After reading Toby’s suggestion, i picked up the novel City of Thieves by David Benioff. Let me tell you, this book is really great – one of the best books i’ve read in a long time. I bought for $4 used on Amazon – do yourself a favor and get it.
The story starts with a screenwriter (the guy who wrote 25th Hour) talking to his grandfather about WWII. It’s his grandfather’s story that takes us to Leningrad in 1942 when he was 17. He gives us the core story but then leaves the interview session telling Benioff, “you’re the writer, make it up.” And he comes up with a fantastic tale
It’s not that long but is still a great story of friends, war, snipers, girls, and a box of eggs. Read it
Love the column and the podcast – read/listen religiously.
I used to play soccer in college. I’m just stating so you can see i have some credibility to what i’m about to say.
I had to write because one thing is driving me crazy. You and others keep claiming that Lebron James and other NBA stars like Dwight Howard would be amazing on the soccer field. See your recent podcast with Chris Collinsworth (here). These players are incredible athletes but this is just not the case, and anyone who has played soccer would know that if you see a 6′ 8″ guy playing against you, you would be psyched. There is no way, no matter how athletically talented they are, that would be good players. This is due to 2 main reasons: (1) foot size and (2) quickness.
To shoot or hit a long ball well, you need to hit the soccer ball with your instep, which is the top of your foot. People with big feet are notoriously bad at kicking a ball far and accurately. It’s possible, but if you’re huge (over 6’5″) it would be super tough. Quickness is another issue. Being fast on your first 3 steps is so crucial to a soccer player. You see it all the time at the top of the box, where a player is trying to get just a little bit of space to get a shot off. The bigger you are, the less quick you are. Think of Lebron trying to guard the quickest point guards all day. It wouldn’t go that well.
For both of these reasons, if you’re super small and really quick you can be the best player in the world. See Messi and Maradona (both 5’5″-ish). If you’re gigantic, you probably won’t be.
BUT, i do agree with your general idea that if the best players in America played soccer, we’d dominate. In fact, in 2006 i made up the US starting 11 if we had our pick of the best players and they were super fast, strong and quick dudes (Barry Sanders would have been ideal). That post is here
Anyway, please don’t say anymore how good of a soccer player Lebron would be. It drives me nuts.
The score was 0-0. The ref raised the sign indicating 4 min of extra time. The US team has wasted chances all day and all tournament. They played both sloppy defense and potent attacking. But it was all over. The US had blown its chance. It was the easiest group in its history. I could hear all the naysayers talking on ESPN’s PTI and other radio shows. We just suck at soccer. You couldn’t advance ahead of Slovenia – it’s the size of New Jersey!? You couldn’t beat Algeria?. The ref system is stupid, when’s the NFL start?. Tim Howard recalls his though when the 90th minute came, saying:
I just thought the crazy thing is we could be on a plane tomorrow. It didn’t mean anything in the game, but I didn’t want to go home. I was kind of apprehensive about losing.
All the progress US Soccer had made over the past 8 to 20 years with the introduction of an MLS team, a quarterfinal finish in 2002 and the beginning of players playing successfully in Europe would all be for naught with a loss and elimination. It would be the ultimate disappointment and I could tell the American public would once again sour on the sport. I would dredding hearing Chuck Klosterman and Tony Kornheiser talk about how we suck and will forever suck at the world’s game.
But then the exact opposite happens. Three minutes from going home, we score. A fraction from elimination and we become champions setting a record for the fewest total minutes that a World Cup group winner had been leading in its first three games: a grand total of two minutes.
Not only am i happy to watch the US play this Saturday in the 2nd round but i’m happy for soccer in America. For the first time since i can remember am i hearing people talk about what an exciting and fun sport it is. People are beginning to understand why the rest of the world loves it. This game will directly lead to future successes on the pitch in future World Cups. There’s an 8 year old right now who wants to score the next huge goal in 2032 and because of today’s victory he’s much more likely to stick with soccer than go to football or basketball. I couldn’t happier about all of it. As Landon Donvan said after the game,
I used to see this game we play as just a game,” said Donovan, “and I think I’ve realized particularly during this tournament that it’s more than that. It’s an opportunity to inspire. And not only inspire other people but inspire yourself and your teammates. I think tonight is going to do a lot more for me and other people than maybe we’ll realize.
I completely agree. Congrats guys. Good luck on Saturday
I read a great post that opened my eyes to something interesting going on about Facebook’s privacy issue. The issue has to do with how they position themselves in regard to being either a communications platform or a content platform – and how this impacts how they treat privacy. If you look at this chart:
You see there are two sections: Communication and Content. Both are directions that a company can focus on. What’s interesting is the relationship between virality and revenue potential. The more focused an application is on Communication, the easier and more quickly it spreads – but it can’t easily sell ads or monetize. The more Content-centric an application is, the easier it is to monetize (ads are more relevant with higher CTR) but it’s hard to get the app to spread and grow.
Facebook started, of course, as a closed network for college students where they could “connect” and communicate. As the statement above would suggest, this caused it to spread very quickly. And it did. However the site wasn’t making much money. Now, they find themselves with a slew (if you can call 500 million people that) of users and a desire to monetize. It then makes sense for it to move up the scale and become more of a content company. Thus, you see lots of Like buttons all over the place, a payment platform, and an ad platform to make this as effective as possible
The problem is with privacy. Users were led to Facebook thinking it was on the Communication side of the fence. However, it’s ambition is to be more in the middle because that is where it can both spread quickly and make money. The privacy rules of a Communication web application and Facebook now are longer in agreement . You can’t ask people to “Friend” and communicate with work people, parents, and close personal acquaintances and then also ask them to make that information public as if it is Content. That there is a fundamental problem.
There’s an interesting Rule that’s being discussed in Hollywood these days that has to do with the lack of interaction between women in film. The Rule states that woman are neglected in a film if the film doesn’t satisfy these three Rules:
There are two women in the film
These women have names
These women talk to each other about something other than a man
Some of my favorite films of all time don’t satisfy this rule – such as Big Lebowski and The Dark Knight. This week John August, a screenwriter of major films (Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), is saying that now that he knows about this rule, he’s going to try to bring it to every one of his subsequent films. He says in his blog post:
Looking back through my movies, I’m struck by how rarely the female characters actually do talk to each other. In Big Fish, it’s only a brief moment with Sandra and Josephine. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it’s a throwaway moment between Violet and Veruca. Titan A.E. fails the test unless you know that the alien Stith is technically female.
In each of these cases, I had to spend a few minutes just to come up with these (admittedly slight) examples.
Also, I find it fascinating that the Reverse Bechdel Test is almost meaningless. Pretty much every movie made includes two named male characters talking about something other than a woman.
Here’s the original comic strip that invented the rule:
And if you want to see how many films apply, check out this video:
One week, 2 crazy movies. Let me go into depth here….
Last week i saw the movie Crank 2: High Voltage. This movie is totally insane. To illustrate how out there the film is, i’d like to repost comedian Aziz Ansari’s tweets he had while watching the movie where he reports on what’s actually happening on screen:
A dog just bit a cops duck off!
“FULL BODY TOURETTES!”
Chev is having sex on a horse racing track!!!!! (this scene lasted 10x longer than I thought it could!)
Horse race sex scene is easily one of the most dumb/ridiculous things ever in a film. Can’t believe it. Crank 1 is dead to me.
Surely everyone has mentioned this, but Chev Chelios just killed an Asian dude and said “Chicken… and Broccoli.” Speechless.
RT @scottaukerman Here’s a lesson, kids: Tattooing your entire face will get you exactly ONE movie role.
RT @jwoliner The last “blooper” consisted of showing how an extra had shit himself. Going out with class!
Basically, I don’t want to give the impression that its cool to text or Twitter in a theatre, BUT if there is a movie with a character named PoonDong… I think its a unique situation and we were respectful in how we did
That’s right. All of these things happened and more. For instance, there’s a Godzilla scene where Jason Statham becomes a 60 foot giant and fights in an electricity farm – for no major reason. You have Amy Smart, the guy who played “Pedro” from Napolian Dynamite, David Carradine, Corey Haim, Jason Statham, and Ron Jeremy. The horserace scene was so ridiculous that i had to buy the song that was playing during it out of respect. I could go on and on about how absurd this movie is, but i think you should do yourself a favor and get some beers and actually watch it for yourself.
But, my week doesn’t stop there. I also saw the movie Splice on Sunday. That took insanity to a whole other level.
I thought there was going to be a small alien-like thing that was just going to take out the lab and make for cool scenes similar to the movie Alien and Aliens. However, what i was NOT prepared for was the little mutant to grow up to be like a human, have a tail with a stinger, go live with the doctors in their farm, start drawing pictures, have mutant sex with the Adrian Brody, get a pet kitten, grow wings, morph into a man, get buried alive, and then rape the mom. THAT was unexpected and totally insane. If you are looking for a humongous WFT, go check out this movie.
Ok, go about your business. Just had to report on that. Nothing more to see here. Move along
Whoa, i just got sent this. Apparently in south Jacksonville, near the St. Augustine outlet in the new KB Homes subdivsion they found a 15 foot Diamondback rattlesnake. That’s right, 15 foot! Apparently it’s the biggest every caught on record.
Some facts about this snake:
One bite from a snake this large contains enough venom to kill over 40 full grown men
The head alone is larger than the hand of a normal sized man.
A bite from those fangs would equal being penetrated by two 1/4 inch screwdrivers.
A snake this size could easily swallow a 2 year-old child.
A snake this size has an approximately 5 and 1/2 foot accurate striking distance. (The distance for an average size Rattlesnake is about 2 feet)
Judging by the size of the snake, it is estimated to weigh over 170 pounds. How much do you weigh?
