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January 4, 2012

A surprise (but very welcome) visitor asked the question:
"What would you do if I wasn't here?"

A) Watch "24/7 Flyers Rangers"

The entire first episode appears to be on youtube?
Nice move, HBO.

B) Play Rocksmith

This is the culmination of years of practice with"Fisher Price" plastic instruments.  
I always thought those skills would translate to a real guitar.  
See? I wasn't just wasting my time with Guitar Hero, and Guitar Hero 2, and Guitar Hero 3, and Rock Band, and Rock Band 2, and Rock Band 3, and Beatles Rock Band.

Linkage:

Hidden Drama in HBO’s 24/7
by Katie Baker

The first episode contained something for everyone. For Flyers fans, there was Wayne Simmonds calling Philadelphia "a way better hockey town" than L.A., and coach Peter Laviolette aptly describing his guys as "a fuckin' giddy-up-and-go type team." For New Yorkers, there was the ho-hum sight of children filing into a party bus rented from "Exotic Limousines" and the more pulse-quickening footage of Rangers taking taxis and subways to their games. Hey, that's my line!

For connoisseurs of the curse, who were treated well in Season 1, the F-bombs flew again: "43 in English,"by Greg Wyshynski's count. The mics caught plenty of on-ice negotiations, too,¹ in various permutations of officials, players, and coaches.

And for anyone with a sense of whimsy and/or a soul there was Flyers' goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

"I'm very into the universe," he explained from beneath a blond Dinner for Schmucks haircut. "Like, how is it created? Like, what is it?"

He cheerfully recounted the offseason reactions he got about signing with Philly, which included the phrases "going to hell" and "miserable market for a goalie." Later, he weighed in on international relations. "China law," he explained. "If you kill the tiger, and they find you, you're dead. It's over." I've never heard foreign policy be so accurately and concisely summed up.

12 Quick Thoughts on the Winter Classic

by Katie Baker

The NHL Winter Classic feels like nothing so much as a wedding. There's almost a full year of build-up and planning, of finding vendors and making the most minute of arrangements. Check in at the hotel and you're given a room key card festooned with the Classic's logo, not unlike when the concierge hands over one of those welcome goody bags stamped with the bride and groom's names. There are days of activity-filled buildup, and just as we've all been to rehearsal dinners that are just as (or more!) fun than the actual wedding, some of these preludes, like this year's Alumni Game, are truly memorable even on their own.

And then, of course, it's the Big Day and everything happens so fast and suddenly it's all over and where did all that time go? And you feel a combination of relieved, wistful, energized, a little empty inside, and also really hungover as you rush to make it to that early morning train the next day. With all that in mind, here are 12 quick thoughts from the 2012 Winter Classic extravaganza, in roughly chronological order. 

Review From AV Club
by Myles McNutt

What’s interesting about all of this is that the NHL is presenting themselves as proactive in this matter, suspending players and even posting online videos to explain the suspension to help spread awareness of the increased efforts to cut down on dangerous hits, and yet this glossy sales pitch for the “reality” of hockey is still valorizing the violence at the heart of the game. I’m not suggesting that the series needs to vilify that violence, or that violence doesn’t belong in the sport, but it feels as though given the current tenor of conversation some of 24/7’s aims feel as though they don’t quite jibe with the NHL’s public stance on the issue.

It simply feels as though the media coverage of hockey right now - like this Grantland piece, for example - is more centered than ever before on the physical consequences of the game’s violence, and to watch a documentary operating within that space skirt past those issues becomes problematic if not unexpected. I don’t expect this NHL-co-produced documentary to start becoming critical of the league for glorifying violence, nor do I necessarily think they are glorifying violence (although, technically speaking, I’m not exactly a huge proponent of fighting’s place in hockey, if we want to get down to my personal opinion). But just a few weeks after the New York Times’ piece about the life and death of Derek Boogaard, which is actually part of a series of tragic deaths of NHL enforcers that have been linked to long-term ailments suffered during their careers, there’s something odd about seeing these issues glossed over, like when a kid asked a Ranger player “why do you fight in hockey” and it was elided with a chuckle — it may not be the story this documentary series intends to tell, but it nonetheless hangs over the proceedings, and is something I’m curious to see them grapple with as Giroux works to recover in the weeks ahead and as we'll no doubt see more fights break out.