The D Shuts Down Cincy: Browns Film Room
November 13, 2014Dealing with Browns success, Roundabouts, MLS Kits and more – WFNY Podcast – 2014-11-13
November 14, 2014I moved on Thursday. It was also the first big snow of the year here in the Cleveland Metro area, so we had that going for us. As a result I really really pre-wrote this, even compared to normal. Sorry if any of it is dated, but I hope you have a great weekend even if you don’t like it.
I’m fascinated by runners who cheat in races…
Since becoming a pretty serious runner over the last few years, I’ve entered tons and tons of races. I’ve never cheated in a race and even once contacted race organizers to get my time disqualified when I didn’t finish a marathon and the electronic sensors counted me as a finisher. That’s not bragging as much as it’s setting the stage for my fascination for these occasional stories of people allegedly cheating in marathons. The latest comes from Georgia.
I first read about this on Deadspin and followed the links to the Times Free Press for the story of Tabatha Hamilton and her marathon win of 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 39 seconds.
Tabatha Hamilton was disqualified as the women’s winner of the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon held this past Saturday. The 31-year-old Trenton, Ga., resident crossed the final timing mat at 2 hours, 55 minutes, 39 seconds (gun time) but had crossed the mat at 13.1 miles at 2:06.51, according to the Chattanooga Track Club.
Race officials determined that it was impossible for Hamilton to cover the last half of the marathon in 49 minutes, even though she repeatedly asserted that she ran all 26.2 miles.
The paper got ahold of Tabatha who is still trying to claim that it’s all the truth, but other race finishes on her record indicate she’s somewhere between a four and five hour marathoner.
Rosie Ruiz is one of the most famous of disqualified racers. She “won” the 1980 Boston Marathon and the story of the investigation includes commentary on her flabby thighs and lack of sweat at the finish line. If that wasn’t funny enough, after the Boston hubbub, others from the New York Marathon weekend came out of the woodwork to report having ridden the subway with Ruiz who “finished” the race that day. As recently as the year 2000, Ruiz still claims that she ran the whole course.
And then there’s the really great New Yorker article on a Michigan dentist named Kip Litton. As much as I love and respect the running community, I am so fascinated by those who would dare to take advantage and try and cheat. Even though it’s somewhat offensive to me, it’s like a horror movie. I want to read more and more about these people and the uncovering of their dishonesty.
Big Hero 6 is one of my favorite movies of the year…
There’s certainly something about “firsts” as you start building your family. You collect a lot of “firsts” with your wife or partner after getting married. You collect a whole lot more “firsts” if and when you start to add children into the equation. I’m not even a particularly sentimental guy, but I had so much fun adding the first whole family movie experience to the old resume this past weekend when we all went to see Big Hero 6.
It was a little bit daring for us to even try our first full-family movie. My son Will turned two years old in September and that’s too young for the movie theater in all likelihood. Still, we had the feeling from seeing him watch movies at home that he’d do alright in the big theater, especially if we kept the popcorn flowing. As it turned out, he did just fine, and I’m confident in saying we didn’t annoy the other theater-goers at all.
And the movie… what a movie.
Big Hero 6 was loosely adapted from a Marvel comic by the Disney Animation team headed up by John Lasseter of Disney / Pixar. This is the kind of movie that is perfect for the family. It’s not sugar-sweet all the time with plenty of action sequences to keep things interesting. It made me choke up in spots. It made me want to cheer (I didn’t) in spots. It made my wife, sons and me laugh on multiple occasions.
Big Hero 6 might not be the greatest movie of all time. It might not stand the test of time, but it was the perfect “first” for my family over the weekend. It fulfilled everything it needed to fulfill to introduce the movie-going experience to my youngest son, even if he won’t ultimately remember it.
An update to the Spotify / Taylor Swift story…
Spotify has addressed the situation and they say that Taylor Swift was on pace to earn $6 million before she pulled her catalog from the service. While that’s interesting, what’s even more interesting to me is the way Spotify is looking to further put in perspective what it is they’re delivering when someone streams a song on their service.
First of all, let’s be clear about what a single stream – or listen – is: it’s one person playing one song one time. So people throw around a lot of stream counts that seem big and then tell you they’re associated with payouts that sound small. But let’s look at what those counts really represent. If a song has been listened to 500 thousand times on Spotify, that’s the same as it having been played one time on a U.S. radio station with a moderate sized audience of 500 thousand people. Which would pay the recording artist precisely … nothing at all. But the equivalent of that one play and it’s 500 thousand listens on Spotify would pay out between three and four thousand dollars. The Spotify equivalent of ten plays on that radio station – once a day for a week and a half – would be worth thirty to forty thousand dollars.
I get it that this transition into the modern world has been painful and awkward. I get that it stinks in a lot of ways from a pure business standpoint that music isn’t bottled up in a physical format anymore so it can be sold and protected more readily. But I also refuse to forget where we’ve been, including the truly free music downloading days where we (as a culture and me personally) stole songs left and right because we could and because it felt like digital jaywalking. As a culture, we’re largely past that just like we’re past CD’s for the most part.
So where are we going? I think it looks like Spotify and everything I read about putting a true value on music now and into the future will include an ecosystem like Spotify. No matter of anachronistic argument from even a super-successful pop star like Taylor Swift can combat that.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
This week I’m going ugly on you. I usually give you pretty stuff, but this has to be the ugliest goal-scoring sequence you could imagine.
Pretty musical acoustic moments in giant theaters…
My brother went to see James Vincent McMorrow recently and he was telling me about one of the encores where McMorrow stepped in front of the mic to sing without amplification. With certain artists in certain venues, this can be absolutely incredible. It instantly reminded me of Glen Hansard from the Swell Season tour. My wife and I attended the show in Chicago and with 4000 people falling completely silent, he played acoustic guitar and sang loudly enough to echo through the whole building without a microphone. I get chills thinking about it. This is a video of that performance from the first row. I was in the upper deck.
61 Comments
Agreed. I don’t follow the production of the show that closely, but the whole thing felt like they hired a new head writer, producer, or some higher up that wanted to do his own thing but first had to sort of wrap up Demon Dean.
I’m very optimistic. Just seems like the opposite always happens with this team.
I was kidding but true. We’ll see if they can bounce back. Technically speaking last year was a downgrade from the previous despite the seasons for Kluber and Brantley. For me there are just to many ?s for me to get giddy over the upcoming season. That’s why I keep hoping I’m surprised by the FO this winter. I’m not expecting a splash but I sure hope we see them do better then last winter. And I don’t mean stadium renovations either.
What about Crowell. Does he like frozen pizza lunchables?
https://twitter.com/CJNitkowski/status/533277121444339712
Oh not soccer zen. I spent 99% of my soccer career at center defender, and this elicits a righteous fury in me. WHY ARE THE MIDS STANDING AND WATCHING!?
Regarding 1. If you look just to the right of the game time (45:00 in this case) you see ST. I assume that means sedunda tiempo, translated as second time in English. (The game was from Argentina). I hunted down a match recap of the game. There were 3 first half goals, but the latest was in the 27th minute. There were 2 second half goals, both in injury time. (Arsenal gave up 2 goals in injury time to lose 3-2). The last goal was scored by Lautaro Acosta, and his name appears on the graphic in the GIF.
Long story short, the goal was scored in the 10th minute of second half injury time. And it was a game winner.
whether he likes dem or not he-a gonna give reason to toss dem on da field!!!
That’s even worse than it occuring in the extra time of the first half
Crow don’t care bout snow.
Just feed him da ball!
http://i.imgur.com/5cNiFmd.gif
Snowpiercer! Actually… that nickname is just waiting for whatever running back wants to have a big game in a blizzard this year.