Let me start a ways after the beginning. Treme is fantastic televsion. Music, cops, lawyers, restaurants. Best of all TV worlds. Smart, sharp writing. Makes you realize why you loved TV in the first place. Reminds me, at least, why I picked up a pen in the first place (more on that coming soon). The love for New Orleans oozes out of the pores of this show.
I have to say, I've never been more wrong. That hockey game I wrote about last night was out of this world, and rated as highly as any in 36 years. Deservedly so!
In the middle of an episode of Treme when our intrepid hero, a Chef who has been dealing with city gas giving out on her on a regular basis in a high pressure situation comes through.
Not unlike the refs, the league, the players and the fans in that high class affair in South Philly. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I acknowledge its majesty, and thank all for wonderful fun. As my little bro would say, Hawks, City of Chicago -- Mazel, Mazel.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Finals
Is there anything more exciting? Well, lord I hope so, since I'm not playing, and really don't even have a rooting interest in either of these teams. Oh, and #hockeyblows.
That said, as far as sporting events go, a game six in Philly, practically sudden death as they trail 3-2 with under five to play. You kind of knew this would happen. Great series.
But the omnipresent sense of, well, finality, is really the overwhelming emotion. Particularly at home, for a team that has done nothing but come back time and time again. Shootout with the Rangers months ago just to get in.
Down3-0 to the Boston Bruins, that first win seemingly an anomaly till they strung together three more and made history.
Now an enormous underdog to the West's best. Not really the West, but Chi-town. A team without a title since '61. Knick-esque in their fecundity.
Overtime now, hanging on by a thread.
And it's over. In the blink of an eye names are etched forever onto that noble cup. Even for non-hockey fans (a group which I count myself among) it's clear that this is a special moment in time. To be the best team after a marathon season. Names like Kane and Toews bring joy to hockey fans in a city that has not shared in supremacy for half a century. That will make you a hero fast, and Chicago is a town that loves its sports heroes.
But seriously, though, NHL. Does your sport truly move so fast that there is no technological means of determining whether a goal was scored or not? Can the entire season be decided in so anticlimactically that the vast majority of fans, players and officials had absolutely no idea it was through.
That to me reinforces every rating point lost by this sport over the past 25-years. Even as HD reigns supreme and the game moves further down the cable dial (how anachronistic is that thought) there is just no way to present this sport in a meaningful way to a broader audience.
Bring back the Hanson brothers, and thank God this crap is off TV for a few months, to be honest. How come the Olympics were pristine and perfect, and the majority of these playoffs, even with amazing storylines and great towns involved, were so thoroughly unwatchable...
That said, as far as sporting events go, a game six in Philly, practically sudden death as they trail 3-2 with under five to play. You kind of knew this would happen. Great series.
But the omnipresent sense of, well, finality, is really the overwhelming emotion. Particularly at home, for a team that has done nothing but come back time and time again. Shootout with the Rangers months ago just to get in.
Down3-0 to the Boston Bruins, that first win seemingly an anomaly till they strung together three more and made history.
Now an enormous underdog to the West's best. Not really the West, but Chi-town. A team without a title since '61. Knick-esque in their fecundity.
Overtime now, hanging on by a thread.
And it's over. In the blink of an eye names are etched forever onto that noble cup. Even for non-hockey fans (a group which I count myself among) it's clear that this is a special moment in time. To be the best team after a marathon season. Names like Kane and Toews bring joy to hockey fans in a city that has not shared in supremacy for half a century. That will make you a hero fast, and Chicago is a town that loves its sports heroes.
But seriously, though, NHL. Does your sport truly move so fast that there is no technological means of determining whether a goal was scored or not? Can the entire season be decided in so anticlimactically that the vast majority of fans, players and officials had absolutely no idea it was through.
That to me reinforces every rating point lost by this sport over the past 25-years. Even as HD reigns supreme and the game moves further down the cable dial (how anachronistic is that thought) there is just no way to present this sport in a meaningful way to a broader audience.
Bring back the Hanson brothers, and thank God this crap is off TV for a few months, to be honest. How come the Olympics were pristine and perfect, and the majority of these playoffs, even with amazing storylines and great towns involved, were so thoroughly unwatchable...
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