That's fortune smiling
I know I'm not the only blog executive who spends some time each day thundering through the "referring pages" section of sitemeter or whatever; ordinarily, this doesn't stop me from feeling like the most wretched man who ever lived.
Today, though, all shame sloughed off when I happened into Noz's links section and read his description of Waxidermy (check for it, but apparently not regularly enough). There, I found nothing less than a map to something that has defined the Masters of the Klondike for longer than we've known ourselves, ever since we pooled our change on a South Philly corner to purchase the Rams, Jams, and Slams video for $2.
I'm speaking, of course, of an MP3 of Tabron's Manute Bol ode "Block the Ball." I can't even begin to explain to all assembled how key this goal has been to any and all progress FreeDarko has ever made. Basically, this enterprise has grown as it did solely to justify the effort and expenditure it would have taken for us to digitize it off the tape and properly archivize it online.
(Yes, we are beyond technologically incompetent.)
Sorry if this has already been all over the internet, and all praise due to Noz for the find and the review. But I like to believe that unveiling its importance to FD is no less a story than this massive musical achievement already is in itself.
(now go read the walloping post I did last night on KG and AI)
posted by Bethlehem Shoals @ 7/16/2006 05:46:00 PM
22 comments
22 Comments:
Your boy JR is FD'n the EBC...
From C.Y. Ellis at HoopsVibe:
"As he soon shows, however, it certainly won't be the last time, as he pulls of the play of the summer with two minutes left in the contest. Isolated in his favourite spot on the left wing, he sets his defender up with a few sucker steps before letting loose a bone-breaking crossover that leaves his defender flat on his ass. Not content with just that, he takes off outside the key from a double-footed start and throws down a tomahawk from so high above the rim that it's a wonder the ball didn't end up orbiting earth."
Video proof here. It's the Artest clip, 'bout halfway thru. Wear a bib.
"Knock on the sky and listen to the sound"
skeets, thank you more than words can say for pointing me toward that. i know that many clown my JR-philia, but how can you not want to see him try that on (insert defensive square here)?
m.e.--for a second i thought that was a quote from the song.
"booby smooth" or whoever is corny as hell. the concept of fat joe as basketball coach sort of discredits the entire EBC.
is anyone watching the ESPYs? god is being thanked a lot. i want to be dwyane wade.
I guess this post, which relates to FD history, is a good place to ask this:
I've been reading this blog for a while and have always been reminded of a David Hickey essay, "Heresy of Zone Defense." Very FD, circa 1997. I can't find a link to the full text, but I'll exerpt some of it here [from a boston.com artice] - have any of you guys read this? I think you'd be interested:
The art critic Dave Hickey builds his essay ''The Heresy of Zone Defense" (published in his 1997 collection ''Air Guitar") around another such moment of transcendent athletic beauty: Julius Erving driving baseline in the 1980 NBA Finals, veering through the air around Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, under the backboard, and then, somehow, reaching back under the glass for a reverse layup. After the game, Magic Johnson joked that the Lakers weren't sure at the time whether to inbound the ball or ask Erving to do it again.
''Everyone who cares about basketball knows this play," Hickey writes...
Hickey attributes the universal joy inspired by Erving's play to the fact that it ''was at once new and fair": within the rules of the game invented in 1891 by James Naismith, and yet impossible for Naismith (or anyone else, for that matter) to have anticipated until Dr. J actually pulled it off. The relationship between fair play and aesthetic appreciation may also explain why replays of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa's record-setting 1998 home run chase felt breathtaking just a few years ago but now seem to have lost their capacity to inspire strong feelings.
Hickey also writes of the aesthetic rewards reaped by attentive spectators who know ''what to watch for" (in basketball, according to Hickey, ''basically, everything"). As in art or music, such knowledge isn't strictly necessary but it deepens the aesthetic experience.
An unrelated question: How do today's NBA ballers connect with Mario and friends?
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/ab3j/character/index.html
My initial calls, based on the poses: Peach=Nash, Luigi=Duncan, Mario=Wade, and DK=LeBron.
"It'sa me! D-Wade!"
Well, the J.R.Smith unbridled potential in Chicago experiment, is over. Good god. Follow with me in this tale of woe...
Elton Brand for Tyson Chandler.
Tyson Chandler for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith.
J.R. Smith for Howard Eisley and maybe two second round picks.
Elton Brand = P.J. Brown and Howard Eisley? Has J.R. Smith sunk that low? I was hoping for just a preview, a little bit of flair on the Bulls...
WV: hhlon, near Uqbar and Orbis.
odb--i've only ever read the acid essay in air guitars, but this gives me the long-needed impetus to make that purchase. sounds like it could be a genuine FD antecedent, a title thus far only conferred on Barthes's meditation on wrestling (my friend's mom suggested that).
I'm probably a moron, but I can't find anything on the ESPN site about Artest... I want to see that video badly, especially since JR is headed to the Rockies to help the Nuggets out at the 2. Can someone point me in the right direction? Feel free to hold my hand.
yesterday it was in the front page video section. i'd imagine it'll be up on youtube sometime soon.
Yeah, ESPN Motion video -- NBA front page.
Clips titled "Ron Artest Invades the EBC at Rucker Park". 3rd one down...
the nba is so messed up right now, can you fix it?
JR for Eisley and 2 second round picks is criminal. I can't tell if this trade will enhance or mitigate the FDness of the Nuggets.
Being that the Nuggets are a Team of Volatility, I'm not sure that it's the best fit, but at least he'll get some PT. If he can pull off those types of moves in the half court, the team becomes instantly more dangerous.
I'll be watching.
Warren, what happened to FD's first-ever breaking news exclusive?
BC, I already wore myself out with my post on JR's future with the Bulls. Once it's official, I'll press up commemoraitve coins; for now, I can't see how this is bad for a team that's been searching for a 2 as long as the Sonics have needed a big man.
The Denver media isn't sounding too happy about the trade. "Another Shooting Guard who can't shoot" has been said quite a bit. I'm excited for the trade -- the guy shoots decently, and his explosiveness is ridiculous. I don't see the problem. I'm really looking forward to the 5 alley-oops/game that's going to happen with Jr and Andre Miller. I'm still nervous about those Iverson trade rumors, though. I don't think that would work out at all.
Another Shooting Guard who can't shoot"
That's funny - because the "book" on JR Smith out of high school was that was all he could do .. . and he'd learn the other skills later. Not that he was Martell Webster or Ray Allen or anything - but he was supposed to be a good shooter.
cbxzcuzi = Chauncey Billups x Zarko Carbarkba = Uzi
thank god, i already told my girl in an attempt to impress her with freedarko's ever-rising "legitimacy"
t, you know i already wrote that same comment several hours ago but figured someone other than me should say it. this "can't shoot" really means "black kid with bad rep who never went to college." fuck that. dude has arenas/t-mac like range. and if he doesn't have a mid-range rhythm (that's really what it is, players conditining themselves to get where and when they can in fact shoot), that makes him like every 2-guard not name wade, kobe, or larry hughes.
WV: xmjyjz (satellite radio station devoted to jay-z's jewish youth group)
hmmm . . .curiousier and curiousier.
For those not up on industry gossip, the Rockets President George Postolos left the Rockets in May (actually the same month I did) - to start an ownership group. He said "these franchises don't become available everyday - but there's an opportunity now that I want to get into" (paraphrasing).
The rumors were that he was in a group to buy the Trailblazers . .. but maybe it's the Sonics.
SI (assuming this is another face of warren), i think i got rid of them both. i also think i accidentally deleted one other comment, so if anyone's the slighted party or notices what's missing. . . advertise my folly.
all i did was delete the "comment deleted" entry; i'm not quite clear how that covers anyone's ass, but we aim to please.
The possibilities of AI, JR, Melo, K-Mart, and A Center to be Named Later running the floor together are intriguing.
I can't think about it too much, though, because the idea of AI getting traded makes me queasy.
AI = only thing 76ers have done right in a looooong time.
Post a Comment
<< Home