Saturday, November 6, 2010

It should be clear by now that I am a pretty big basketball fan. I don't have a TV, nor do I follow the league at all times, but I care a great deal about the players and certain teams/styles of play/uniforms. Basically, I am a sucker for the details. If I learned anything over this past summer, it's that when you feel like mainstream outlets for sports news are failing you in terms of depth or breadth of coverage, go looking for what you want. If I might recommend one source to a few of you, it would be Voice on the Floor. It's a series of podcasts from a bunch of different basketball writers, of various length and tone. I would encourage you all to listen to the first episode, looking at how the Gilbert Arenas episode effected the Wizards. I'm of the opinion that great, long-form reporting on sports and science are lacking in terms of the quantity of resources, so anything like this I can get my hands on, I will cherish. Enjoy.

Also, has anyone listened to the 11-minute Kanye song yet? I haven't heard it, is it worth checking out?

At first glance, I see the merit in this article, but it is also so incredibly frustrating. I need to think more clearly about why it bothers me. Though a quote like this:

FK: When you were reading all these lyrics, did you ever imagine what they would sound like spoken?

SA: It's funny: I mostly imagined them in my internal "textual" voice — the voice I tend to use for all reading. Which is probably a ghost version of my own.

FK: So all the same tempo I'm guessing.

SA: Yeah, basically the same. And then I'd read some of my favorite passages aloud to my wife, and she would laugh at me because it sounded ridiculous.

makes it easy to see why I'm irritated. My emphasis, by the way.

4 comments:

Patrick said...

for some reason, i've found that even though basketball isn't my favorite sport to watch (baseball will always be my number one), it is far and away my favorite sport to read about. i think it lends itself particularly well to the printed word (or at least to writers that have an aesthetic that i enjoy - freedarko, truehoop, the folks at ball don't lie, etc.), and for that reason i'm pretty excited about voice on the floor.

also, after reading that interview with the anthology of rap guy, i was mostly struck by how surprised he seemed that the delivery affected the meaning of the lyrics and the enjoyability of the song. has he never listened to music of any kind?

Patrick said...

also, good to see you posting again.

bding7 said...

i had been meaning to email you and let you know that i am easing my way back in.

as far as voice on the floor, i think you're right. for some reason, basketball writers get great access to the players and can really get into mixing a team's playing style with the personalities of the team. it should happen more often with other sports, but i have no idea why i feel like it doesn't.

maybe the book reviewer only listens to classical or music w/o lyrics?

Asher said...

The review itself was even funnier. He came to the conclusion that Canibus, Chino XL and Lupe were three of the six best rappers ever. But I will say that for someone who's never listened to rap, he does a pretty surprisingly decent job of getting what's good; I mean, I don't think I would've gotten 'Brooklyn Zoo' the first week I started listening to rap.