The Heat and the Shine

With about a half an hour to go until tonight's Monday Night Raw, the author wanted to watch some basketball.   Milwaukee Bucks basketball , specifically.  And there are two ways to be in Los Angeles and watch Milwaukee Bucks basketball (legally, at least) in our modern age: NBA League Pass on cable/satellite or NBA Game Time over the Internet. And so, like Jamie Foxx in 1994, it seemed a good time to do a little Experiment .  How easy is it to watch on cable/satellite?  How easy is it to watch on the Internet? Dish Network Step 1: Power on the TV and satellite box.  This can be done with one remote control.  And the Dish guy sets the controller up so that it manages your TV's power and volume. Step 2: Go to channel 561 and hit "Guide".  Or go to the Guide and then hit "561".  Either way, a standard program guide shows the SD (in case I need to save DVR space) and HD channels that broadcast the games. Step 3:  I'm in luck! ...

For a person who graduated in 1999, a recent stroll through the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts was dichotic.  On one hand film-based cameras and projectors that were used over the past one hundred and twenty years populate the basement of the decades-old Norris Theater.  (A basement that has now been re-branded as the Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive, believe it or not.)  On the other hand the towering Cinematic Arts Complex provides all the charm of listening to the DJ at a Clippers game play “Pump Up The Jam” from the 3rd deck of luxury boxes.  Every space is clean and every film is digital.   A Cinematic Arts student at USC can create anything they want.  The lighting, the camera movements and even the special effects that are seen in major film releases can be added to student films.  Gone are the days when Hershey’s syrup was used in lieu of blood.  Everything is possible at the students’ request.  ...

Welcome to my lawsuit.   For years I played your game.  I made a lot of money.  I had a lot of fun.  It was my choice.   But you told me that you were keeping your game safer than you really were.  Other players used drugs.  They used drugs that made them stronger.  More aggressive.  Gave them better vision and focus to hit me.  You put my health at risk.  I knew the game was dangerous.  But that was something different.  That was like handing my opponent a crowbar before he walked into the cage.   Now I’m screwed.  I get angrier than I used to.  I forget things that I’ve known for years.  People have to tell me their names three or four times.  It’s hard to keep a job that way.  Or a wife or a family.  And you’re still fine.  You dissed the rank and file fighters.  Now my fight is going to court.   You see there are two keys to my lawsuit.  You knew...

Michigan State's head coach is saying that the Big Ten champion deserves a shot at the National Championship.  ( http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/10073294/mark-dantonio-stumps-big-ten-champ-title-game )  He's right.  The Big Ten champ does deserve a shot.  And so does the SEC champ and the Pac 12 champ (and maybe even the Big 12 and ACC champs).   College football's season is so short that it is difficult to know which conference is best.  It seems like it's the SEC this year.  South Carolina beat Central Florida (the likely AAC champ).  Ole Miss beat Texas (the possible Big 12 champ).  That's pretty good.  But better than the Pac 12 with Oregon (who killed everyone and only lost within conference) and Stanford (who did the same, only with a win over Notre Dame as well)?   The uncertainty in conference quality frustrates a lot of people.  Under the BCS system only two teams can be chosen for the national...

Far be it from Milwaukee's second Ben (yours truly) to give advice to Milwaukee's first, but if Ben Askren is not in the MGM Grand Garden Arena for UFC 167 on Saturday night, then DeWayne Zinkin should be brought up on charges of managerial malpractice. UFC is in a down period.  Talk about oversaturation or Fox Sports 1 or concussions all you want, but the reality is that the sport is cold because the big fights aren't as big.  The stars are less shiny.  The fights are less interesting.  Fans can get excited when Nick Diaz goes crazy, but crazy only goes so far.  UFC needs a matchup that is compelling. What is so compelling about Georges St. Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks?  That Hendricks might land a big punch?  That GSP might pound the tar out of him for twenty-five minutes?  Big whoop.  UFC has sold us that fight a hundred times.  Maybe it would matter if GSP was the heel we wanted to see vanquished.  But he isn't and it doesn't...

In some circles Ryback will get blamed for the flat Hell in a Cell match last night, but not here.  He played his role.  The flaws in the match were out of his control. Ryback & Paul Heyman vs. CM Punk was an unsatisfying culmination to what, at times, had been a captivating feud.  Paul's entrance took too long, the match lacked heat and the denouement failed to generate the pop WWE hoped for. Perhaps all parties could have done something different to improve the ultimate result, but the bulk of the blame rests with two parties: CM Punk and WWE Creative. CM Punk deserves blame because every big star deserves blame when his angles go bad.  In wrestling -- as in movies and TV and radio and you get the point -- stars have ultimate control.  The promoter or the booker may get mad at the star or threaten the star, but ultimately it's the star's responsibility to make sure he is part of matches and angles that are good rather than bad. At this point wrest...

Let us stand back and appreciate Carlos Condit.  For he is a great fighter.  He deserves a world title shot.  He is a psychopath. It takes at least a smidgen of mental illness to compete at the top levels of sport.  A wise man once said, "you have to be smart enough to do it, and dumb enough to think it matters".  That is Carlos Condit.  It matters to him.  You can see it in the skinny Mexican frame that's been built into a lithe sculpture of muscle and sinew.  You can see it in the scraggly beard and the lack of bunny-bait tattoos.  Carlos don't care. In part the fascination is because he's not the typical fighter/dunce.  This ain't some redass rassler or hard life thug.  He's almost a scion.  The son of a white Democratic Party operative and a Latino mother.  He fights because he wants to.  He loves the sport.  He loves competition.  He loves to whip your ass. Condit's destruction of Marvin Kampman...