HiR:tb Toots (@warwalker)
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By junior on January 12, 2008, at 12:55 am Mike and I had a little discussion a few days ago, in the comments section of his site, about inter alia (which is Latin for “between beers”) the myriad of ills facing the NHL as it attempts to make some sort of an impact on the average American consumer.
At some point, Mike referred to the NHL as the “fourth” pro league; I pointed out that I thought he was being rather generous to the NHL in that regard. I said I thought there were some numbers on the NHL’s tv ratings performance in the U.S. that made it clear that professional hockey rated far behind things like figure skating and professional rodeo. I promised to try and hunt some of the data down and post it here.
Here is an article from the WaPo dated June 2006 that discusses some of these issues. The Post’s site sometimes requires registration, so I’ve quoted a couple of the more salient paragraphs below:
The big exception is television ratings — a key revenue driver and measure of a sport’s mass appeal — which have gone from bad to worse. The NHL playoffs, mostly relegated to the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), a second-tier cable channel known for hunting and fishing programs and its Tour de France coverage, have barely registered with the American public. NBC’s ratings aren’t great, either.
“You look at the playoff [ratings] numbers, and they have been beaten pretty soundly by poker and bowling,” said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.
To be fair, a quick review of the article suggests to me that its general theme is the overall re-surgence and re-emergence of hockey after the lockout, except insofar as the TV ratings are concerned; attendance was said to be up and many signs were said to point to a successful recovery for the league, at least outside the realm of television. To finish behind bowling, though – I mean no disrespect here to Earl Anthony, but…dude.
By junior on January 12, 2008, at 12:11 am  I checked tsn.ca for the final score of the Leaf game this morning when I got to work. I just needed to know how badly the Leafs had lost. When I tuned in to the game last night, it was late in the first period, 2-0 for the Kings. No sooner had I set the remote down and settled back in my favourite chair to watch, it was 3-0 and I began to mutter about Andrew “Razor” Raycroft’s inability to block a beach ball with a snow shovel* when Andy Wozniewski fired the puck over the glass in the Leafs’ zone: power play Kings, and in about 40 seconds it was four – zip Kings. I clicked the game off, breathed a few curses and went to bed.
Anyway, TSN’s site gave me the expected bad news. That was an abomination that I fully expected to find. In the comments section below the article, however, I happened to notice (purely by chance, I’m not in the habit of reading those comments, for reasons which will become painfully obvious) one particular entry. Some brainiac waste of skin going by the handle “I_HATE_THE_NHLPA” had posted, below the story about the 5-2 final score, the following alarming bit of shite:
Simply horrific. Trade Sundin for 2, maybe 3 1st rounders and some good talent for the rest of the season. What a joke…
This is the kind of stuff that makes a guy’s brain explode; it’s the reason I don’t EVER listen to talk radio, especially sports talk radio. Mere possession of a phone and the ability to dial a 1-800 number does not qualify one to debate an issue intelligently. It’s the reason that I am increasingly finding myself dealing with more than a little self-loathing as a direct result of identifying myself as a Maple Leaf fan; I feel guilty of all manner of offence merely by association with some of the most troglodytic fans on the face of the earth. Click here to continue reading Silence is deep as eternity, speech is shallow as time.
By junior on January 11, 2008, at 12:38 am I was idly flipping through the channels tonight, awaiting the commencement of the Leafs vs. Kings game (late night start time for those of us here in Central Canada) when I noticed something unusual about the *ahem* adult programming listed by our cable service. Certain of the programs, being described as “movies” are assigned a quality rating (1 to 4 stars) – just like all the other movies.
This fact raises a number of questions in my mind.
Who quality rates the porn? Is the porn rated according to its own dedicated system, i.e. compared to all other porn flicks and according to certain porn-specific criteria? Or is the porn judged and rated according to the same star-assignment system as regular movies? This latter possibility may be somewhat disturbing to folks like the Wayans brothers; that is, if Driving Miss Daisy and Driving Miss Daisy are being judged by identical criteria, there are some inescapable and ugly truths that may have to be faced, in a very concrete and quantitative way, by failed directors. For example, the particular adult feature I saw being advertised – Mega Blondes – was afforded a two-star rating by the anonymous cable company cinematic assessors. Two stars! That’s one more star than was attributed to Scary Movie 2, a feature being offered on an adjacent channel. To review, assuming that these 2 films were rated on a common scale and according to identical criteria, the quality assessors who watched both Scary Movie 2 and Mega Blondes apparently came to the conclusion that the porn flick was twice as good as the work of the Wayanses.
I’m just sayin’.
By junior on January 9, 2008, at 11:31 pm In the last few days, Spouse and I have watched both the final episode of The Sopranos and the Simpsons Movie. Tomorrow night, we are planning to solve Rubik’s Cube, listen to the latest Beatles album and find out who shot J.R.
Seriously, it is sometimes difficult to comprehend how I can be so woefully behind the curve in relation to such cultural matters. Being late on The Simpsons Movie was just one of those things, I guess. Although I had expressed, in no uncertain terms, my desire to See! That! Movie! as soon as Spouse and I saw the trailer – I think it was shown in the theatre when we saw Mrs. Cryface and the Terrible Disease 2: This Time it’s Communicable – it so happened that we were both very busy at work when the film finally opened. Predictably, the film came and went with nary a kernel of theatre corn popped into my gaping maw. Click here to continue reading And we’ll be disco dancing all night long.
By junior on January 8, 2008, at 10:27 pm  I saw a little blurb on television tonight about how the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike has taken a terrible toll on awards shows. Apparently, without writers to put together the brainless chatter that award presenters emit at a constant (and significant) rate, it is impossible to have an awards show, at least in the usual manner. Thus, the “People’s Choice Awards” have done away with a live presentation show and are instead airing a show that announces the winners, who will give pre-taped acceptance speeches. As for those priceless red carpet moments and the mindless prattle, they are 86’ed.
I hope this strike continues for a thousand years.
Here is a picture of Spouse lunging her horse Ralph to help fill the empty spaces in your life, and to prove that I actually have been spending some time trying to get to know the ins and outs of my new D-SLR. Props to Doug and Mike for giving me a short course on lenses and basic photography principles in the comments section of my last post. Taking this shot was a challenge because the setting (the indoor riding arena at the barn where Ralphie boards) was dark – only two little bulbs hung from the high ceiling, way down at the other end of the building. Luckily, I was able to convince Spouse to keep the door open to the arena (visible, and highly over-exposed, at the bottom right of the photo) which meant I had a little natural light to work with. I then had to review my basics – bump up the ISO, open up the aperture (lower f-stop denominator) and try not to use the zoom. This shot was taken using a tripod on the aperture priority setting, which I had chosen initially just to see what kind of a shutter speed the camera suggested. I think the camera ended up choosing a .6 sec exposure, obviously not quick enough to “freeze” Ralphie as he cantered past the camera. I ended up liking the ghostly images of Ralph I got and took a few more “ghost” shots on purpose, concentrating more on compositional elements. This is one of the better shots. Full disclosure: I’ve fiddled a little bit with the brightness and saturation levels using an image editor – the initial image is a bit too dark to post to the Web in reduced form, and some alterations were, accordingly, necessary.
By junior on January 4, 2008, at 9:03 pm  I must be the King of Beginning Projects. I have decided to pick up a new hobby over the last few weeks. I was trying to take a picture of our Christmas tree (for posterity – no doubt the Smithsonian will be calling within a week or two) three or four days before Christmas, which led me to fooling about with Spouse’s point and shoot digital camera. It’s a relatively fancy point and shoot, so far as those things go, and it has a “manual” mode where you can set the aperture and exposure time. I had the camera on a tripod to make a timed exposure of the tree using only natural light. A couple of my attempts turned out to be not half bad, which was just enough encouragement to convince me that I should get myself a digital SLR and learn how to take a decent picture.
The purchase was not entirely impulsive; Spouse and I have been debating whether to take the plunge for several months. I had even (somewhat unusually for me) done some research into what specific camera I would purchase. The winner: a Canon Digital Rebel XTi – otherwise known as an EOS 40D in some countries. Much of the twenty-four hours has been consumed by my attempts to learn how to operate the gizmo. Aside from the picture above, here are some of the results of that learning process:
got mocked by Spouse for taking a still life – very artistic, black and white you understand – of her slipper;
a very puzzled cat and a dog with mild flash-blindness; and
three and a half hours of waiting in a freezing parking lot, after I managed to deposit the car keys in the trunk of the (locked) car while hiding my precious new toy during a quick trip to Chapters to obtain some “how-to” literature on digital photography.
On this last item, I first called for assistance from the pirates you know as “tow-truck drivers” at 1:10 p.m. I was told by the pleasant and helpful dispatch operator that someone would arrive to help us in “about 45 minutes.” An hour passed, approximately fifty minutes of which I had spent standing next to my stranded vehicle in the windswept and icy parking lot, enduring the quizzical and sometimes derisive looks of my fellow citizens as well as the astonishingly brisk Canadian cold. I called the towing company and spoke to the very same cheery dispatcher. She assured me that the driver would be along in “about fifteen minutes.” My testicles were beginning to feel like they were just about ready to ice down a couple of margaritas, so I popped inside a nearby Starbucks to enjoy 16 oz. of tea for the low, low price of about four dollars. I knocked back the four dollar tea in about six minutes and headed back out to stand sentry over my car. Another hour passed. Twice I called the dispatch number; by this time, they were clever enough to be ducking my calls and no human would pick up the phone. At 4:00, a full two hours and fifty minutes after my initial contact, the tow truck arrived.
I am still trying to warm up and calm down.
By junior on January 2, 2008, at 9:32 pm I haven’t been able to even come near the computer to think about posting for the last couple of weeks. With Christmas, travel, visiting various relatives, the schedule would have been tight. Perhaps not impossible, but tight. Add on top of all that the veritable cornucopia of televised sports available over the last few days, and my blog didn’t stand a chance. I have watched the NFL (The Bills lost to end their season in one game I watched, and the Patriots managed to run the table by beating the Giants in the other); I have watched NCAA football (the end of the Capital One bowl – Go Blue! – and the first three and a half quarters of the Rose Bowl, in which I managed to get a severe hate on for USC when that idiot did a full-on flip before running the ball into the end zone for their second TD. Illini, please know that I was rooting you all on to give those showboats a whuppin’. Too bad.); I have watched NHL hockey (Sabres versus Penguins in the 2008 Winter Classic, played outdoors at Ralph Wilson stadium in front of 73,000 people that appeared to be having an absolute party throughout the televised snowstorm/hockey game. The piece de resistance in this one was Sid the Kid scoring in the shootout to end it – that guy is some good.); I have watched the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship games (round robin games Canada vs. Slovakia, Canada vs. Sweden and Canada vs. Denmark, as well as two of today’s quarterfinal matches – Canada vs. Finland and Russia vs. Czech Republic).
I have also managed to watch (with my six-year old niece) Monsters Inc. three times, as well as two Pink Panther movies, Casino Royale (the 2006 version – don’t bother) and the Rose Bowl Parade.
In the process, I have consumed 1, 345 pounds of junk food and an endless supply of fizzy drinks.
A guy could really get to like this vacation/holiday season combo.
By junior on December 24, 2007, at 12:10 pm 
I was reminded of the passing of time the other day in an unusual way. I was in the local Canadian Tire store (kind of a giant combination hardware-automotive-gardening store, for those of you south of the border) on Saturday; in addition to doing some last minute Christmas shopping, I was getting some very specific holiday supplies. My mission was to build a device that could make watering the tree a little easier: the design called for a funnel with a length of clear plastic hose attached to it; the device would be painted green (for camouflage purposes) and then fastened (hopefully invisibly) to the trunk of the tree with the hose extending downwards into the tree stand.
Getting the funnel was no problem, but finding the length of clear plastic hose was proving more difficult. I asked the guy working at the auto parts counter if he might know where to find tubing of the correct size, and I held up the funnel to show him the end I wanted to attach it to. The guy working at the counter was in his mid twenties, and as soon as I held up the funnel, his face broke into a broad grin and he begin nodding vigorously. “Right on,” he said and disappeared into the stock room behind the counter. For a moment or two, I wondered why he seemed to immediately understand my purpose and why he was so stoked about it.
Then I thought about it – I had shown a funnel to a twenty-five year old and asked for a length of hose to fit on the end of it. He is of course young enough to assume that I was going to fill the contraption with beer and drink from it. When he returned from the stock room empty-handed, he looked a little vexed; he apologetically told me that he had been unable to find any tubing of the necessary diameter and suggested that I check in the hardware section (far corner) to see if there was any there. I briefly considered telling him about the true purpose behind my funnel/tubing gizmo; instead, I thanked him for his help and wandered off towards hardware with my street cred intact.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
By junior on December 20, 2007, at 1:21 pm Matthew has a discussion going on about “the scene you hate” in the movies; you know, the one that’s technically inaccurate, or logically inconsistent, or logistically impossible, or some combination of all of these.
There were already over 130 comments when I checked earlier this morning (! – apparently this sort of thing strikes a chord with a LOT of people, especially any scene having to do with computer “hackers”). I couldn’t believe it, but my own pet-peeve movie scene had not yet been mentioned. Here’s what I posted:
The car-racing scene, in which the hero and his rival blast along at high speed and the director cuts back and forth between close-ups of their faces, with gritted teeth. They are neck and neck as they approach the finish line (or improbably narrow alleyway down which only one of the cars will fit) until one of the characters gets the bright idea to PUSH THE ACCELERATOR ALL THE WAY TO THE FLOOR and he zooms ahead into the distance. WTF? It didn’t occur to you to floor it already?
Particularly obnoxious in this regard were the 2 Fast 2 Furious movies, as they invented completely new nitrous-oxide related ways to use this ridiculous scene.
While tapping out the another comment related specifically to the movie “Volcano”, I had to check to make sure I had the title of this absolutely horrid movie correct, so I naturally popped over to check the entry for Volcano on imdb.com; there’s a line there indicating that “[t]his plot synopsis is empty. Add a synopsis”.
I swear, I spent about twenty minutes trying to figure out how to post a reply to that message that implored the so-called “writers” of the movie to first “add a plot”, following which I would consider synopsizing same.
By junior on December 16, 2007, at 12:30 am I promised myself, when starting up this blog thingy, that I would eventually post some of the poems and lyrics I’ve written over the years. What follows are some lyrics for a song called “Wednesday” that my buddies and I were fortunate enough to record in 1994. The album went triple teflon and the rest is history. Anyway, I’m going to post these lyrics because I am too bummed out to work on anything original. This is because in one of my roto-hockey leagues, I concluded a blockbuster trade the other day to bolster a blueline badly in need of upgrade; it took a week but as of this morning I was the proud owner of Maple Leaf defenceman Bryan McCabe. I had to give up a decent forward – Marian Hossa – and on a straight up basis, it’s a loser trade for me, but you have to keep in mind that I was having trouble getting Hossa into my starting lineup because I am overloaded with forwards and my plus/minus is terrible, which makes me a little shy about putting guys from terrible teams into the mix in the first place.
Anyway, I fairly beamed as I watched Hockey Night in Canada tonight, eagerly following Bryan’s progress around the ice, crossing my fingers in hopes of seeing his first goal for my charges.
He broke his arm in the second period and will be out 6 to 8 weeks. So it goes.
wednesday
wednesday
i was a bad idea
a paradox in the mind of god
inconsistent as the clear blue sky
inconsistent, knowing why
a human thought
is always flawed
a disproved subjectivity
but some ideas are much weaker than others
and some ideas belong to sky
i believe
forever has no urgency
horizons tell you lies
remembering the simple days
will maybe get you by
overwrought
and past my peak
i’d lost all patience with my mystique
you need to believe that the riddle unfolding
will somehow make some sense
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Roll of Blog
The Barilkosphere
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Or at least until I want to watch another episode of Lost.
I hope this strike continues for a thousand years.
Here is a picture of Spouse lunging her horse Ralph to help fill the empty spaces in your life, and to prove that I actually have been spending some time trying to get to know the ins and outs of my new D-SLR. Props to Doug and Mike for giving me a short course on lenses and basic photography principles in the comments section of my last post. Taking this shot was a challenge because the setting (the indoor riding arena at the barn where Ralphie boards) was dark – only two little bulbs hung from the high ceiling, way down at the other end of the building. Luckily, I was able to convince Spouse to keep the door open to the arena (visible, and highly over-exposed, at the bottom right of the photo) which meant I had a little natural light to work with. I then had to review my basics – bump up the ISO, open up the aperture (lower f-stop denominator) and try not to use the zoom. This shot was taken using a tripod on the aperture priority setting, which I had chosen initially just to see what kind of a shutter speed the camera suggested. I think the camera ended up choosing a .6 sec exposure, obviously not quick enough to “freeze” Ralphie as he cantered past the camera. I ended up liking the ghostly images of Ralph I got and took a few more “ghost” shots on purpose, concentrating more on compositional elements. This is one of the better shots. Full disclosure: I’ve fiddled a little bit with the brightness and saturation levels using an image editor – the initial image is a bit too dark to post to the Web in reduced form, and some alterations were, accordingly, necessary.