The Culture Counter

The Wedding with some thoughts on Nickelback

2009-06-17T21:42:00.005-04:00

annnnndddddd.....I'm going to check in really quick. For those of you who haven't given up yet, who keep clicking on this shit every day hoping for some brand new mind-blowing insight (all negative three of you), I just wanted to let you know that for my part I will be back in the middle of July. I'm getting married in two weeks (!), and am contemplating a move so things are extremely up in the

Ohio

2009-05-31T08:50:00.006-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/us/31border.htmlI'll go out on a limb and say this is the most outrageous news story I've read this year, at least from within American borders.Can anybody tell me how it makes legal sense for a couple of Mexican guys making $4-500/wk selling drugs in Ohio (to a "ready customer") to end up with a 16 year sentence in a cage for fucking MANSLAUGHTER? Other than "

2009-05-10T12:57:00.003-04:00

Pyroclastfor Craig Arnold A poet makes the newsfor wandering off, gone missing in search of poems on volcanoes.Somewhere among the cinder cones or perhaps the calderas,rescuers remain convincedthat you did not burnin a lava lake, or dome, but met heavy vegetationor a steep ravine on your way down. Beneath rockmagma pools as crustal plates converge. Are you here, wherethe new earth cools? Did

Guess Who's Back/Back Again/Flash is Back/Tell a Friend

2009-05-04T15:04:00.008-04:00

I'm just going to pretend that I didn't say anything about a longish new topic appearing last week. I'm reading Stephen King's dark tower series right now, so in that vein lets just say that "time works differently here". I just hope the world isn't moving on.ANYWAY, Mike's point is well taken. I can think of a specific example of "Bad Art" made by four strapping teenagers in one Mike Mahoney's

Art!

2009-05-03T10:04:00.003-04:00

To draw on what I've been learning in my Creative Arts Therapy schooling, I would offer that the creative process is important in and of itself as a way for the creator to express himself, especially the parts of one's "stuff" not expressible with language.Of course it's not practical for every casual art fan to witness every single work of every single amateur artist in the world, or even in his

Mon absence

2009-04-14T10:18:00.004-04:00

I want to apologize for a few things. First: I am tres desolee that I am unable to write something as incisive and interesting as what Z and Glass just wrote.Second: I am now not able to make snarky comments about others not posting because I have been AWOL for a week an a half now. In my defense I am getting married and that combined with a number of other things that have been going down over

Pulp Fiction and Prescription Drugs

2009-04-11T13:32:00.003-04:00

CZ's post comes at a really interesting time.Most specifically, I happened to be finishing up another viewing of Pulp Fiction as I read it. We were on the last sequence in the diner, where Jules has decided leave the organized crime business so that he may "walk the earth, like Caine in Kung Fu." His partner Vincent is critical of this mindset and says the people Jules is describing are nothing

Art: The Sheath for Technology's Double-Edged Sword, or, The Ariel Analogy

2009-04-07T00:36:00.001-04:00

I've been doing a lot of complex analyses of society's ills recently. I think about these things mostly when I sit on the bus or ride the train or just walk down the sidewalk, which is a borderline dangerous thing for me to do in the neighborhood where I work. Anyway, I find myself walking out of class at night all charged up with intellectual energy, trying to figure out the causes of

The "Good"

2009-03-30T15:52:00.003-04:00

Let me just take a moment to revel in the fact that we won you over to Lil Wayne's dark side. OK I'm done. I apologize for my absence over the past few days but we've been in wedding overdrive and I wasn't near a computer for any extended period of time. I am sorry I missed that Nova/Pitt game, seeing as I had Villanova in the the Final Four.ANYWAY, you were asking me about the definition of good

Confound it all

2009-03-27T18:34:00.003-04:00

First of all, my ringtone is now set to "Phone Home" by Lil Wayne.Second, yeah, I deliberately went with the teachers on that one to see where it would get me. But your response is interesting, and it is actually exactly what I wanted, because it gets us closer to the root of the question: what the hell are we talking about when we say "the good?" You made the claim that the random sampling of

100 Homeless People

2009-03-26T15:54:00.006-04:00

Jeremy Bentham! A "Lost" reference! "No" you say? Jeremy Bentham came before "Lost"? So this isn't an excuse to write about "Lost"? Damn.It is a good topic, Kyle. Yet you surprise me. I am shocked you have such faith in the ingrained educational system. This is the problem with the hypothetical in my opinion. Doesn't it matter what KIND of doctors or teachers they are? If they are fifteen of the

Where my people at?

2009-03-26T09:49:00.002-04:00

So Ben took us in a different direction last week, music, now I shall take us in another completely different direction: Philosophy. In the heading of our blog it says that it is a blog about (partly) philosophy, so it is about damn time we got cracking on some of it.My query revolves around the ethics of utilitarianism and its application to population issues. Utilitarianism is an ethical theory

I forget

2009-03-23T16:52:00.004-04:00

whose week it is to topic-start. I'm glad you came around. I think this marks our second successful conversation in that we started at disparate points and managed to find some middle ground. So good on us. I think it is on you Kyle and not to put to much on your plate between commissionering the fantasy baseball league and work, but I bet there is more material to be mined in and around this

FUCK

2009-03-22T03:25:00.002-04:00

I have listened to the third Carter album again, its pretty fucking awesome. God Damnit.I still prefer Nas for all of the aforementioned aesthetic reasons, but this album is pretty awesome, tie my hands, mr carter, a milli, and a bunch of other tracks are just god damn fire.Fuck

The Bubblegum Perspective

2009-03-21T10:18:00.003-04:00

Hi,You guys have written far too much for me to comment on it all, but that's okay because I don't know nearly what you both do about hip hop. Here's my definitive hip hop post:1. I come for the hits, I stay for the fun. Unlike the two of you, I am a beats, rhythms, melodies and hooks guy first and foremost. I had a really interesting conversation with a girl at a party last night who couldn't

A list of my Own

2009-03-20T15:45:00.002-04:00

Word, this conversation reminded me to go back and listen to my De La Soul albums. Stakes is High is an awesome, awesome record.Here is a quick top five for me in no particular order (I'm going to see Great Big Sea tonight in a small venue (they are very, very Canadian and not at all hip-hop, but it will be fun nonetheless).Blueprint-Jay-ZSupreme Clientele-GhostfaceAquemini-OutkastA Grand Don't

NCAA Tourney

2009-03-20T15:16:00.002-04:00

It is hard to pull away from, but I just wanted to say that "Tie My Hands" is a pretty good song, the metaphorical connection between the flooding in New Orleans and black struggle is well executed, the weeping guitar is nice too.Just throwing out some of my all time favorites:Illmatic, Nas.Reasonable Doubt, Jay-ZReady to Die, Biggie Smalls36 Chambers, Wu-TangArt Official Intelligence, De La

A quickie

2009-03-19T10:39:00.002-04:00

Yeah man, this week's a real good one, I shall post after 16 games of basketball are consumed.The Masta Ace album I mentioned earlier might be an interesting one to check out, Disposable Arts. Tracks like "Every other day" and "Take a walk" are pretty solid, and the skits are honestly kind of good, and I hate skits.

Subjective Joy

2009-03-18T22:11:00.004-04:00

I'm getting a little forced into a corner here on Lil Wayne. I do think he's a touch overrated and I am no fan of "Lollipop". I also understand that Nas is consistently listed in the pantheon of great rappers by his peers. He certainly is capable of doing very interesting things with language. This is why I didn't claim to be an expert on hip-hop. I do not consume it ad hoc. I tend to like what I

Hippity Hop

2009-03-18T18:25:00.002-04:00

So let me answer the question posed at the end of your post. I don't really think of the aural experience and the lyrics as separate. Sure there are songs that have just nonsensical lyrics and have a fun beat that I can get into for a time, but nothing that stays in my playlist for more than a month (tops).We are clearly working off two very different rubrics here, and I know this because you

What We Want and What We Get

2009-03-18T13:52:00.005-04:00

Really? None of the hooks grab you? I just think the "The Carter III" is so much more interesting to listen too (until the end). No he's not terribly quotable but neither was Andre 3000 until "Hey Ya". He got more out of his phrasing and his persona then he did out of his flow. Big Boi was always the more conventional rapper but Andre was the better rapper, in that he did things with language and

Ask the bitch her name and tell her go board the plane

2009-03-18T10:12:00.006-04:00

Mike Wit appears to have stole some of my thunder, because I think that he is dead on with his analysis of LW and Nas. In an attempt to be as charitable as possible to Lil Wayne I re-listened to the Carter trio of albums and my favorite mixtape from LW called "I can't feel my face" (its about crack and cocaine, mmmm, nice) yesterday. And honestly, it is hard to get through. There wasn't a single

Shout out to Korea

2009-03-17T18:08:00.003-04:00

Mike, i'm curious which Nas song is that line from? Because you're right it is not bad. I need to be careful here because i'm not argueing that Weezy is a better rapper then Nas, I'm argueing that RIGHT NOW I think he's the more interesting artist. I think there is a lot more going on in his music top to bottom. I also think what he's done in terms of releasing a steady stream of music for free

The View from Korea

2009-03-17T07:19:00.001-04:00

I got an e-mail from our boy Mike Witmer on this topic this morning. I'm going to post it now and respond when I get home from work. "Ben, far be it for me to criticize one who actually makes music and has been involved in the actual creative process. I've listened to far fewer genres of music and probably would be only to be able to talk intelligently about hip-hop. I'm not surprised you didnt

"They Diminish, I Replenish": Hip-Hop and Meaning

2009-03-16T19:01:00.004-04:00

I think it’s time to radically shift the conversation. We began by discussing ourselves, followed by several weeks of sports talk. The last few weeks have been focused on political issues. Thus, I think it is time to touch on another aspect of our everyday lives. Zach and Kyle came up to visit us in Montreal for New Years. We had an outstanding weekend of essentially doing nothing, except talking

6 overtimes

2009-03-15T17:35:00.005-04:00

My apologies for my long absence, I was struggling with how exactly to respond to Zach's post about people not taking us progressives seriously, then my tickets to the Big East tournament were the next day and I had no time to blog whilst watching 15 games of basketball in 5 days. And yes, I was there for the six overtime game, it was the greatest single sporting event that I will ever witness in

Netflix this...in time for the final season!!

2009-03-11T18:20:00.004-04:00

LOST is great! Cliffhangers and mystery abound with hints of philosophy, psychology, religion, literature, science, fate, more. Fun to theorize about! Also, a major emphasis on rich and complex characters in the past and present, and the interactions between them which often display in beautiful and compelling ways.Plus: Kate!

50 words? Who the hell are You?

2009-03-11T13:37:00.003-04:00

Amazing. You, Zach, of all people would presume to limit me to fifty words on why you should watch Lost? You of the twelve page blog post and the 10 minute voice mail messages?Nonetheless here is an attempt.You will appreciate the litany of literary references ranging from C.S. Lewis to Stephen King. You will also like the intentional lack of clarity. It is a show worth THINKING about while still

Saving the Blog from becoming "Lost"

2009-03-10T19:26:00.001-04:00

Ben--thank God you won a donut! Is it too much to hope that it might be a magical spell-checking donut? Zing! Okay, I have no legs to stand on, haven't been around for a few days. But I got your "tag," so here I am. And can I just say...someone else read our blog? Holy crap! We have an audience. Well, had an audience. I can't say I am surprised it was a self-described hippie--this is a

Touching all the Bases

2009-03-10T16:18:00.002-04:00

Mike I would say that there is a very good chance we could turn this into a Lost blog. I mean without any contributions from the other members, I think its safe to say we can meld this blog to our own nefarious purposes. For instance after every episode we could have a running conversation, followed by a chat (which is definitely nothing like this) or even better we could turn it into some kind

www.wearephoenix.com

2009-03-08T16:02:00.002-04:00

I think I hear you Ben, sorry for misunderstanding. Though my biggest regret about my post is that I didn't address your mentioning LOST! Maren and I are super-serious about the show. We actually review the entire series to date before each new season premiere (for Season 5, we started before Thanksgiving). And this season has definitely been satisfying. Sounds like you feel the same way.

Hipsterism, Boomerism and and My Own (Relative) Self-Awarness

2009-03-06T13:21:00.008-05:00

Just to clarify (because my post was brazenly unclear), I have ALWAYS liked being the guy who told people about something first. I was using "Float On" as an example of something that I could have been bitter about, but was not. I turned it to my own selfish ends. My point about the dog video was that it was not something I felt nearly as strongly about. AND I could live with it on AC 360 (for

Rulers of the World

2009-03-05T22:39:00.003-05:00

Hi everybody.This is Mike. I'm here, I believe, to fill in the spaces around the edges of the blog. I don't plan to write any massive screeds, but I'll say what comes to mind. Hey, well, you're welcome!First, the bits I am actually qualified to talk about: Ben Flash and objects of pop culture. Ben, you know you're always a-okay in my book. But can you really. REALLY. really promise to

Fighting the System Inch By Inch and Moment By Moment

2009-03-05T18:16:00.003-05:00

Let me get the less interesting business out of the way. I'm going to be out of town this weekend so I may only be able to blurb, rather then blog. Secondly, i think that this discussion deserves more then giving up on it this weekend after we've each responded once, so I propose we push my conversation starter to the following week and try to get this conversation going, because when it is my

Speaking Out Against the Status Quo

2009-03-04T00:56:00.005-05:00

First of all, Ben, well done on that sleepwalking dog video. You've managed to sift through the mostly worthless sludge of youtube and found yourself a regular nugget of gold. Congratulations. I hear gold is the only thing that's still worth anything these days. Needless to say, you are probably sitting at your desk by candlelight, stacking up gold Krugerrands like some kind of

A Retraction

2009-03-03T21:09:00.003-05:00

OK, I'm a little embarrassed. I've now seen the video that I posted yesterday on CNN twice. I feel like a cultural lemming. The first time was on AC 360, which I could live with because, as I've stated before on this blog, I think Anderson Cooper is alright (as far as mainstream media anchors go). But then today I happened to see it on The Situation Room. Ugh... Wolf Blitzer represents every

and for Z

2009-03-02T22:24:00.004-05:00

if this doesn't brighten your day I'm not sure what will:Actually, I take that back I can think of a bunch of things that would brighten your day more then this but i still thought it was funny, so FUCK YOU. I can hear your irritated sigh through the series of tubes that connects this blog to you.So what if this blog is for useful conversation and not cheesy pet youtube videos. I'm killing time

Whereforartthou Comrade Z?!?!?

2009-03-02T17:12:00.000-05:00

I'm 0-8 by the way.HORTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Voting for Horton

2009-02-28T18:57:00.003-05:00

Watered down? I don't know I have been totally indoctrinated with Tim Horton's coffee. Maybe they make it different in the States, but I hate weak coffee and I think it does me just fine. But then again I've gone out of my way to make sure I don't drink Starbucks. I would just as soon pick up a small heroin addiction.As far as your post, for sure you're right. The question, which I touched on in

Tim Horton's

2009-02-28T14:55:00.002-05:00

Ever since Timmy Ho's came out with that extra large coffee for less than two dollars I find myself running train on a Ho's drive-thru every now and again. But I have to say, the coffee seems very watered down. I really do not like it very much, it is never as satisfying as the other big names or the coffee I make at home.I sincerely hope you win though, maybe they know that you are not really a

A silly pointless diversion

2009-02-27T17:37:00.002-05:00

In the midst of the next few weeks I'm going to track something that will mean absolutely nothing to you Americans.But here in Canada it is "Roll up the Rim" time at Tim Horton's. The idea is that if you buy a coffee, you get to roll up the little top fold and you can win something (usually a coffee or donut). Now, it is a fairly normal occurrence to win. This promotion started on Tuesday (I

Logistics of Turnout (and a small reference to Bobby Jindal's hilarious response to Obama's non-state of the union)

2009-02-26T10:33:00.003-05:00

I want to respond to the comment briefly and then get into your post Kyle. The commenter said that if the Dems moved to the left they would just start losing elections, and you may very well be right. I wonder however if a big part of this is cable-news conceptions of what left and right are. I have a feeling that most people wouldn't fit so neatly into an ideological category. ESPECIALLY on the

Choice?

2009-02-24T22:24:00.007-05:00

Hey! We got another comment! Sweet. I responded to it in the comment section, but this post may offer a better understanding of why we were having a discussion about the possibility of a third party. (Hopefully, fingers crossed)The discussion last week got me thinking about the two-party system we have here in America. I find it a bit odd that a country of roughly 300 million people can leave

This week...

2009-02-23T18:31:00.000-05:00

So I think it is prudent to keep this discussion going for a little bit longer, but I want to shift the focus. I will be posting either later tonight or tomorrow on the highs and lows of the two-party system we have here in america.

the far left

2009-02-21T14:49:00.002-05:00

It should be noted that the comment posted was not our first; Zach's dad commented on the "Read A Book" discussion.As for the progressive left, Zach has really laid out why a progressive leftist party could not show up in our political system. It's fairly simple: who in the current political system would advocate for this? There certainly are not a bunch of far-left politicians that are currently

Our first comment and ways to stoke this conversation

2009-02-20T12:51:00.001-05:00

This got lost in the aborted discussion of last week, but we had our first comment. I'm going to post it in its entirety here and I hope it contributes to the larger discussions. I want to propose that we meld last week and this weeks topics together and push through to end of next week continuing on the topic of progressive politcs, reform and what progressivism even means. We never really

Re-engineering the process

2009-02-20T12:01:00.002-05:00

Here is my question then, because I mostly agree with you. Is the central problem the party power structure, or the candidates we're nominating? In other words are we better off trying to do what we can within the existing structure, or fighting to minimize the importance of that structure/The reason I bring this up is there is an interesting post by Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight. com today

Progressives? Not In America

2009-02-19T12:53:00.004-05:00

Ben, that was an intriguing introduction to a subject that is of immense importance to all three of us. I will try and answer each of the questions, but the first is the most interesting to me, so I will spend the bulk of my time on that."Is it possible to conceive of an American liberal third-party that would make sense and could legitimately win elections?"In a word: no. It very much pains me

Who Speaks for us Crazy Progressives?

2009-02-16T18:20:00.003-05:00

{NOTE: I'm posting this so that you guys can begin to think about your responses, I'm probably going to continue to edit it. If there are any heinous grammatical errors I apologize I'll continue to look at this post tonight and tomorrow, unfortunately my attempt to assimilate into French-Canadian society calls}I want to stay on the theme of progressive politics for this week. What I want to

Oops!

2009-02-16T10:39:00.004-05:00

Hey guys. So, I'm an idiot. I have my whole peice written for this week and was going to do a final edit at work and then promptly forgot to send it to my e-mail. Thats what I get for anticipating slack-time during work. I'm going to try to rush home and edit between work and french class, but the slings and arrows of Montreal traffic may foil that plan. I'm not going to step on myself because a)

Full-circle progression

2009-02-13T12:39:00.004-05:00

I'm really curious to see how you lay out this plan Zach. The more I think about it the more convinced I am that it couldn't work. Education, by its very nature, is subjective and nationalism is by its nature standard. For example, our Rochester school district (hardly the paragon of a successful school district), while rife with problems benefited from the specification of different schools. We

Get 'em while they're young

2009-02-11T21:13:00.003-05:00

I agree with a lot of what you said Zach. I also agree with Ben's response. It does not seem terribly logical to give the schools over to the government when the government has shown that it can't really handle it as is. Full governmental control of the school system would also make it real easy for the government to control us (to take it in a super-cynical direction).There was something you

Reactive Nationalism

2009-02-10T12:17:00.006-05:00

There is a lot to dig into to there. I guess my question is what would nationalizing the school system entail? I assume that it would mean a specific budget for all school systems that is funded by the federal government. My concern is that, given the nature of bureaucracy, we would still have a disproportionate amount going to the "have"-districts. I mean would the community be responsible up to

A National School System?

2009-02-09T21:42:00.001-05:00

I literally do not know where to begin talking about this issue. It is so complex, so very dear to my heart, and so thoroughly disheartening that it is almost too difficult and painful to write about. However, we've got to start somewhere. This is a conversation that simply has to happen. You could read this entire post, or just read the lyrics to this Dead Prez song, because it will save you

RE:Read a book

2009-02-08T10:13:00.002-05:00

Zach the brilliant anchor you refer to is Tony Harris, and he used to work for Entertainment tonight so don't hate. Also don't be so hard on Anderson Cooper. He has the misfortune of working for CNN but he comes closer then most news anchors to attempting to report the news. I think its safe to say Tom Brokaw jumped the shark several years ago. At this point I'd rather have Anderson Cooper

Changing My Tune...and some Odds and Ends

2009-02-06T16:29:00.006-05:00

Though I would never have admitted it to Kyle, now that Ben has said it, I feel better about writing it: I agree with the basic premise and the essential truth of what Kyle is saying. Ethically, it makes sense to me. So, in a similar way, does the aforementioned X2's ethics. It's difficult to argue against--with the proviso of it being used in very specific situations, such as the ones Ben

The Art of Consensus and What is Coming Next

2009-02-06T10:11:00.008-05:00

See, this is what is great about these conversations that we're having. I agreed with 90 percent of what you just wrote. If we can stay away from grand hyperbole then I suspect we're not so far apart on this as we initially seemed. This week started with you making the case for steroids to be legal. This is the argument I inartfully referred to in my "this disproves your other arguments"

Continuing on....

2009-02-05T19:01:00.002-05:00

So let me address some questions posed to me."Can you give me proof that steroids tangibly improve an athletes performance?"Well, I suppose that I cannot offer more proof than the fact that anabolic steroids (for these are the most common in athletics, they are the ones that have real bad effects if used improperly) are banned by almost every sporting organization in the world. Other than that I

In Agreement

2009-02-05T15:01:00.002-05:00

Couple of quick things. Yes, I got caught up in Zach's post, sorry about that. There also needs to be a distinction between HGH and steroids, because I was lumping them together for the most part (and you mentioned the need for this in your previous post).I am not sure if there is an improvement from steroids. However, what I do know is that the main benefit from steroids is not that you suddenly

My Take Two or Ben tries to get Kyle to read what Ben is saying rather then what Kyle thinks Ben is going to say

2009-02-05T11:52:00.007-05:00

Kyle, you conveniently ignored everything in my last post. Suppose I give you that athletes should be cheered for taking steroids (I don't, but the for the sake of arguement lets say I do). That adulation would be based on the premise that steroids improved their performance. Can you give me proof that steroids tangibly improve an athletes performance? Kids are going to do stupid things I agree,

Grammar

2009-02-04T22:53:00.000-05:00

I agree. But steroids are still sweet.

Merely to Amuse Myself

2009-02-04T22:23:00.004-05:00

Yes, capitalism is THE problem. It's the problem that is at the source of a lot of other problems. And while I don't think too highly of humanity most days, I would never go so low as to say that capitalism is an extension of human nature. It's a construct. I know because I am a human, but I am not a greedy hyper-competitive bastard. I prefer to think of the well-being of others before

Role Models?

2009-02-04T20:38:00.003-05:00

First. Something that was not properly expressed. I find the two commonplace responses to steroids are a) that they constitute an artificial enhancement and b) they create an unfair advantage. My points about surgery were to explain that steroids are just as artificial as surgery is, especially the kind of surgery that takes your natural makeup and improves upon it (Tommy John). As for unfair

Enormous and Unwieldy

2009-02-04T09:06:00.003-05:00

I want to pick up on something that Zach said. He wrote: "Players are lauded for MAKING PLAYS that RISK injury to their bodies." I think this is critical because there is an underlying assumption in your argument that steroids inherently improve your performance, but I'm not convinced that's the case. Lets use the best case scenario, lets say you use steroids and it allows you to heal a little

Sacrifice and Stupidity

2009-02-03T21:49:00.002-05:00

Kyle, I hear where you are coming from man, I do. It makes some sense to me, your logical connections between steroids and other things that "enhance" athletes' and regular peoples' performance. But ultimately, I think you're wrong, and I think, to be utterly boring but honest, Ben has made my points already for me. But to elaborate, a little bit...I think one major problem is what Ben pointed

re: a link

2009-02-02T21:31:00.003-05:00

Your post should have read "should we get rid of breaking-balls?". That article didn't say there was anything wrong with the surgery, it said they were worried about how many teenagers needed it as a result of "specialization in baseball where kids don't get adequate time off". This speaks to my basic point. The pressure on high-school athletes is enormous and my concern is that more of them

A Link

2009-02-02T15:05:00.001-05:00

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113854.phpDo we get rid of Tommy John Too?

We can make them bigger, STRONGER

2009-02-02T10:46:00.007-05:00

And off we go. I understand the argument you're making but I think in some ways you are making the same logical errors as the steroid-vilification crowd, just in the other direction. This is clearly not an all-or-nothing issue.First, your exercise analogy, I think there is a crucial difference between doing physical exercise to improve your health and taking a substance which detracts from your

A discernable difference

2009-02-02T09:40:00.002-05:00

Well after that long week of bashing football for various reasons at least the game was decent. I was unsure as to what I would write about this week until I heard a description of Troy Polomalu's medical treatment. The procedure that was used on his ailing knee was to draw blood, isolate the red blood cells, and then inject the isolated red blood cells into his knee for the purpose of

The American (foot)Baller

2009-01-29T21:51:00.008-05:00

Zach what you described leaves me less then convinced about the state of your alcoholism. Let me join with Kyle in the shock that Saint Patrick's Day is your favorite holiday. I would've put my money on Good Friday.I agree that people really, really care about football and I think it goes beyond most of what we've been discussing. The "scene" draws people in for sure but that doesn't explain the

The Drink

2009-01-29T20:51:00.003-05:00

Ah, I remember the days when I didn't put anything evil into my body, they were.........ok. Now I am pretty sure that in my first post that I said I would probably contradict myself. Here goes: football is not just an excuse to drink. There are many, many people who really follow football passionately and know an absurd amount about it, more than I ever care to know. The connection between

Defending St. Patty

2009-01-29T19:11:00.006-05:00

I came to the conclusion this evening that I may not even watch part or all of the Super Bowl on Sunday. There was definitely a time when this was unthinkable. However, it is so thoroughly (both symbolically and literally) everything that I less-than-secretly don't love about America that I don't know if my minimal interest in seeing a competitive sporting event will win out at all. I am kind

Re: Tying it all together.

2009-01-29T11:03:00.003-05:00

My goodness Zach, just a virtuoso performance. Thank god you're back in the fold because I think Kyle and I could only have gone back and forth for so long.OK first off, you know people named "Bob and Dotty"? I mean, we're both Preachers Kids but if those aren't the names of two early retirement Lutheran church goers I don't know what is. Nothing against them of course, I think "Dotty" should

Out on a limb to tie it all together

2009-01-29T00:33:00.004-05:00

First of all, I can not allow you guys to talk that way about St. Patty's Day. It's just unacceptable. Okay, obviously no one needs a holiday as an excuse to binge drink. I mean, we're Irish, okay? That's all the reason we need. We just wanted to get everybody else a day off. Way to be uptight about it. Sheesh. Ben, you are a braver man than I if you will admit to watching Buffy the

Excuses for my Great-Grandkids to get wasted.

2009-01-28T17:32:00.009-05:00

I think you hit the mark on number of things in that post. But let me pose a hypothetical.Lets say the NFL does have a lock-out or a strike, and lets say they lost an entire season. Would something else fill that get-wasted-on-Sundays void? Is there anything about the actual sport itself, leaving aside scheduling that endears itself to this kind of behavior? *OVERUSED BEN FLASH ANALOGY BREAK*What

The Speciousness of Football (part 2)

2009-01-28T01:13:00.002-05:00

Continuing on.........I think I bring a unique experience to the table in this discussion: I was in Pittsburgh when they won the super bowl in 2006. Pittsburgh is a town that lives and dies with football. Casual Friday in Pitt is not casual Friday, it is jersey Friday. If the CEO of PNC bank went to work in a Troy Polomalu jersey not a person would bat an eye. I found this rather odd, yet

Decline and Fall

2009-01-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

Good stuff. I'm not going to trample on your Football as an event take, but I'm really interested to hear it. Chuck Klosterman wrote about that at length during his Super Bowl running diary a few years ago, I'll try to track it down but I want to see what you have to say first. What I do want to say, is RIGHT NOW the NFL is the best run league from a financial standpoint, but my question is: will

The Speciousness of Football

2009-01-27T10:14:00.007-05:00

There are a couple of points in Ben's post that I want to highlight and expand upon: First, the international expansion of football is certainly a problem for the sport. However, from a purely economic standpoint it is one of, if not the best, run league in the gamut of American Sports. I find it particularly funny that the World at large was playing Futbol long before Football was ever concocted

Ben Flash the Football Slayer

2009-01-26T09:04:00.005-05:00

I've recently started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This was spurred by my fiancé’s (or handler as Zach would say) deeply abiding love of the program, and my somewhat morbid curiosity to be informed of as many pop-culture phenomena as possible. I have to say I am taken by its kitchyness, and the relatively clever writing. I don't think a University course on the show would be terribly

Definition and what we're "shooting" for (pardon the pun)

2009-01-22T12:35:00.005-05:00

I like that we are working towards a definition of "masturbatory". When you initially started using that word it was, in and of itself, somewhat masturbatory but if we can nail down a hard definition (there I go again) and then use it sparingly (to stop from going blind) I think we might have a new word for Oxford. In fact by Saturday lets do that, come up with a strict dictionary definition. I

Purpose?

2009-01-21T18:31:00.003-05:00

During my professional life today I shirked my responsibilities and wrote down my post-to-be organically, aka, with a #2 pencil and a blank sheet of paper. Wild. So Zach wrote all of one paragraph before goading me into a debate about meaning and purpose, I must say, I like where this is going.Purpose, eh? (I love parentheses as well, so stop stealing my identity Zach). Here is what I wrote while

Rebuttal #1 or Ben attacks the specifics of Zach's post without addressing the substance

2009-01-21T12:04:00.011-05:00

First off let me say Zach that I appreciate your love of parentheticals. It may be a fairly played out literary device but nonetheless it does inspire a certain level of authenticity in regard to the blog being conversational.Off the top let me address a handful of things that you did not mention. Since you did not address the structural aspects of the blog in your post I'd like to introduce a

Inauguration (of our blog) Day

2009-01-20T22:11:00.002-05:00

I have been trustingly, and perhaps unwisely, tasked with making the inaugural blog post on this, Inauguration [of three dudes starting their blog] Day. While I hesitate to make any large, universal claims with Kyle, our resident philosopher, following closely at my heels with his own post tonight or