I got a new guest mattress the other day. Naturally, I’ve been giving it flying elbow drops to…you know, test it out. My markdom for Shawn Michaels and the recent death of Randy Savage has me thinking of flying elbow drops. Which wrestler did it better? Kindly vote in today’s poll and discuss!
[poll id=”118″]
ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons posted a lengthy and outstanding tribute to “Macho Man” Randy Savage. It’s pretty much the best Randy Savage article you’ll ever read. In addition to the expected “SportsGuy” humor, Simmons adds some thoughtful observations on Savage’s career. Here’s my favorite funny passage:
Nobody — repeat, nobody — was more fun to imitate. Savage said everything in quick bursts, with his voice dropping low, then turning loud, then low, then loud, and any time he couldn’t figure out how to end a point, he just screamed, “Ooooohhhhhhhhh yeah!” He used “ooooohhhh yeah!” as a noun, verb and adjective. It never stopped being funny. I could never decide whether the Macho Man was in on the joke. I’m also not sure it mattered.
And here’s my favorite insightful passage:
The scope of his career can’t compare to those of Shawn Michaels or Ric Flair, but you won’t find a more meaningful apex: He peaked right as wrestling peaked, ushered in a more athletic era and introduced eye candy (Elizabeth) to a fan base that desperately needed it. We look back at the ’80s ironically now — everything is much funnier now than it was then, whether it’s outfits, haircuts, movie plots, political incorrectness or even a sweeping lack of self-awareness. Savage tapped into those faults better than anyone. He was the ’80s, for better and worse.
It’s just excellent, excellent stuff. I highly recommend giving it a read.
While I respect and admire the videogame television programming produced by G4tv, Greedy Productions (Electric Playground), and Spike TV (GTTV), I’m still waiting for my videogame dream show…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, T-Mobile HSPA+ 42 launching today, Oscar De La Hoya in rehab, or changing your name to Lord RaRa, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
While I respect and admire the videogame television programming produced by G4tv, Greedy Productions (Electric Playground), and Spike TV (GTTV), I’m still waiting for my videogame dream show. It’s a total rip-off of ESPN’s Around the Horn, but hosted by Adam Sessler and featuring a rotating panel of gaming journalists and one verbal entertainer. Adam would be the perfect host for the show and it’s not hard to find game writers that are full of opinions. It would be weekly since it doesn’t have as many stories to cover as a general sports show. The show would be relatively cheap to make too. I think it would be a blast for the price!
How about you? What’s your dream videogame television show like?
Here’s a sad statistic for you — according to The Wrestling Observer, over 25 percent of the wrestlers that performed at WrestleMania VII (1991) are dead. The list of deceased WrestleMania VII performers includes legends like Randy Savage, Mr. Perfect, Kerry Von Erich, and Andre the Giant. Take a look at this chart:
That’s completely nuts. Compare that list to the 1991 MLB, NBA, and NFL champions — the vast majority of those guys are still alive. Most of these deaths are drug related — either overdoses of recreational drugs or heart failure accelerated by performance-enhancing drugs.
Thankfully the business is slowly cleaning itself up. Sure, a lot of wrestlers today aren’t as big as the ones in the ’80s or ’90s, but most of them aren’t killing themselves for our entertainment.
Are any of your favorites on this tragic list?
I’ve watched more episodes of SportsCenter than any other show in the history of television. Hell, there was one summer in college when my roommate and I would watch it thrice a day. Earlier this week, my friend and I were chatting about the best SportsCenter announcing duo of all time. Who’s your favorite pair?
There are so many greats to choose from. Old-school fans can pull out Chris Berman and Charley Steiner. Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick are arguably the most famous duo, though some people feel that Patrick had a better vibe with Kenny Mayne. As for me, I’m going with Rich Eisen and Stuart Scott. These guys had a perfect blend of professionalism, approachability, and humor. Watching them on SportsCenter felt like getting sports news from two hilarious guys hanging out in my favorite Irish pub.
Now it’s your turn! Who’s your favorite SportsCenter duo of all time?
The American Idol 2011 finals have come down to two teenage country singers: Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery. In my top 10 rankings, I had them pegged at #7 and #6, respectively. Both of them raised their games and made it to the final round. Sadly, filthy pirate hooker Haley Reinhart fell short (after falling on her ass on stage). Who do you think will win American Idol 2011? Kindly vote and discuss.
[poll id=”117″]
As for me, I don’t see how Scotty McCreery — aka Scotty McCreepy — can lose. Sure, he makes amazingly stupid faces and can only sing in one style (“BabyLockThemDoors“), but there are three reasons why I’m certain he’ll win.
As for Lauren Alaina, she reminds me of a young version of old Beverly D’Angelo. I’m not talking about the young and sexy Beverly. I’m talking about the older and larger cougar Beverly. She comes off as a sweet girl that lacks confidence. I feel bad that some people refer to her as Ceiling Fat and that she’ll likely lose…but not that bad.
Anyway, I’m going with Scotty McCreery as this year’s Idol winner. How about you? Kindly vote and discuss!
In a brilliant promo, HBO will let its HBO Go customers see two new episodes of Game of Thrones this coming Sunday, instead of one. The first episode will be available on television and HBO Go streaming, while the second episode will be an HBO Go exclusive for one week. HBO Go has been getting rave reviews and the app — available on Android and iOS — has already been downloaded one-million times. A promo that combines the app with one of HBO’s hottest shows will surely be a success.
Unfortunately for me, my crap bag cable provider — Time Warner Cable — does not allow its customers to use HBO Go. I’d love to watch two new episodes of Game of Thrones on Sunday, but Time Warner is denying its customers an excellent HBO service and my building isn’t wired for AT&T U-Verse or satellite.
I’ve been incredibly satisfied with streaming movies and television on my iPad 2. Netflix, Crackle, and the Time Warner Cable app have been great. I’m so bummed that I won’t be able to take advantage of this Game of Thrones promotion (unless Time Warner Cable removes its head from its ass this week).
Any of you using HBO Go? Are you happy with the app and service? Are you psyched for the Game of Thrones promo?
Updated: According to TorrentFreak Internet service providers Comcast, Rogers, and Optus have started blocking The Pirate Bay. The site is used by millions of people to acquire pirated movies, television shows, and music tracks. Honestly, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner and that more ISPs haven’t blocked the site. Sure, people will cite free speech and net neutrality, but telecommunications companies tend to act first and deal with the consequences later.
Any of you use Comcast? Is your access to The Pirate Blocked? If so, are you going to change providers? For those of you not on Comcast, would you change ISPs if you didn’t have access to The Pirate Bay?
Update: Apparently this might be a problem with The Pirate Bay and not ISPs. Phew!
Google kicked off its Google I/O 2011 developer conference with a keynote full of announcements. Some were exciting, some were interesting, some were meh. Here are some random thoughts on today’s announcements. Of course I want to hear what you have to say about them as well. Let’s get to it!
Android Ice Cream Sandwich — The next major version of Android will be called Ice Cream Sandwich. It will combine the phone features of Gingerbread and the tablet features of Honeycomb into one mobile operating system for all devices. The UI will receive a major overhaul and the application framework — which hasn’t been detailed — should help developers code more efficiently for multiple devices.
I’m psyched to get some Honeycomb features on a phone…but I’m bummed that I’ll have to wait until Q4 2011 to get them. The UI enhancements are completely necessary; as powerful as Android is, it still feels rough compared to Apple iOS and HP WebOS. It’s a bummer that Ice Cream Sandwich will take so long, but at least it should have a cool Nexus phone to show off its features.
I’m also praying that the new application framework truly makes things easier for developers and greatly increases the allowed file size for apps (currently 50MB). After attending numerous developer panels, I’ve come to understand what a pain in the ass it is to create games for the platform. The file size limit is just stupid. Android gaming will always be a step or two behind iOS until that restriction is lifted.
Google Music Beta — The company’s cloud-based music-service is now official. Its incredibly unexciting placeholder name is Google Music Beta. As you’d expect, it allows you to store music on the cloud and listen to songs on numerous devices. Flash is currently required to use the service. Amazon recently launched its Cloud Player service and Apple is expected to announce its iTunes cloud plans next month, so this move was expected and necessary.
I was surprised by the elegance of Music Beta’s UI. It looks smooth and intuitive, which is surprising for a company that’s known for UI that’s rough (at best) and clunky (at worst). Google will allow users to store 20,000 songs on the cloud. Several writers have pointed out that this is higher than the 5GB allowance on Cloud Player, but few of them reminded their readers that buying an online album bumps the storage to 20GB.
Music Beta looks like it’s off to a promising start. Going into the conference I was kind of “meh” about the service, but the UI really surprised me. That said, I think the company is at a huge disadvantage since it doesn’t sell music. Buying MP3s from Amazon instantly adds them to Cloud Player and I expect iTunes to behave similarly. While Music Beta looks cool and smooth, it adds an extra step. On the plus side, Music Beta offers a number of free songs to download.
Movies on Market — Movie rentals will be available on Android Market. The first Android products that can use movie rentals are tablets running Android 3.1 (released today for Xoom). Android 2.2 phones will be able to rent movies in a few weeks. Google claims that it will have “thousands” of movie rentals available for $1.99 each. Movies can be “pinned” so that they can be watched offline.
I’m positive that Google is going to mess this one up. The interface is clunky — certainly worse than what I saw from a beta of the competing HTC Watch service. Netflix is also coming to Android. One huge advantage that Netflix has is that it has a consistent feel whether you’re watching through a gaming console, a phone, or a PC. Android’s movie rental service feels awkward and competes with Google’s recently announced YouTube rental service. I think it was a mistake to launch a separate service for Android. I understand that it wants to keep all Android commerce on Android Market, but it’s an enormous waste of the YouTube brand — you know, the brand known for video.
Teaming Up for Faster Updates — Google announced an initiative that will ensure that Android phones will support the latest updates for 18 months after they’re released, as long as the hardware can handle it. Working on update guidelines and efforts to speed up the process are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Vodafone, HTC, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericcson, and LG.
This is smart move that should have happened earlier. Although Google is slowing down the Android release schedule, it’s still fairly frequent. New Android phones are released every week (or it feels that way). Getting the latest software update is bottlenecked by hardware manufacturers and carriers. Bringing everyone together to make the process faster will keep phones competitive for a longer period of time and, more importantly, keep customers happy.
Also, that photo of Christina Aguilera is there for no real reason.
Google TV Gets Android 3.1 — *yawn* I was excited for Google TV when it was announced at last year’s show. The products have been disappointing, but not as disappointing as Google’s lack of support for the service. Hopefully new hardware and new software can help Google TV live up to its potential.
Android Accessories — Google is releasing a development kit to broaden the use of Android. It wants Android phones and tablets to be used with atypical products. It showed an Android phone being used as a heart rate monitor paired with a stationary bike. This could be fun…or it could be like the Wii heart rate monitor. *joke* I expect to see a ton of crap Android “accessories” at CES 2012. I’m positive that I could make a one-hour show about it.
Android @Home — Google is also working on ways to have Android control appliances and lights in the home. This is kind of neat in the “house of the future” kind of way…but I’m scared of a micro-Skynet scenario. I don’t want to die because I pissed off my refrigerator and it ordered my barbecue grill to roast me.
Your Turn — Those are my initial thoughts on today’s Google I/O announcements. Now it’s your turn! Please let me know what you think when you have a chance.
WWE held its annual draft on last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. Things started off with a bang as Smackdown chose John Cena with the first pick. Here are the result of the results…
WWE held its annual draft on last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw. Things started off with a bang as Smackdown chose John Cena with the first pick. Here are the result of the results:
Of course Cena was going to end up back on Raw. He’s the company’s top face and sells a ton of merchandise. You can’t have him on the secondary show. Sin Cara and Mysterio switching places makes a ton of sense. Sin Cara has blown a few spots due to his high-risk style; having him on the taped show will make him look better. Mysterio will probably get buried on Raw, but he’ll eventually have an incredible match or an amazing train wreck taking on Sin Cara (possibly at WrestleMania). Del Rio has been outstanding and deserves a permanent spot on the primary show. As for the other picks…meh.
More talent will shuffle this week as the WWE 2011 supplemental draft takes place on WWE.com. For now, please let me know what you think of the roster changes (please!).
