Remember when the Beatles said Everybody had a hard year, Everybody had a good time…and them some other stuff about wet dreams, etc.? You were probably too young. God knows I was, but I have heard that song, and I think that lyric pretty well sums up those of us who grinded it out on the blogging circuit in 2009. Guess we’ll have to wait until 2010 to quit our day jobs, comrades (kudos to those who actually did quit their day jobs).
To close out 2009, I asked a few of my fellow members of the sports and pop culture blogging intelligentsia to send me their best post from 2009. I’m proud to say that I at least retweeted most of these when they first went live, and had a chance to go back and re-read. This list revisits Barry Bonds, Brett Favre, cartoon characters who juiced, and the seemingly insurmountable number of Harry Potter-lookalikes in the sporting world.
I didn’t pick a best post myself, but my favorite post – or should I say community organizing effort – by another blogger came from Yardbarker’s Alana G back in late November, who through her site campaigned MTV Jams to air a Tiger Woods video playlist. I never did follow up, and ask if they played my submission (Usher – Confessions, Part II), did I?
Check out the rest of the links below. I hope this leaves you feeling good, looking towards the future.
Thanks to everyone who voted in the What’s The Greatest Sports Day of the Year? poll. The results are in and posted – wait for it – at my new posterous blog.
Unnecessary redirect of the year.
But seriously, if you’re up on Posterous you should subscribe to me, and we can communicate as friends in yet another rambunctious internet hippodrome – I plan to post about this year’s zombie pin-up calendar there later on.
One hint, the day that received 47% of the votes partially relates to this event happening soon that’s going to be badass – http://www.secbigeastinvitational.com
I love Chad. I love Chad for getting behind the Bengals being featured on HBO Hard Knocks when he easily could have gone the route of The T.O. Show on VH1. But, as he demonstrated in a radio interview with KGOW in Houston earlier this week, he’s not exactly a new media visionary. I took a few quotes out of context from his take on Twitter:
“You know, it’s funny – I like it… I have my own application coming out where people will be able to (drumroll, puhlease!!) interact and follow me.
Rebuff:
Either Chad’s a genius and he managed to convince somebody to create “his own application” based around the sole purpose of the original tool (and we’ll all be chadderring by 2010), or he just doesn’t know what Twitter actually does.
“…when the season starts, it’s going to get even worse. I’m going to really make it fun. I’m using Twitter during games, during halftime, after the games. I’m going to be taking it to the next level.”
Starting today I’m going to be contributing to Spewf.com.
What is spewf exactly? Did you see last night’s How I Met Your Mother when they were talking about Canadian sexniques? (Ex. The reverse Rick Moranis). Well, I couldn’t say for sure, but spewf sure sounds like it could be one. And How I Met Your Mother is a lot funnier than people give it credit for.
(Actually I don’t even know how you pronounce spewf ( like spoof? spughff? )
The blog is owned and operated by my good buddy Kevin. Kevin is predominantly and affectionately known around the sports blogosphere as Kevin the intern, intern from the hallowed halls of Busted Coverage. (Also, more GrandmasterB design handiwork on the Spewf header.)
The Business of Sports threw up a post today championing the twitter usage of the Worldwide Leader. As much as I’d like to tear it down, and say they’re just using it as a megalo-rss feed, I can’t really do that (BLAST!) As BofS points out, ESPN is actually engaging it’s audience kindof on twitter. For example, Both the PTI and the Around The Horn twitter handles are inviting viewers to ask questions via the platform. For instance, @PTIshow put up a post yesterday asking viewers to suggest a guest for today’s show. Additionally, ESPN Regional Television created @Big12Network for fans to get updates on conference tournament happening – I badly wish The Big East was doing this.
Without letting them get off scott free, of the seven twitter IDs that Business of Sports highlights (minus the true ESPN.com feeder ID @ESPN) the follower to following ratio is about 10 to 1. And I hate, hate, hate to admit it, but Plaschke is the one doing the best job of joining in the fray (1,419 followers; following 1186). So, hop to Reali and fantasy guy Matthew Berry! (Fantasy Guy Matthew Berry gets special commendation for setting his location as Sadly, CT.)
I might get defriended for this, but I think more than just his 5,001 Facebook friends should know that former UCONN Husky/ soon-to-be former Golden State Warrior Marcus Williams isn’t afraid to throw one out for you to ponder…
Personally, I think the Ghostface said it best with So after the laughter, I guess comes the tearz. Of course, his NBA contract wasn’t bought out yesterday.
So, Amazon is doing some pretty cool stuff in social media these days. I definitely recommend signing-up to become an associate if only for the sake of checking out some of the opportunities they’ve got for online content publishers. For example, check out this dynamite carousel widget I’ve got below!
I first saw these revolving on online radio station KCRW’s site. Their deejays each created one for their Top-10 albums of 2008. Because of love myself – and my paramount taste in music – I created one for my Top-10 albums from last year. They’re in no particular order – except, TV on The Radio’s Dear Science is definitely numero uno.
Much like if you preface any potato product with bacon, sour cream, and/or cheddar cheese, adding freestyle in front of any sporting activity immediately grabs my attention.
…with that said, I give you freestyle bullfighting.
After the first 8 seconds, the strategy is essentially: SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE! But the back-flip was pretty cool.
And let the record show that the matador (??) is named Dusty Tuckness and the bull is named E-COLI.
“WuChess, a partnership between Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and ChessPark, a social network around online chess playing, launches today. It’s the “world’s first online chess and hip hop community” and will also include exclusive videos and mp3 of the “hottest cats in hip hop.”
Like most people of inconsequential intelligent who grew up in the mid or late 90s, I celebrate the catalog of the RZA, the GZA, Ol’ Dirty Bastard (may he rest in peace), et al.
In the same vein, I think I speak for most of the these people when I say that if it comes down to paying $48 bucks a year I’m content to stick with playing Scrabulous on Facebook.
Can’t say I envy anyone trying to launch a niche social network these days.
