A mistake in judgement and an impossible list to come up with

Okay, I know all about trying to “grow an audience” or offer some kind of quirky extra to some media outlets to reach people you might not normally reach and at some level it makes entire sense.

But here’s thing:

If you’re going to do something different or off-the-wall and out of the ordinary, I think you need to make sure you aren’t going to alienate the regulars, don’t offend a segment of your viewership or readership or what have you because any gains you make could very well be offset by the losses you sustain.

That – among several other reasons – is why I can’t quite get this, a move by the CBC to basically offend serious female hockey fans with some comic take that plays to a stereotype that I’m not sure exists any more.

Look, I don’t have a vested interest in this, I really don’t give a hoot about the pucks and I’m certainly not going to play along with their basically sexist reindeer games but it seems to me this is an ill-conceived notion.

Sure, it might be funny and well written but the underlying theme that suggest some women might sit around watching hockey – or any sport – simply because the men do and isn’t it fun to look at all the cute boys and mock the idiosyncrasies of the game strikes me as rather silly.

I can see how many women would be offended by this and think less of the powers that be who promote it; I don’t think it’s politically correct of me to say that we have moved on as people from this kind of stuff.

My first reaction to hearing about it yesterday afternoon was something along the lines of “you’ve go to be kidding me, this is 2012, surely this isn’t something anyone really wants, is it?”

That hasn’t changed an awful lot; I think it’s a mistake in judgement that will offend at some level far more people than it will entertain.

-

Know what made me laugh?

The report – it’s here – that Shaquille O’Neal will even get cursory consideration for the Orlando Magic general manager’s job.

I’m not doubting the veracity of the report, or Shaq’s alleged interest in returning to the franchise that he unceremoniously quit as soon as he could so many years ago.

No, who I’m doubting are his talents, his commitment and the whether this is little more that some kind of awful publicity stunt perpetrated by O’Neal, the Magic or both.

Look, Shaq was a great player, probably one of the top seven or eight centres to ever play the game. But he also lacked any kind of significant work ethic at the end, he’s got no experience and, sure, he’d probably love the job but so would I so where do I send my resume?

Publicity stunt, that’s what this is and if it isn’t, Orlando officials ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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Okay, well, this should be good, given we have a collection of Irregulars Of A Certain Vintage who will most assuredly weigh in and the young ‘uns among you might want to pay attention.

Bob Dylan – The Great Bob Dylan – turns 70 71 today and here’s an impossible task:

Best song?

Impossible, right?

Ballads, social commentary, a sneer and the tweaking of social conventions.

Can’t pick one; hell, you probably can’t pick 10 and I think I know what the computer will be playing most of the day.

I vaguely recall the moment when Dylan Went Electric but I seem to remember it being a seminal moment in the music world, he was booed and heckled and seen as some sellout.

And he went on to make some of the great music of all time.

You cannot come up with a short playlist of Dylan songs to get you through the day; you can’t find five or 10 or even maybe 20.

But if you start here

And then go here

You might be on the right track.

Whaddya think?

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TFC! TFC! TFC!

Yep, best 0-9 team in Canada for sure!

Start the season ticket drive today.

-

Mail?

Slow day yesterday, please be a bit better today, thank you very much.

Click. Write. Send.

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Got to be around the middle of the third quarter of Celtics-Sixers last night – I think there’d been about a billion missed shots, fouls and turnovers in a row (the game highlights, they must have called it) – and there was only one thought on the mind:

What kind of bandages do you use to stop bleeding from the eyes?

Seriously, if that wasn’t the most sloppy playoff game I’ve seen in eons, I’ve put out of my mind the one that was. It was ugly – or as Larry Bird would say “U G L Y” and we can only hope Game 7 has some kind of compelling, well-played stretches.

Or, we can hope the see the futility of it and just flip a coin to see who wins. Do it for the East Final, too, and let us sit back and enjoy some real basketball from Texas and OKC while the other pretenders contest the B Flight.

One scary thing?

I think we’d all agree that Game 7s seldom live up to the hype, teams have a tendency to play more carefully than they normally do, the games are a slog rather than a performance and, wow, we could be in for one butt-ugly contest.

-

Three games for Pittman, one for Haslem and nothing for Hansbrough?

Yeah, think the league got it right with the suspensions in the Heat-Pacers series but if they did err, I think they erred on the side of leniency.

I still say five games for Pittman would have been more appropriate; that was an egregious assault right up there with World Peace’s attack on James Harden and while a message has been sent, it could have been louder.

Now, will it have an impact on Game 6 tonight?

It may indeed; Haslem may not be particularly good most nights but without Bosh, and even without the few minutes Pittman plays each game, the Heat will have even more difficult time handling Roy Hibbert (who was never going to be a Raptor and you would have soured on him over two ho-hum seasons anyway) and David West.

So maybe that gets us another Game 7 on Saturday and we can only hope it’s played at a somewhat higher entertainment level and the Sixers-Celtics.

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Mighty Red Tigers tonight. Think good thoughts, please.

-

 

 

Comments

[Mike D.]

I'm sure the Irregulars would support you as a candidate for GM of the Magic, Doug - maybe you could set up a link to an on-line petition we could all click (repeatedly, if you clear cookies on your PC, like the NBA All-Star voting). But to compete with the likes of Shaq, you'll need a catchy nickname....I was thinking of "The Big Candid".

[LeeZ]

In Scorcese's wonderful documentary on Dylan entitled No Direction Home, Al Kooper, the organist on Like a Rolling Stone tells this great story about how he desperately wanted in on the session, and once he realized they had Mike Bloomfeld on guitar (Kooper's natural instrument), he flat out lied and said he played the organ. In the song, you hear Kooper coming in an 8th note late every time (he wanted to make sure he was getting the chords right, so he waited till he heard what everyone else was playing). Dylan thought Kooper was doing it on purpose, called him a genius, and insisted that the producer Tom Wilson (who knew Cooper was full of s&*t but didn't want to offend Dylan) crank up the volume on the organ. And sure enough, as you listen to the song, Kooper coming in late adds a touch of genius to it, making it that much a greater song.

[LeeZ]

Doug, you just can't do a top 10, or even top 20 list with Dylan. It simply can't be done. A more feasible exercise, in my opinion, is to rank his top three albums. Some would say Highway 61, featuring Like a Rolling Stone, the lyrics of which Dylan would later equate to a "long piece of vomit". Also has such masterpieces as Ballad of a Thin Man and Desolation Row. Others consider Bringing it All Back Home to be his greatest, with one side electric and the othe side accoustic. Songs like Subterranean Homesick Blues (the first ever rap song), Maggie's Farm, Mr. Tambourine Man, Gates of Eden, and It's all over now, Baby Blue. Still others argue that Blood on the Tracks is his finest, not so much for the individual songs but for the incredible feel of the album. Personally, I'd rank them as follows: Bringing It, then Highway, then Blood.

[AT]

a bit more cynical that usual today?
.

[Geoff]

My favorite is definitely " A Hard Rain's A-gonna Fall". I am especially fond of Joan Baez's version.
@ Leez: god you have a vast treasure chest full of knowledge. Thanks for continually sharing it with us all.
Can't wait till Sunday for the western finals. I actually can't stand watching the two eastern series.
Doug: please an IGBT for one of those games?!?!

Blogger's note: Have to confirm with Tall Foreheads but think we should start Sunday night; but maybe Saturday if life doesn't get in the way

[TLI]

@LeeZ: great story about Kooper! Bloomfield must have fallen for the "genius" too, since he teamed up with Kooper (on keyboards) for Super Session.

The things we learn at the basketball blog...

[511]

I could take up way too much room talking about how fun it was evolving from ‘getting it’ to ‘loving it’, when it comes to Bob Dylan. Suffice to say, some mornings, on waking, I know I’ll have to listen to Visions Of Johanna and then, likely, the whole of Blonde on Blonde. Other days, other tunes, other albums. To round out a top three (of albums), I might go with Blood On The Tracks and ... maybe Desire. But that’s today. HB, Bob.

[David in Oakville]

My first thought when I read the Shaq as GM candidate for the Magic was.. did anyone tell him that the GM works all 12 months of the year. The one part of the job Shaq seems to have mastered is the ability to never say anything of interest. Of course, in a city with a Magic Kingdom where princesses abound, Shaq as GM makes sense in the same way that Prince Charles, the future King of England, will one day run the country and ours too.

I agree with some of the comments yesterday, I thought Hansbrough made a good, hard basketball play. Sure he fouled Wade but it was a legitimate block where the contact with Wade's head was incidental to his attempt to swat the ball (and it does look like he gets the ball). Haslem looked like he was delivering an open palm punch to Hansbrough with little interest with where the ball was. Pittman, complete thug, should sit for the rest of the playoffs.

As for Dylan, in my mind, his voice, presentation and lyrics were always best suited to the folk style that he started with. Not sure why but when I think of Dylan I always think of Maggies Farm and the beat generation.

[Lorie]

Morning Doug,
My first introduction to Bob Dylan was 'Blowin' In The Wind', and for a whole generation of those of us of A Certain Vintage it was an anthem more than merely a piece of music. It was described as 'the song best fit for the time capsule of humanity'. Well, certainly for my generation. I don't think that's overstating its importance, do you? Lately I've been listening to this one - Shelter From The Storm.
http://youtu.be/f8TayMIEUaM
And don't forget about the songs he wrote with other musicians - Dylan's and Danko's "This Wheel's On Fire" collaboration is worth a listen or two.
http://youtu.be/YkbkkbicmYs
As far as that CBC nonsense, the most annoying thing to me (and you can well imagine my many levels of annoyance with it!!!) is the high profile HNIC platform being given these two women instead of more serious-minded female journalists who would have better represented the interests and opinions of most women sports fans. Wonder if the names and titles of the HNIC employees - as well as a transcript of their meeting - who decided this would be a good idea is available? I'm always curious about the thought (we assume there was some) process behind these sorts of decisions. So, good luck tonight, Doug! Glad to read your Tigers are Mighty and that they have proven themselves to be the one "G" sort!
Cheers!

[doug]

No Direction Home is a superb documentary and the thing that makes it all the more superb is Dylan actually talking and saying his opinion not others speaking it for him...the amount of stories ,anecdotes in that movie is limitless...I liked when Dylan was commenting on being a voice of a generation, his response to paraphrase is I am no voice of a generation, or for anyone else, I am my own voice, be your own voice....that after he went electric and the folk crowd thought he had sold him out, also Pete Seeger's reaction backstage was classic...and Dylan being Dylan only decided to go electric spontaneously as he had been irritated by what he considered condescending remarks which festival organiser Alan Lomax had made about the Paul Butterfield Blues Band....he's a interesting man, and there can be no top 10 or 30 with him...even listen to Slow Train Coming, a later album, great tunes and a song like Gotta Serve Somebody, falls where in his catalogue?..but a wonderful song....ok cheers, to have a discussion on Dylan and then Shaq is the 2 ends of the spectrum and is what best defines this blog...cheers...

[Philosoraptor]

@David, not sure why you bring up Maggie's Farm as an example of Dylan's folk style. It's deeply ironic considering that he opened his electric set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with Maggie's Farm, prompting boos, catcalls and Pete Seeger to grab a fire axe and attempt to chop the electrical feed to the stage!

Go Sixers Go Pacers!

[LeeZ]

@Philosoraptor: That whole thing with Pete Seger, as with all things having to do with Dylan, is ambiguous, multi-layered and blurred to the point where no one truly knows what actually happened, save for Seger himself. But Seeger did NOT have an axe and he did NOT attempt to chop the feed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Dylan_controversy

[Jonathan M]

There's never a reason to not have a Bob Dylan discussion, just thought I'd point out that you were a candle short. The man's 71 today.

[Robert Bertuzzi]

Roy Hibbert's stats in his first two years were 9.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg and 1.4 bpg in just under 20 minutes a game. By comparison, our "stud" Andrea Bargnani averaged 10.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg and 0.7 bpg in a little over 24 minutes of game action. Not much value for a first overall pick vis-a-vis a 17th pick. Then again, I hope the fan base has sufficiently soured on Bargnani except for the kool-aid drinkers and those that treat the administration with an obsequious fealty more appropriate to the retinue of followers monarchs enjoyed at the height of court life.

Blogger's note: Impressive language. Apples and oranges argument.

[doug]

this is a question that needs to be asked...why do players flourish under Mottola's tutelage (as Lind is now) but then go down hill after, I am starting to see the same thing with Lawrie...yes pitching is obviously better etc..but Mottola gets it and players respond, shouldn't your best hitting coach be with your best team....just a thought...

[David in Oakville]

@Philosoraptor... that's not what I wrote. I said two things, to my ear, I enjoy Dylan's earliest style best.. but when I think of Bob Dylan I immediately hear the refrain from Maggies Farm in my head and think of the beat poets. Seeing your response though makes me wonder if I underestimated the courage it took for Dylan to record and play electric at the time.

It's interesting that almost 50 years later a single song / performance could raise a long forgotten argument about what is folk music.

Perhaps the quintessential thing about Bob Dylan is that there is no quintessential thing about Bob Dylan because he refused to be defined.

Also, just read C Kelly's piece on Shaq and Iverson... well said.

[David T (Ottawa)]

It should be noted by layperson and learned alike that in the most recent and pen-such of Roy Hibbert's young career he tallied a pedestrian 12.7 points and 8.1 rebounds while the young Roman averaged a Herculean 20.4 points and 5.3 rebounds for the numerous times he took the stage in the grand Colosseums that bespeck the landscape of the northerly of the Americas where Mr. Naismiths game is played. Doth nearly 8 points for the Roman quench the ire that the deficit of nearly 3 rebounds creates? It shall be noted by this scribe that he of Caesarian descent wiles his time on the perimetry of the offensive court and on the defensive he is asked to cover an area befitting to a man of lesser stature, though perhaps not lesser worth. To the contrary, Mr. Hibbert is asked by virtue of his gradiosity to cover the area shaded by so many tinctures and the dotted circle on both the attack and defensive, thus allowing him to snare more errant balls on either end. Methinks an apple doth not an orange make.

... but it does require a certain adeptness at poetry to fit "kool-aid drinkers" with the "obsequious fealty" of a retinue of monarchal followers.

[saatuk]

I can't disagree with much of the Dylan stuff, but am surprised that my favourite album - Nashville Skyline- hasn't been mentioned. Sure a misguided producer tried to have him sing more 'normal', but the songs and the collabotations with Johnny Cash were sublime.

Y'all didn't include my favourite song either - 'All along the Watchtower', from my second favourite album "John Wesley Harding'.

[D-Mac Ottawa]

Ah, @David T, ya done Ottawa right proud once again! Meritoriously bespoke, good sir!
Happy Birthday, Mr. Zimmerman of Hibbing. Two numbers come immediately to mind, befitting the occasion for anyone contemplating "seniority", in ever-ascending order:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_swaxOidGU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGG42IvzA4M&feature=related
Cheers. Go Pacers!

[LeeZ]

@David T:
Best.
Post.
EVER!!! Doug must be asleep at the wheel this morning, how else to explain his failure to give you a HUGE ding ding ding!!!!!!!!
@D-Mac Ottawa: I'll let you in on a little secret: my last name is Zimmerman as well (I taught Cousin Bobbie everything he knows, btw). And I too am from Ottawa. You guys are representing our fair city proudly!
And riddle me this, Irregulars: who else of note -- and basketball-related to boot -- comes from Hibbing Minnesota? Don't cheat and use google.

[allister]

Desire is Dylan's best album. Because I say so.

[larry lukeeborg]

hahahaha, too funny, mr david t

[J]

Nice one, David T. =P

[D-Mac Ottawa]

@LeeZ, my best buddy and ever-ready travel bunny from my work/study days in the early 70s was likewise named Zimmerman – was that YOU?! (He hailed originally from Long Branch, NJ, and kept yapping at me about this guy who was making BIG musical waves from his high school... some guy by the name of Springsteen... the VERY first song I heard on the old car radio my first day back Stateside was "E Street Shuffle"... and that's how the 70s rolled!)
I'm ashamed to say I did not know the answer to your NBA Hibbing quiz. I had to google it... great surprise!! And to think of all the times I drove through Hibbing back then... (the Iron Range, she ain't so pretty, but it's just a hop, skip and a long jump to Lake Superior and Frostbite Falls from there!).
Cheers. And keep that great stuff coming, Doug and Irregulars. This joint is ON FIRE, as some sage Z-Man would say!

[Mike]

"the Heat will have even more difficult time handling Roy Hibbert (who was never going to be a Raptor and you would have soured on him over two ho-hum seasons anyway) "

Hi Doug, very prescient of you to anticipate the reaction of the Irregulars to the mere mention of Roy Hibbert's name. When you say he was never going to be a Raptor, is that because Toronto picked him for Indy at Indy's request and that Toronto would have picked someone else at the 17 spot if they didn't trade it away? If so, did your sources tell you who that would have been if not Roy?

Blogger's note: They didn't tell me who and it didn't really matter; deal had been cooked up weeks before, was a moot point