« 2007-10 | HomePage | 2007-12 »

November 28, 2007

Bad Cheer

Since the season of cheer is here, I will complain about it. Not the season, no. The cheering. And not actually the cheering, it's the dancing.

We lucked into going to the Boston Celtics' opening home game at the Garden on Nov. 3. Great seats, great spirit in the place, great local celebrity spotting, great playing by the rejuvenated Cs, great time. The one blot on the whole thing is the Celtics Dancers (I think they're called). I'm sure they're probably earnest young women seeking a career in entertainment. Maybe it's their big break. But a) ugh, they're not very good and b) do we have to sexualize everything? and c) when we sexualize everything, does it have to be in an irrelevant, robotic, stamped-from-a-press kind of way? I would have less of an issue with real cheerleaders, leaders of cheers who toss in some acrobatics to keep it interesting. But the Jumbotron and electronics now lead the masses in cheers. We get women in a narrow range of skin tones, with long hair ironed flat, slim but without muscle definition in their polyester briefs, posturing in suggestive ways to some mostly quite old tunes.

If we spectators are such cretins that we need to be visually entertained every minute, let's rely more on "Lucky" the fully human mascot who is surprisingly charismatic and gymnastical. Or show some replays on the big screen. Or troop out again the various local kids' talent acts that seem to make an appearance at every game. Or get some guys to dance too, c'mon, equal opportunity exploitation.

I find the dancers' presence embarrassing for everyone. I suppose maybe some people like watching them bounce out and shimmy unathletically. There's got to be some bottom line (pardon bad pun) reason the franchise would undertake it. Do they think it's gonna sell more tickets? Now that they have a powerful team of players, I think not.

Most embarrassing is how, on opening night, the organization dedicated the parquet to the late great Red Auerbach, and not long after that the dancers were out in the first of their five costume changes. You notice dancers are a recent thing with the Celtics--since just before Auerbach's death. That's partly because he reportedly had said, in regard to team dancers, "Over my dead body."

Completely nonironically, that is where those dancers are now, skipping about the Red Auerbach parquet.

I tip my hat, conversely, to Russell Crowe. He's a part owner of a rugby team in Australia, where he has sacked the dancing cheerleaders. He told ESPN, "We examined game day and wanted to contemporize and make the focus [on] football." A team of percussionists will replace the cheerleaders, the club announced last February. The club's website invited drummers to audition.

 

22:35 Posted in Basketball , issues & ethics , Spectating , Sports | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

November 12, 2007

Fantasy Congress

Last year a pal I play hoops with cajoled me into joining his fantasy NFL league. It was fun to study the rosters. I’ve always been fascinated by people’s names. Somehow football players’ names are particularly fascinating, maybe because they’re so prominently displayed on the gigantic billboards that are their backs.

So naturally, knowing very little about the current crop of individual players, I chose a team based entirely on the players’ names. I could have made a whole league of such teams. An entire team of Toms playing an entire team of Cedrics and Derricks? An entire team of people with last names that are professions (Miller, Baker, Cook, Porter, etc.) versus an entire team of people with names longer than 10 letters? Or a team of all players with sexually ambiguous names (Marion, Lesley, Randy, etc.) I wonder who would win? Well, despite all the fun I could have had, I created one team with players who had tough names. Rough tough names. Like Mack Strong. Or Alge Crumpler.

I actually did all right for awhile. And way under the salary cap, I might add. Until I, uh, took my eye off the ball and several of my players were out for weeks with injuries unbeknownst to me. I played a few weeks with no quarterback, I think.

But I can see how the fantasy league concept is a fun one. Especially for the attentive.

And there's a league for everyone. You can play fantasy Congress too. Fantasy Congress: Where people play politics. I haven't played, mainly because returning from reality after fiddling around in a land of fantasy politics would be just too devastating. But if you want to play, you have until Thanksgiving to draft for the fall season!

Instructions are simple:

  • Draft your team of Members of Congress (MCs).
  • Earn points as your MCs legislate effectively.
  • Manage by trading, benching, or picking up free MCs.
  • Win by getting the most points by the end of the season and go down in political history.
Good concept! The site encourages teachers to use it, which seems like a good way to get kids involved in thinking about what's going on in the halls of the legislature beyond the posturing and speechifying we see most of. (What am I saying, "kids," really for anyone to get past the weapons of mass distraction constantly used against us.) Good luck!

23:20 Posted in issues & ethics , Spectating , World Events | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this