SOUNDTRACK: BASIA BULAT-“Tall Tall Shadow” and “It Can’t Be You” live at Polaris Music Prize (2014).
Swinging to the other side of the musical world from Tanya Tagaq, Basia Bulat also performed at the 2014 Polaris. I like Bulat a lot, she comes across as a sweet singer (no idea if she is actually sweet). And I love that she can make really complex songs out of such random instruments (she plays autoharp, hammered dulcimer and others).
In this performance, she is fairly traditional for “Tall Tall Shadow” on the piano (although the french horn accompaniment is a nice twist), but “It Can’t Be You” on charango really highlights just what you can do with, essentially, a souped up ukulele.
“Shadow” highlights her voice which she holds for some quite long notes. The song is really pretty with a great chorus. “It Can’t Be You” is just her and the charango (which looks like a ten string ukulele but is Andean in origin). It’s quite a song–her voice and that instrument are lovely.
[READ: February 4, 2015] Grantland #11
I enjoyed this issue quite a lot, even if I didn’t know who half of the people profiled were (and won’t remember them in two days time).
I am very curious why Grantland is just so obsessed with basketball than other sports. It’s a little crazy how one sided these books tend to be. They obviously love all sports but the preponderance of NBA articles is really staggering.
I do wish there’d be a bit more about TV and movies (and even more about the shows that I watch), but it is a fun way to learn about shows I would never watch. And maybe that’s why I like these books so much, it’s my chance to vicariously enjoy sports without having to care about any of it (especially since it is all a year old, I never know if anything they talk about actually came to fruition or not).
This issue covers January-March 2014 (it’s fun reading about things almost exactly a year apart–to read about Oscars and Super Bowl stuff but have it be last year’s Super Bowl (especially since it too had the Seahawks) was very trippy indeed).
BILL SIMMONS-“The Action Hero Championship Belt”
I love the premise of this–using box office success to see who is the best action hero. And here is the list of champions over the years: Steve McQueen (1968-1973), Clint Eastwood (1973-1980), Chuck Norris (1980-1982) Sylvester Stallone (1982), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1984-1985) [he released 4 movies in two years], Sylvester Stallone (1986), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1986-1987), Bruce Willis (1988), Mel Gibson (1989), Arnold Schwarzenegger (1990-1991), Clint Eastwood (1992), Sylvester Stallone (1993) Arnold Schwarzenegger (1994-1996) Sylvester Stallone (1996), Nicholas Cage (1997-2000), Vin Diesel (2001-2002), Uma Thurman (2003-2004), Denzel Washington (2004), Jason Stathan (2005-2006) Jackie Chan (2006), Liam Neeson (2007), Vin Diesel (2009-2011), Liam Neeson (2011-2014) [with so much more potential to come!]
MARK TITUS-“The Captain Planet Team of College Basketball”
In this column, Titus ranks non-American college players naming five starters from the five regions of the globe. I like the conceit even if I don’t know any of the players.
BILL BARNWELL-“Beast Mode Evolved”
Marshawn Lynch was bad ass even a year ago.
WESLEY MORRIS-“After Normal”
About the state of gay culture, including the show Looking and football player Michael Sam.
KATIE BAKER-“Only in Russia”
So many stories arose about the conditions of the hotels in Sochi for the Olympics. Just how bad was it?
AMOS BARSHAD-“Wu-Tang, Atomically”
Interviews with each of the surviving members of the Wu Tang Clan (even Cappadonna), about the future and a possible anniversary album.
REMBERT BROWNE-“Stanford Man”
When people speak of Richard Sherman as an angry football player, they smooth things over by saying he’s from Stanford–should players be diffused so easily?
HOLLY ANDERSON-“Dispatches from Bowlvania”
Florida State vs Tennessee in a Bowl Game.
ALEX PAPPADEMAS–“The Occupational Hazard of Being Great”
An epitaph for Philip Seymour Hoffman.
BEN LINDBERGH-“The Year of Living Less Dangerously”
A look at catcher concussions and how the crisis has been downplayed by MLB.
MARK HARRIS-“The Monolith Has Spoken”
About Oscar Awards in 2014–I enjoyed reading this because of the success of so many black performers, especially in light of this year’s white wash.
ZACH LOWE-“Weel of NBA Fortune”
A proposal for changing the way the draft works in the NBA.
MARK LISANTI–“The Captain’s Finale”
Derek Jeter on the eve of retirement.
JONATHAN ABRAMS-“The Ballad of Boogie”
About basketballer DeMarcus Cousins.
BILL SIMMONS, ANDREW SHARP AND CHRIS RYAN-“In Praise of Spartak”
Patrick Beverley is an irritating player. And because of that he’s a lot of fun to watch. They come up with the nickname Spartak for him (after his Russian pro team). They have also seen people call him Red Bull (which sounds like a perfect tie in).
EMILY YOSHIDA-“Surviving Gwyneth”
Our reaction to conscious uncoupling.
CHRIS RYAN-“The Coach’s Dilemma”
The challenge of being a coach when it seems like managers make all the decisions.
KIRK GOLDSBERRY–“Databall”
Evidently there are so many cameras watching every moment of every basketball game that analysts are on the verge of analyzing every single piece of data–you know, because sports fans don’t have enough data to spew around.
ANDY GREENWALD–“Wahington T.V.”
Looking at House of Cards and Veep. Where House of Cards seems weak and pointless after the first season and Veep just keeps getting better and better.
JORDAN CONN-“Rip City Revival”
The unexpected success of the Portland Trail Blazers.
RAFE BARTHOLOMEW AND JASON CONCEPCION-“There and Back Again”
This was a fascinating look at the Philippines. The two authors–one a native who can’t speak Tagalog and the other a White American who is fluent–travel there to take in the culture and watch an NBA game. Evidently the NBA is huge in the Philippines. Perhaps more interesting than the game were the cock fights and their appearance on the local show Eat Bulaga! starring an 8 year old girl named Ryzza Mae. Enjoy as much as you can of some random episode:
ALEX PAPPADEMAS-“Who Breaks a Butterfly Upon a Wheel?”
All about Justin Bieber–and how if he dropped a really good album right now, all this crazy behavior would seem like artistry.
ANDREW SHARP-“Meet Michael Robinson”
Michael Robinson is also on the Seahawks, but he gets no media attention–until now.
JASON SCHWARTZ-“The Amazing Pace”
In the D-League, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, an NBA draft team, play super fast and score a ton of points (typical score: 144-127). Is this the future of the NBA?
STEVEN HYDEN-“Lies Grammy Told Us”
The good news is that Hyden doesn’t take the Grammys seriously, although he does look at the staggering dearth of rap music in the awards and the fact that a Macklemore win doesn’t necessarily make it better.
BILL SIMMONS-“NBA Tanking Perfection”
Nearly half the teams in the NBA are deliberately tanking this season to get a better draft pick. They call foul!
LOUISA THOMAS-“The Other Noah”
A tribute to tennis player Yannick Noah (the father of Bulls player Joakim Noah).
DANNY CHAU-“Butter, Bacon, and Bone Broth”
The Lakers are apparently fed a variation on the Atkins diet which involves eating a lot of bacon, butter and bone broth (which is indeed broth made from the marrow of bones). Chau tries it for a week and doesn’t die!
KATIE BAKER-“Continental Rivals”
During the Olympics, the U.S hockey team played the Canadian hockey team in a game of street hockey–and had a blast.
MOLLY LAMBERT-“Silver Lakes Run Deep”
In praise of two films that were created by and star women: In a World and Afternoon Delight. Lambert says these films aren’t genius, but they at least have a different perspective on typical filmmaking.
AMOS BARSHAD-“In Giannis We Trust”
This is the second issue in a row to mention Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Greek version of Linsanity
ROBERT MAYS-“A Tight End in a Wide Receiver’s Clothes”
Did you know that a tight end and a wide receiver make different salaries? Even though their positions are more or less the same at this point? Shocking, right?
BRYAN CURTIS-“A Visit from the Goon Squad”
A look at the hard fought determination of the guy who runs Hockeyfights.com a place where you can read about every fight that’s happened in a hockey game since like, forever.
ANDY GREENWALD-“Well Done”
Top Chef is getting old. Is it time to bow out? I liked this article because it gave a positive review to the sadly cancelled show Work of Art.
RANY JAZAYERLI-“The Road Not Taken”
Alex Rodriguez is a villain, but he was not necessarily destined to be one. This is an interesting look at some of the things that happened to A-Rod (which were not his own fault) that may have changed the narrative we have about him.
JOHN LOPEZ-“Where’s Walter?”
It’s a bummer that The Secret Life of Walter Mitty didn’t do that well at the box office, because it’s nice to have small films like it, and its lack of huge success means there will likely be fewer movies like it.
BILL BARNWELL-“Bridgewater Versus Bortles”
I kind of hoped that Bridgewater referred to the town near me, but it doesn’t. This is about Teddy Bridgewater and Blake Bortles, up coming quarterbacks who tried to show off at “pro day” (which is I guess when pro scouts watch quarterbacks?)–which I didn’t even know about.
SEAN McINDOE-“California Love”
A Canadian visits L.A. to watch an absurdity–an outdoor hockey game in Dodger Stadium. And he has to confess that it was pretty fun.
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I’ve wondered just how certain articles are selected for the books. As I’ve said before, I’ve never really looked at the website. I assume there are dozens of articles written every day and that these articles in the books are a tiny fraction of the whole. Are they deemed the best by some algorithm? Is it most likes or comments (do they even have likes or comments?). It doesn’t seem to be by author as I’ve noticed that although there is a core group, the contributors to the issues seem to rotate in an ineffable way.
I guess I’m surprised overall at the lack of information about these books that the books themselves provide. And I kind of like it–it feels like being part of a secret version of a club–a club which I don’t belong to.
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