Doug Battema
As contributor
As commenter
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thoughts about "Three and a Half Pike"
Evelyn, thanks for posting this video and your commentary. It strikes me as a particularly interesting counterpoint to the narratives proffered by NBC/Comcast, which seem to highlight the ways in which Olympic athletes overcome the odds but rarely (if ev ... -
mask as character?
Great post & comments, Greg! Thanks for letting me connect with my inner comic book geek. Since I'm way behind on movie viewing, this is the first I've seen of "Iron Man" beyond the commercial trailers. What strikes me about thi ... -
tradition-plus?
This exchange also points to the shift occurring within sports journalism (and much of professional sports discourse generally) toward sophisticated statistical analysis-- with stats like VORP and WARP offering new metrics for assessing player performance ... -
Thanks for the comment. I
Thanks for the comment. I don't think swimming is unique in the way that its action is presented to television viewers; the use of replay, close-ups, etc., in all televised sports enhances the viewer's ability to understand the event. Rather t ... -
Part of what I see as
Part of what I see as interesting about this particular clip, though, is the fact that it's suggesting that new camera angles and technological innovations can *add* to-- not necessarily replace-- our conventional or traditional viewpoints. (The fac ... -
21st century blackface?
Two quick comments (will have more later) -- first, I've long been struck by the way in which video games and fantasy sports rely on mathematical models to quantify, rationalize, and objectify sports... often in a way that renders the qualitative, em ... -
quick follow-up
The other point I wanted to add, elaborating a bit on the second comment, is that it's interesting that you contrast the user's body (essentially within the parameters of what we might casually call "normal") with the "freakish&qu ... -
additional class tensions
I agree with all of your comments in the first paragraph, Matthew... though I'd also add that there's a very clear class element as well: it's most often members of the non-owning class taking over the role of player/team owner/manager, eff ... -
judgment call
Great clip and questions! It seems to me that part of what's at stake-- and part of what drives the business of sports media-- is exactly the opportunity to judge and cry "foul" over others' behavior. There are rules regulating behav ... -
Interesting clip -- evokes
Interesting clip-- evokes similar promos I remember from the New York area at the same time (especially WPIX/Channel 11's "Eleven A11ive!" campaign). Your excavation of the station's history, particularly its ownership, raises question ...