who think only BC plays college hockey east of the Delaware River.
31.
raven
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: FUKIN A!!!! Did you look at the NHRA video I posted?
I loved the gassers. Big John Mazmanian and Stone Woods and Cook!
UMaine just fired their hockey head coach which is big news up here. And a general despair about the state of the hockey team.
35.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: I’ll keep this piece of info for the NYD since he’s an impending Yalie. I’m still trying to figure out where the idea for law school got planted in his brain. It wasn’t my idea. :)
36.
burnspbesq
“Sunday! Sunday at New York National Speedway! Nitro-burning Funny Cars! Big Daddy Don Garlits! Long Island Expressway Exit 56! Sunday!”
Everyone who lived in the New York radio market in the 1960s can recite those ads by heart.
37.
raven
@burnspbesq: In Chicago it was the very same ad except US 30.
It was not a pretty game – should have enthused the NHL fans of goonball. But congrats to Yale, they made a lot of very good teams fail when it mattered.
Whats Maine’s problems? Minnesota’s is that they can’t get 20 guys who all think they want to be in the NHL to play 6 periods of hockey a weekend. They came the closest to beating Yale in the opener but were sloppy too often, most painfully in the opening seconds of OT.
I can kind of dig the appeal of F1, just because of course layout and how each driver handles it. I also could possibly enjoy Rally racing, due to the different locales and crazy conditions. Piss poor spectator sport though.
They need to learn how to broadcast rally as well. It’s really an amazing sport, but it just doesn’t translate well.
If you get NBC sports channel, the F1 grand prix of China starts in about 4 hours. F1 changes quite a lot over time – they’ve really changed the rules considerably in the last few years and it’s improved the sport a lot. The big development this year (not a rule change) is that there is only one tire manufacturer who brings two types of tires to each race. Everyone must use each type of tire at least once during the race. The manufacturer deliberately makes the tires super-fast, but extremely fragile. A set of tires could last as few as 20 miles. Going fast while not destroying your tires is a big part of the sport right now. Everyone handles it in different ways and every circuit does present different challenges as you note.
42.
KG
@efgoldman: in Southern California there was always a third Sunday, as in:
Sunday, SUNday, SANDAY! And it was always at Angel Stadium
43.
scav
@Woodrowfan: Seriously, and that’s just going by the clips until . . . . well, sneakiness or kindness. Ice Warriors and I want to see those sun glasses in action. arrrgh! Saturdays are sheer joy of ungratified geekitude. watching some old stuff to calm the jitters.
44.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Redshirt: I ran in a drag race a few years back. An HIV charity benefit. It was a relay which required mininum 2″ heels (and there was a “heel review committee” that checked). Team members “passed” the team dress and wig after each leg, which was from one bar to another 2 city blocks apart. You ran in your own shoes. You had to do a shot before passing the dress/wig, though you could request that the shot be water. I was very glad we did not win our heat.
ETA: Some of the actual drag queens were quite fast, and of course had fabulous team dresses, as well as wigs. I got out team a giant plus size shift for quick baton passing. We were anti-stylish, but we could pass quickly.
45.
arguingwithsignposts
You know what? Fuck college hockey! They should be putting their games out on the Internet to build interest outside their fucking markets, but NOOOO! Can’t find a goddamn game anywhere outside of cable or local market TV.
And fuck the NHL online “live” package which only includes out-of-market games and nothing that shows on national TV. I’m paying for this fucking package, I should at least be able to watch in-market games AFTER THEY’RE OVER! And, being sandwiched between two markets, I can’t see either the Blues or the Blackhawks. Fuck you NHL!
You want to know why people pirate stuff? Because you won’t give them a way to PAY YOU MONEY without a TV and all your bullshit restrictions.
@Schlemizel: Maine’s problems, according to local sports radio, is inferior facilities. And no fund raising ability to address the issue. Or only a recent awareness that this issue needed to be addressed – coasting on old glory. Many other college hockey programs have far newer, superior facilities and this has changed the sport, with Maine being left behind.
I’m not sure I buy it as the total reason for Maine’s decline (overly nice Coach, unwilling to discipline), but I’m also sure it does play a part. If you were some hockey phenom getting recruited by many hockey schools, wouldn’t it matter to you?
48.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@burnspbesq: “Nitro burning funny cars cars cars! At the Cow Palace palace palace! Dynamite lady blows herself apart!!!”
49.
Yutsano
OT: the FSM does not love me enough for this to happen. But the popcorn moments would be epic.
Sure did. Big John, and his Candy Apple Red ’40 Willys (With god’s own Hemi) used to show up pretty regularly at Irwindale.
Back then I preferred Fontana, but I ran at Irwindale at least once a month so I actually met the man.
@efgoldman: Yeah, exactly. Orono is depressing as heck.
52.
Davis X. Machina
@efgoldman: One of the afternoon sports talk-people up here is an ex-UMaine goalie.
He seems to think that the problem isn’t talent, but coaching, that you don’t have recent alums in the NHL, and recent players winning the Hobie Baker, as UMaine has, if the problem is recruitment and talent.
Where you play isn’t minor, but it isn’t major, either. Minnesota-Duluth, Ferris State, Miami (Ohio) and NoDak have all played in finals recently, beside the BC’s and Denvers.
53.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yutsano: @efgoldman: I never had a lot of respect for Scottie’s intelligence, some political shrewdness but stuff like the kings and queens line, baiting Elizabeth Warren over her looks were just stupid, but I can’t believe he’s dumb enough to try to carpetbag his way back to the Senate. What happened to rumors about him waiting out the MA gov-ship?
Its all abut the money, first last and always. You can get a lot of college games on internet radio (go to the teams web site) for free and some have pay-per-view for TV. But its dollars first.
There are only a couple of reasons to pick one college over another (other than enjoying the environment or feeling some kinship to a school). You either think it gives you a chance to play for a winner or – and this is increasingly the only reason – it will get you to the NHL. If I had that level of skill I would only have 6 teams to consider and would pick the one where I was most likely to be on one of the top 2 lines early.
Football has the same problem. Since it is only the minor league for the NFL and money makes all the difference the teams that have been winning for the last 5 years will remain on top & everyone else will trail along unless something dramatic happens. Basketball is a bit different simply because you only need 3 good players to contend but even there you see the elite & everyone else.
55.
arguingwithsignposts
@Schlemizel: I realize it’s all about the money. That’s part of my point though. I would pay money to see some good college hockey on the Internet, but for some stupid ass reason, the Big 10 University Near Me doesn’t have a real hockey program. And I can’t get any of the others if I don’t have a TV. I don’t want a middle-man, for fuck sake.
@Schlemizel: Sure, no doubt. But there are only so many spots at Alabama, etc. Trickle down theory dictates Class Theory in College Sports. The lower classes get by with squash and handball.
58.
dance around in your bones
I don’t know – I’m half an hour into the Louis C.K. thing, and usually I like him, but this one hasn’t made me hardly crack a smile, and I even put on my specially enhanced goggles to view it.
I don’t know – I’m half an hour into the Louis C.K. thing, and usually I like him, but this one hasn’t made me hardly crack a smile, and I even put on my specially enhanced goggles to view it.
It was not good, especially the first thirty minutes. The quality is way below the standard he’s been setting since Shameless.
The round stage and his more flamboyant delivery were bad choices.
Louis CK has been the best comedian in the world for the last 4 or 5 years, but I think he is starting to spread himself too thin now. With the FX show, touring and still releasing a new comedy special every year, he was bound to see a drop in quality.
Check out his 2011 set in Melbourne. The audio isn’t great, but the quality of the comedy is way better than the stuff in tonight’s special.
Just finished the Louis C.K. show and was underwhelmed.
I’ll check out the link you provided. Maybe I’ll laugh more.
Just ran across Quadrophenia on the TV machine, so I think I’ll watch that for a while. Mods and Rockers!
61.
Hill Dweller
@dance around in your bones: Louis CK’s run from 2007 to 2012 was about as good as you’ll ever see from a comic. He did Shameless(’07), Chewed Up(’08), Hilarious(’09/’10), and Live at the Beacon Theater(’11); a handful of successful tours; directed, wrote, starred and produced three seasons on Louie; and appeared in a couple of movies and TV shows. There was nowhere to go but down from there.
With this mediocre special out of the way and a long break coming for his tv show, which is on hiatus until 2014, I hope Louis CK regroups. I’d hate to see one of the few bright spots in comedy start putting out shitty material.
Ditto San Antonio; there it was New Braunfels Raceway.
63.
LanceThruster
I liked it regardless how it stacked to to previous material.
When I think of all the comedy specials I’ve given a chance to be funny and just wind up getting pissed however many minutes I wasted on waiting not to be pissed off by some unfunny f#ck, I relish a Louis C.K. who leaves me some material to reapeat on Monday at the office.
I grew up having unfunny comics inflicted on me by the MSM (I’m looking at you Robert Klein – though he’s a good comic actor…at least when playing some obnoxious putz) so I like them to throw whatever they got at me and the things we each enjoyed most might be different.
I didn’t like the ‘having to wipe your ass for no reason’ joke, but mostly because I’m at the age I know what he’s talking about.
And for the record, Robert Klein is laughing all the way to the bank (as he should) because there’s plenty of people who do like him.
BGinCHI
Thanks for the heads up.
I assume most of the commentariat are watching the NRA 500 from Texas.
Or, as I call it, “fuck the NRA.”
Redshirt
@BGinCHI: LOLWUT?
BJ does not seem like the Nascar demographic.
I tried watching that crap a couple of times. Wow! Round and round, how exciting!
Calming Influence
Good interview with him in the latest Rolling Stone, too.
BGinCHI
@Redshirt: I almost never use snark here but I thought just this one time I’d try it…..
Redshirt
@BGinCHI: Twas good snark.
Has anyone ever been to a race? If possible, it’s in many ways worse than watching on TV. So freaking loud! There is plenty of tailgating/drinking though, so that’s good.
gogol's wife
Too bad a much superior comedian didn’t warrant a memorial thread around here. Makes me very sad.
raven
Just finished Hyde Park on the Hudson and we really liked it. Pretty weak reviews though.
Redshirt
Speaking of comedians, anyone a fan of Mitch Hedberg? I just discovered him last year and wow is he hilarious. Kinda like a new school Steven Wright.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshirt: a friend once invited my father to the Indy 500 and was bewildered by his instant “no thanks”
@gogol’s wife: we can take over this one
Do you happen to listen to Marc Maron’s podcast? He’s going to be re-posting his interview with Jonathan Winters from last year.
raven
@Redshirt: Dirt track, bike races and drags. None of that NASCAR shit.
Santa Fe Speedway in Chicago was the bomb. They even had stock cars races in Soldier Field.
Redshirt
@raven: You enjoy Drag Racing? Good lord why? How? What’s there to it?
Now, if it were Drag Queens in a foot race, that would be a different story.
raven
@efgoldman: Nah, I posted my inclinations above. My hot rod pick up truck is a street rod. I used to eat breakfast with a bunch of gear heads that were way into NASCAR but I never got into it.
raven
This documentary is a scream
Ingenuity In Action (1959) NHRA Hot Rod Film
Corny music, guys that dress alike and lot’s of grabass. Oh yea, badass drag machines.
gogol's wife
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’ve been going on YouTube all day, and every random clip I find is just genius. Here’s a hilarious one — “the wagonmaster”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixuwS0E2LZU
raven
@Redshirt: When I was in high school we’d go to Oswego, West of Chicago and when I was in LA we’d go to the famous Lions Dragstrip in Long Beach. I hadn’t been in years but went up to Commerce, GA for the Super Chevy Show a few years back and enjoyed it. I drove trucks in the Army and have always had either a 60’s GMC or Chevy pickup. I gave up bikes many years ago except for the occasional Harley rental wit da boys.
KG
Chael Sonnen sounds like a mid card professional wrestler from the 80s the way he’s talking up his fight with Jon Jones. I’m not sure if I like him more for that or less
dewzke
It’s go time.
Redshirt
@raven: I still don’t get the entertainment appeal of a drag race. Unless you’re the one dragging, then I get it. Same with all motor sports.
Heywood J.
C.K. is da bomb.
Also, more animal photos (including bovines!) and a heartfelt thanks.
? Martin
I’m quite an F1 fan, and I’ll watch the occasional NASCAR race – Daytona, usually, mainly just to see what’s going on. But not any more. NRA is a bridge too far for me.
raven
@Redshirt: Yea, it ain’t for everyone. Standing on the fence when the fuelers go by is insane. Even though you know what’s going to happen it so fucking loud that is sucks the air out of your lungs.
raven
@? Martin: I would have loved to see Daytona when they ran on the beach.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I went to Indy once. A friend had tickets so we drove over. Our seats were just opposite the pits, so they were pretty good but I don’t care for oval track racing. F1 or Le Mans series are okay.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: All those years in Urbana and I never made it.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: I remember the trip as much for the sea bass I had for dinner the night before as the race itself.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Had some serious fun running a built Austin-Cooper 1275S at Lions, Irwindale, Pomona, Fontana, etc. in the mid-Sixties. Best setup was to lock the rear suspension (Car had Hydrolastic and would unload on launch otherwise) run Quarter Midget slicks up front and drop the hammer six-and-a-half grand at the green light. Good times – even if I did keep BMC profitable through buying front inboard u-joints by the case.
Woodrowfan
race? feh. Ice Warriors are cool.
Redshirt
I can kind of dig the appeal of F1, just because of course layout and how each driver handles it. I also could possibly enjoy Rally racing, due to the different locales and crazy conditions. Piss poor spectator sport though.
But oval racing? Or straight line racing? Do not understand.
? Martin
@Redshirt: There’s a lot of variation in motor sport, but when it’s done right, the interplay between technology, strategy, teamwork, and driving skill can be pretty exciting. It requires a fair bit of knowledge about the sport though for that to emerge, but it’s not unlike baseball that way. To a new viewer, there doesn’t seem to be much depth to the game, yet true fans will know if a pitcher is weak against a left-handed hitter at a clutch point in the game and be excited to see a reliever come in. That’d be lost on causal viewers. Same thing. I’m sure cricket is exciting, but I’ve never been able to watch enough games to get more than a cursory understanding of the game.
burnspbesq
Congrats to Yale on winning the NCAA men’s hockey championship in an all-ECAC final. Hopefully this will shut up all you ignorami who think only BC plays college hockey east of the Delaware River.
raven
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: FUKIN A!!!! Did you look at the NHRA video I posted?
I loved the gassers. Big John Mazmanian and Stone Woods and Cook!
hildebrand
@Woodrowfan: Great episode tonight. Bit of a throwback to the older series.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Nap town for seafood, who knew???
Redshirt
@burnspbesq: Wow. Q-Pac was heavily favored.
UMaine just fired their hockey head coach which is big news up here. And a general despair about the state of the hockey team.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: I’ll keep this piece of info for the NYD since he’s an impending Yalie. I’m still trying to figure out where the idea for law school got planted in his brain. It wasn’t my idea. :)
burnspbesq
“Sunday! Sunday at New York National Speedway! Nitro-burning Funny Cars! Big Daddy Don Garlits! Long Island Expressway Exit 56! Sunday!”
Everyone who lived in the New York radio market in the 1960s can recite those ads by heart.
raven
@burnspbesq: In Chicago it was the very same ad except US 30.
mai naem
I caught this piece when I went on the google to look at the SEC deal on the KPMG partner. It’s an long piece from last year – actually made me feel better about the SEC under Obama but also shows how underfinanced the SEC is –
http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/20972-the-sec-outmanned-outgunned-and-on-a-roll
oh, I did in the printer mode so that I wouldn’t have to go through fifteen pages.
raven
@efgoldman: Did you have Chickenman? He’s everywhere he’s everywhere!!!!
Schlemizel
@Redshirt:
It was not a pretty game – should have enthused the NHL fans of goonball. But congrats to Yale, they made a lot of very good teams fail when it mattered.
Whats Maine’s problems? Minnesota’s is that they can’t get 20 guys who all think they want to be in the NHL to play 6 periods of hockey a weekend. They came the closest to beating Yale in the opener but were sloppy too often, most painfully in the opening seconds of OT.
? Martin
@Redshirt:
They need to learn how to broadcast rally as well. It’s really an amazing sport, but it just doesn’t translate well.
If you get NBC sports channel, the F1 grand prix of China starts in about 4 hours. F1 changes quite a lot over time – they’ve really changed the rules considerably in the last few years and it’s improved the sport a lot. The big development this year (not a rule change) is that there is only one tire manufacturer who brings two types of tires to each race. Everyone must use each type of tire at least once during the race. The manufacturer deliberately makes the tires super-fast, but extremely fragile. A set of tires could last as few as 20 miles. Going fast while not destroying your tires is a big part of the sport right now. Everyone handles it in different ways and every circuit does present different challenges as you note.
KG
@efgoldman: in Southern California there was always a third Sunday, as in:
Sunday, SUNday, SANDAY! And it was always at Angel Stadium
scav
@Woodrowfan: Seriously, and that’s just going by the clips until . . . . well, sneakiness or kindness. Ice Warriors and I want to see those sun glasses in action. arrrgh! Saturdays are sheer joy of ungratified geekitude. watching some old stuff to calm the jitters.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Redshirt: I ran in a drag race a few years back. An HIV charity benefit. It was a relay which required mininum 2″ heels (and there was a “heel review committee” that checked). Team members “passed” the team dress and wig after each leg, which was from one bar to another 2 city blocks apart. You ran in your own shoes. You had to do a shot before passing the dress/wig, though you could request that the shot be water. I was very glad we did not win our heat.
ETA: Some of the actual drag queens were quite fast, and of course had fabulous team dresses, as well as wigs. I got out team a giant plus size shift for quick baton passing. We were anti-stylish, but we could pass quickly.
arguingwithsignposts
You know what? Fuck college hockey! They should be putting their games out on the Internet to build interest outside their fucking markets, but NOOOO! Can’t find a goddamn game anywhere outside of cable or local market TV.
And fuck the NHL online “live” package which only includes out-of-market games and nothing that shows on national TV. I’m paying for this fucking package, I should at least be able to watch in-market games AFTER THEY’RE OVER! And, being sandwiched between two markets, I can’t see either the Blues or the Blackhawks. Fuck you NHL!
You want to know why people pirate stuff? Because you won’t give them a way to PAY YOU MONEY without a TV and all your bullshit restrictions.
/rant
Redshirt
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Awesome sauce. I would’ve loved to have gambled on this race.
Redshirt
@Schlemizel: Maine’s problems, according to local sports radio, is inferior facilities. And no fund raising ability to address the issue. Or only a recent awareness that this issue needed to be addressed – coasting on old glory. Many other college hockey programs have far newer, superior facilities and this has changed the sport, with Maine being left behind.
I’m not sure I buy it as the total reason for Maine’s decline (overly nice Coach, unwilling to discipline), but I’m also sure it does play a part. If you were some hockey phenom getting recruited by many hockey schools, wouldn’t it matter to you?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@burnspbesq: “Nitro burning funny cars cars cars! At the Cow Palace palace palace! Dynamite lady blows herself apart!!!”
Yutsano
OT: the FSM does not love me enough for this to happen. But the popcorn moments would be epic.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Sure did. Big John, and his Candy Apple Red ’40 Willys (With god’s own Hemi) used to show up pretty regularly at Irwindale.
Back then I preferred Fontana, but I ran at Irwindale at least once a month so I actually met the man.
Redshirt
@efgoldman: Yeah, exactly. Orono is depressing as heck.
Davis X. Machina
@efgoldman: One of the afternoon sports talk-people up here is an ex-UMaine goalie.
He seems to think that the problem isn’t talent, but coaching, that you don’t have recent alums in the NHL, and recent players winning the Hobie Baker, as UMaine has, if the problem is recruitment and talent.
Where you play isn’t minor, but it isn’t major, either. Minnesota-Duluth, Ferris State, Miami (Ohio) and NoDak have all played in finals recently, beside the BC’s and Denvers.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yutsano: @efgoldman: I never had a lot of respect for Scottie’s intelligence, some political shrewdness but stuff like the kings and queens line, baiting Elizabeth Warren over her looks were just stupid, but I can’t believe he’s dumb enough to try to carpetbag his way back to the Senate. What happened to rumors about him waiting out the MA gov-ship?
Schlemizel
@arguingwithsignposts:
Its all abut the money, first last and always. You can get a lot of college games on internet radio (go to the teams web site) for free and some have pay-per-view for TV. But its dollars first.
@Redshirt:
There are only a couple of reasons to pick one college over another (other than enjoying the environment or feeling some kinship to a school). You either think it gives you a chance to play for a winner or – and this is increasingly the only reason – it will get you to the NHL. If I had that level of skill I would only have 6 teams to consider and would pick the one where I was most likely to be on one of the top 2 lines early.
Football has the same problem. Since it is only the minor league for the NFL and money makes all the difference the teams that have been winning for the last 5 years will remain on top & everyone else will trail along unless something dramatic happens. Basketball is a bit different simply because you only need 3 good players to contend but even there you see the elite & everyone else.
arguingwithsignposts
@Schlemizel: I realize it’s all about the money. That’s part of my point though. I would pay money to see some good college hockey on the Internet, but for some stupid ass reason, the Big 10 University Near Me doesn’t have a real hockey program. And I can’t get any of the others if I don’t have a TV. I don’t want a middle-man, for fuck sake.
dance around in your bones
I’m fired up and ready to go! Just starting now.
Redshirt
@Schlemizel: Sure, no doubt. But there are only so many spots at Alabama, etc. Trickle down theory dictates Class Theory in College Sports. The lower classes get by with squash and handball.
dance around in your bones
I don’t know – I’m half an hour into the Louis C.K. thing, and usually I like him, but this one hasn’t made me hardly crack a smile, and I even put on my specially enhanced goggles to view it.
Hill Dweller
@dance around in your bones:
It was not good, especially the first thirty minutes. The quality is way below the standard he’s been setting since Shameless.
The round stage and his more flamboyant delivery were bad choices.
Louis CK has been the best comedian in the world for the last 4 or 5 years, but I think he is starting to spread himself too thin now. With the FX show, touring and still releasing a new comedy special every year, he was bound to see a drop in quality.
Check out his 2011 set in Melbourne. The audio isn’t great, but the quality of the comedy is way better than the stuff in tonight’s special.
dance around in your bones
@Hill Dweller:
Just finished the Louis C.K. show and was underwhelmed.
I’ll check out the link you provided. Maybe I’ll laugh more.
Just ran across Quadrophenia on the TV machine, so I think I’ll watch that for a while. Mods and Rockers!
Hill Dweller
@dance around in your bones: Louis CK’s run from 2007 to 2012 was about as good as you’ll ever see from a comic. He did Shameless(’07), Chewed Up(’08), Hilarious(’09/’10), and Live at the Beacon Theater(’11); a handful of successful tours; directed, wrote, starred and produced three seasons on Louie; and appeared in a couple of movies and TV shows. There was nowhere to go but down from there.
With this mediocre special out of the way and a long break coming for his tv show, which is on hiatus until 2014, I hope Louis CK regroups. I’d hate to see one of the few bright spots in comedy start putting out shitty material.
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq, @raven:
Ditto San Antonio; there it was New Braunfels Raceway.
LanceThruster
I liked it regardless how it stacked to to previous material.
When I think of all the comedy specials I’ve given a chance to be funny and just wind up getting pissed however many minutes I wasted on waiting not to be pissed off by some unfunny f#ck, I relish a Louis C.K. who leaves me some material to reapeat on Monday at the office.
I grew up having unfunny comics inflicted on me by the MSM (I’m looking at you Robert Klein – though he’s a good comic actor…at least when playing some obnoxious putz) so I like them to throw whatever they got at me and the things we each enjoyed most might be different.
I didn’t like the ‘having to wipe your ass for no reason’ joke, but mostly because I’m at the age I know what he’s talking about.
And for the record, Robert Klein is laughing all the way to the bank (as he should) because there’s plenty of people who do like him.
Steeplejack
@LanceThruster:
Robert Klein used to be funny. Now he’s a nostalgia act.