Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Other People's Writing

* Grantland’s Jason “The Maester” Concepcion isn’t just a Game Of Thrones expert, he’s also a wonderful comedian.  His take on Rajon Rondo’s Connect Four advice to children is an instant classic, made even funnier by the fact that Rondo is actually a Connect Four obsessive (of all things) in real life.

* Kyle Ryan continues the Onion AV Club’s series on past Billboard #1 albums by looking at…“The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart” comedy record?  Yeah, that’s right, a comedy album once not only topped the charts, it did so for 14 weeks in 1960.  You can find most of the album’s routines on YouTube and man, they still hold up.  Newhart was a genius.

* Blur is back!  (Not in pog form)  Grantland's Amos Barshad has the latest on Blur's new album, their first in ages.  I can't say I'm a huge Blur fan, yet if you distill their best stuff onto a single greatest hits disc, that is a hell of a record.  I would know, since I own a Blur greatest hits collection.  Hopefully none of their new stuff is any good so my album is still up to date...is that selfish?

* It’s probably not a surprise who tops Shea Serrano’s list of ‘The Sandlot’ character power rankings, yet Serrano also makes a persuasive case that Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez is the greatest movie athlete of all time.  I figure it’s between Benny The Jet, Michael Jordan in ‘Space Jam,’ Teen Wolf, post-car theft Forest Whitaker in “Fast Times At Ridgemont High,” Rocky Balboa or Roy Hobbs.

* Imagine a world where one NFL draft pick punched Roger Goodell in the face every year?  SB Nation’s Jon Bois takes us into this reality, which no doubt many Patriots fans are currently wishing was our universe.

* We recently passed the 100th anniversary of Orson Welles’ birth, and man, there are few more fascinating people in film history than Welles.  You can make a strong case he was the biggest overall talent in Hollywood history except for his bottom-of-the-barrel ranking in playing well with others.  Grantland’s Brian Phillips gives a brief overview of Welles’ life and his making of “The Lady From Shanghai.”  I could honestly read Orson Welles stuff all day long.

* Dolph Lundgren is several rungs behind Welles on the talent ladder, yet it’s hard to argue that he hasn’t lived as interesting a life.  Grantland’s Alex Pappademas interviews Ivan Drago himself about his career and any number of subjects.

* Keeping the “general career overview” theme going, here’s Rafe Bartholomew’s writeup on the career of Manny Pacquiao, which is really one of the more unlikely journeys in recent sports history.  If only Pacquiao/Mayweather had taken place back in 2009….c’est la vie.

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