by Timothy Weisberg | Oct 8, 2010 | Blog
The title of John Legend’s new album sums up our society in two words: wake up. Legend and The Roots’ own ?uestlove envisioned a way to revitalize a long-lost musical symphony that inspired the soul and funk of the 1960s and 70s. This was a message for political justice, social equality and global connectedness.
Legend has recreated the messages of the past to become the messages to guide our future. In the age of commercialism and “radio music,” Legend guides its listeners through the darker points in our history, moments that are enlightened by the musical passions and protests of people who voiced their opinions through the art of music.
The cover song for the album, “Wake up Everybody,” reinvigorates the classic tune recorded by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Featuring Melanie Fiona and Common, the cover song inspires for a world to master a vision, and that vision is guided through leadership. Common spits an elegant verse that adds the hip-hop spice, and sums up our generation: “Even livin’ through a generation of computers, only love, love, love can reboot us.”
Legend has made an irrefutable reputation of himself for creating some of the best covers, and Wake Up! epitomizes that with some songs of the past that can help shape our future.
Other songs like Bill Withers’ “I Can’t Write Left-Handed” turn a morose melody to mourn the injured soldiers of Vietnam into a twelve-minute long revival that attempts to overcome a nation in conflict, something that can parallel the war in Iraq.
What isn’t addressed politically and socially is guided through the seductive in “Humanity (Love the Way it Should Be),” a cover from Royal Rasses and Prince Lincoln Thompson. Through the seductive power of love, Legend creates a cover that influences us to change the world…through the power of love.
Even Legend’s only original song, “Shine” was a Stevie Wonder-esque gospel that helps guide the children of today to be the informed leaders of tomorrow. Written by Legend for the upcoming film Waiting for Superman, which uncovers the discombobulated American public school system, “Shine” reaches new heights and is Legend’s traditional original song that prompts change to create a society that is more-informed and more inclined to make a difference.
Influenced by the 2008 presidential elections, which included the inauguration of our first African-American president, Legend and the Roots uncover the rhythm and blues that helped shape and mold a generation afflicted by the turmoil of society during the 60s and 70s.
You know someone has hit their mark when an album that is far left can be appreciated by the youth and middle-aged of the far right. This is our generation’s interpretation–revamped and reconstructed for hip-hop culture to interpret.
Give this musical innovator a 4.5 out of 5. Legend’s vocals never get old, and the covers are simply remarkable. Legend is sure living up to his name, and his latest album that dug straight into the archives of an eventful generation that will never be lost was an inspiration of today’s generation.
In a world innovated by technology and a individualistic society, maybe it is time to wake up.
by Timothy Weisberg | Oct 3, 2010 | Blog
Call me crazy, but I think that there should be some reshuffling of what is marked as a “BCS” conference. The WAC features two undefeated teams, both of which beat repecteble BCS schools. Nevada actually walloped Cal, Boise State took it to Oregon State and even Hawaii put up a fight against USC.
Now let’s talk about a conference that does get a BCS automatic bowl bid: the Big East. Currently, there are no teams undefeated in the Big East, and of the three that are 3-1, one of them is Syracuse?
West Virginia had to pull of a miracle to beat Marshall, and Rutgers suffered an embarassing loss to Tulane today. I think the Big East is up for grabs, considering Connecticut and West Virginia have proved to be somewhat of a disappointment.
And how about the Mountain West? People always seem to forget about TCU. Okay so maybe the rest of the crop is out of season if you want an agricultural analogy, but am I crazy for even considering arguing that the Big East is not that worthy of a automatic BCS bowl bid?
Boise State did its part, scheduling Virginia Tech at a “neutral” site–the game was played in Maryland, so it was practically a road game for them, and Oregon State.
I am willing to put money that Boise State, even Nevada for that matter can put up a good fight against…Syracuse and even West Virginia. And this is a problem with a system that is solely arbitrary. A system that only favors schools with a bigger budget, a bigger fan base and bigger tradition.
What do these non-BCS schools have to do to gain some respect? Why do you think the Mountain West and WAC have been attempting to shuffle the teams like cards in a deck. They want to get recognized.
And recognition comes at a cost. The leaning tower of Pisa that is the BCS system is constantly shaken, pushed and knocked around, but remains in tact. How long has the tower been leaning in Italy? 800 years? I wonder if it would take that long for the WAC to be considered a BCS conference.
The major conferences have formed this computer system that is guarded more extensively than the wall of China, but didn’t Mongolians find a way to knock it down?
You can knock the BCS up Boise State and TCU, but you won’t knock it down. It is a sad thought, considering it is even more depressing knowing one Big East team will be playing in a BCS bowl with who knows how many losses, and the Broncos and Horned Frogs will go undefeated and not even be in the top five.
Call the conference weak, but define weak. Syracuse might be 3-1, but they also played Akron, Colgate and Maine, the latter two being FCS teams.
If Syracuse can pull off that weak non-conference schedule, and Boise State pulls off the one they endured, then I think the WAC conference champ is just as rightfully eligible for a BCS bid than say…West Virginia is.
I guess you can argue that the Big East is up for grabs, and the WAC already has an obvious winner. But the fact remains that Boise State will never be able to play for a BCS bowl game unless they go undefeated. There is no margin for error, nor is there for TCU.
It’s time to stop overlooking the smaller schools, the supposed underdogs in collegiate sports. Jacksonville State beat Ole Miss, James Madison beat Virginia Tech, South Dakota beat Minnesota; there is a trend that is transcending sports and is a pattern people need to take into consideration.
Because one fact remains: that any team, from any conference and any division, can beat any team, any place, at any given time.
by Timothy Weisberg | Oct 2, 2010 | Blog
All it took was a fight after a game, and one torn ligament in the right thumb for Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez to be in trouble with the law, as well as financially.
According to the USA Today, the four-time All-Star was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and second-degree harassment after a fight with his girlfriend’s father near the family lounge at Citi Field in New York Aug. 1.
On Sept. 22, Rodriguez made more headlines after sending his girlfriend dozens of text messages begging for forgiveness, which violated a restraining order that was issued after his arrest. Add that incident, and you got yourself seven counts of criminal contempt.
The Mets organization let it be known that this would not be tolerated, and exercised a contractual right to convert the rest of Rodriguez’ 3-year, $37 million deal to non-guaranteed, meaning the Mets would be attempting to avoid paying most of what’s left.
According to the USA Today, the Mets also put Rodriguez on the restricted list for two days, costing the reliever a little over three million of his $11.5 million 2010 pay.
The organization is arguing that the injury stemmed from a non-related work activity, and they thus have the right to convert the contract to non-guaranteed.
However, that won’t stop the player’s union from filing a grievance in an attempt to recover the 3 million dollars, and switch Rodriguez’ contract to non-guaranteed.
An arbitration hearing is set for Oct. 18, where one would hope the arbitrator would rule in the Mets favor, considering the injury stemmed from a physical altercation that was a not a sports-related injury.
However, arbitrators have been ruling in favor of players recently, but this has been mostly due to arbitration eligible players in a salary dispute with teams. Among the most notable to win an arbitration hearing have been the Dodgers’ Russell Martin last season and the Milwaukee Brewers’ Ryan Braun.
In any case, what appears to be a blatantly valid move won’t stop the union from stepping in. No matter what the circumstance, unions these days will back a co-worker, now matter how black and white the argument might be.
Rodriguez not only injured his thumb from a non sports-related injury, but he also did it assaulting his girlfriend’s father; assaulting the father outside a family lounge where many families of players, including children, were present.
This behavior is highly unacceptable, and is an embarrassment to the organization. The contract stipulated that the salary would be based on his performance on the field. Since he will most likely not be able to perform, requiring off-season surgery, who in their right minds would think the Mets would be willing to pay for a player who injured himself in a physical altercation, and will thus be unable to contribute.
The fact that the player’s union and Rodriguez would even think this is an option is beyond me. Arbitrators have made some controversial decisions in favor of players regarding salary increases, but I would hope that this arbitrator makes the right moral and ethical decision, ruling in favor of the Mets.
Rodriguez broke the law, and also violated a court order by contacting his girlfriend when a restraining order was put in place. Based on his actions, termination of employment should not be out of the question.
The Mets have an option here: they can release him once training camp roles around, only required to pay 30 days pay as stipulated in the termination agreement of the contract, or keep him on.
It is certainly a disappointing for a Mets organization that was eager to bolster their bullpen with a closer who broke the MLB record for most saves in a season when he recorded 58 in 2008 as a member of the Los Angeles Angels, before signing a contract with the Mets in the 2008 off-season.
Too many times it seems players’ egos and tempers get out of hand, and humiliating incidences of physical altercations are the result. The fact that Rodriguez has the nerve to feel obligated to continue to be paid when he not only broke the law, but also injured himself in the process, is astounding to me.
Where has professional sports gone? When in doubt, just get the union to back you up. It’s like a lawyer who knows darn well his defendant is guilty. They will still try to defend him and let him walk.
It is with only hope that Rodriguez will have to tread through quicksand to walk out of the courtroom with the 3 million the Mets took away, and watch his guaranteed contract get up and fly away like a balloon.
Those poor Mets. It’s just one thing after another isn’t it?
by Timothy Weisberg | Oct 1, 2010 | Blog
Let’s face it. Football is a contact sport.
When I played freshman football, and when I say that I mean the 9th-string defensive back, I remember how practice was–hard hits, lots of sprints, drills, and then followed by more hard hits. By the time October rolled around, you were ready for the season to end.
Your body ached, your legs were like jell-o and it was an accomplishment to not experience a sore back and stinging chest when you woke up in the morning. That season was ten games.
The NFL owners and commissioner Roger Goodell are considering expanding the regular season to 18 games. If 16 weren’t already enough, you now get two more games that matter.
Instead of four preseason games and 16 regular season games, the owners and commissioner are strongly considering adding two more regular season games, and cutting two games from the preseason.
Starters typically only play in the first half of preseason games, and even then it is simply to get used to working with the team and getting repetitions in on offense, defense and special teams. However, adding two more games to the regular season requires them to play that many more games.
The justification: more games that are meaningful. According to Goodell, an expanded season would allow fans to watch games that are…more worth watching.
As a fan myself, I actually enjoy watching preseason games. That way, I get a sense of the roster, who is on the team and witness the back ups showcase their talents.
If anything, adding two more games to the regular season is even more meaningless. If a team clinches a playoff berth, then they will sit the starters in meaningless games during the end of the season anyway.
I know the NFL is doing this as a way to attempt to bolster attendance in an industry that has seen a decline in average attendance, but this will not change much. The collective bargaining agreement expires after this season, and since negotiations are about as resolved as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, this is not a great way to make an impression on the player’s union.
Going back to what I said about the nature of football, it is a grueling and exhausting game, that is dangerous, physical and above all, very injury prone. Playing an extra two games drags out the season even further, and risks even more injury to players.
Steelers receiver Hines Ward made this point when he told ESPN the ramifications of an 18-game regular season.
“I’ll probably be the last double-digit guy,” Ward told ESPN, referring to an athlete playing ten or more years in the NFL. “The 10-year guys you won’t see anymore, except for our quarterbacks. The running backs, you’re really looking to see a short lifetime span. The season’s just too long [already].”
You can kiss by that saying that “records were meant to be broken.” You can’t break a record if you can’t even stay on the field; injuries are becoming a recurring theme in sports, especially the NFL, where hard hit after hard hit leaves a player with a concussion, sprained ankle, dislocated this, torn that.
The season is already too long. The NFL had 12-game seasons in the 1950s and 14-game seasons in the 1960s. The hits are harder. The players are faster. The game has changed since then. That was then, this is now.
Owners are desperate for money; the commissioner wants to expand the fan base in order to get games broadcasted. The political spectrum of the NFL appears to be taking over, without keeping in mind that the players are the foundation for the business.
Collective bargaining agreement anyone? You piss off the players enough, not only will you not have an 18-game season, but quite possibly no season at all.
Fans just don’t have the money to go to NFL games right now. They are expensive you know. Adding more games that “matter” does not solve the problem. IF anything, it is the beginning of your problems.
In the end, the players are what people come to see. They want their ridiculous salaries, and they want to be healthy. An 18-game season jeopardizes that.
A very bold move Goodell, but also one that might just cost you. I think that the owners and commissioner need to worry more about the Collective Bargaining Agreement and getting to terms with the player’s union than worry about expanding the season.
If you don’t have the players, there is no season.
by Timothy Weisberg | Sep 24, 2010 | Blog
Andrew Bynum is ready for training camp. Well, the part of him that cares at least. Bynum is still limping, and is more likely to play a game of hop-scotch than be suited up and ready to play in the preseason.
Bynum still has not fixed last spring’s torn knee, and decided instead to have a trainer drain the fluid out after the NBA Finals so he could make a trip to South Africa and watch the World Cup. What a joke.
Your hobbling and toughness fighting the knee injury in the 2010 playoffs cannot be held accountable when you choose to attend the World Cup and postpone much-needed surgery for your ailing knee.
Bynum has only played in all 82 games of the regular season once in the last five years, and missed most of the 2008 playoffs, where the Lakers found themselves in dire need of a big man.
Set to make 13.7 million this season, Bynum can sit back and make the money from the bench, but at least he will be rehabbing…when the season is under way. Why use the offseason for that? It’s not like the team needs you or anything.
Keep in mind Bynum is making as much in salary in 2011 as Lamar Odom and Ron Artest will make…combined. It seems evident that Bynum is willing to fight through the pain, but is he committed to an off-season recovery.
Sure does not seem like it. This continual trend of egocentric athletes has flourished in recent years, as athletes take advantage of their guaranteed contracts to milk the system, delaying any rehab or surgeries needed not on company time.
Carlos Beltran went against the wishes of the New York Mets and had surgery, leaving him out of the line up for the first two months of the Mets season. Management was not too pleased with that.
But Lakers GM Mitch Kupchack is spoiling the heck out of the 23-year-old Bynum. Might as well shine his knee brace with a diaper Mitch. Kupchack was disappointed with Bynum not being ready entering training camp, which begins Saturday for the Lakers, but still believes Bynum can be that franchise player.
You sure don’t define that role when you choose to have your surgery almost a month and a half after the end of the regular season.
A franchise player needs to be committed, dedicated, and above all, injury-free in order to establish that title. Take Kobe Bryant. Dislocated pinkey. Still playing. Nothing has been this degrading for the Lakers since the infamous delay of Shaq’s surgery on his big toe heading into the 2002-2003 season.
O’Neal famously said, “I got hurt on company time, so I’ll heal on company time.”
The egos of these players have gotten way out of hand. Even though the level of talent they possess is only within a extremely small percentage of the population, the arrogance offends me.
If anything, Bynum should have taken the initiative to have surgery out of guilt, knowing his derailing injury has not made it easy for the Lakers during their back-to-back championship runs.
If he felt so bad playing the role of Adam Morrison, and participating in the NBA Finals in a suit, then why would he delay his much needed surgery deep into the off-season. I know–because World Cup soccer is more important than getting prepared to perform your job for the upcoming season.
You have let the organization down, fans down, and above all, your teammates down. Bynum is a special player, with a great inside presence and someone who can be considered a franchise tag.
But as far as I am concerned, he is not committed. The saying goes that work comes before play, not the other way around.
A lame excuse, a sorry excuse, and a dismal way to show your dedication to the game of basketball. A game that defines your lifestyle. Without it, what then?
13.7 million dollars is a lot of money. If you knee fails to get better, good luck making that money elsewhere.
Back to the drawing board Lakers. Your starting center is not ready…again. Will he ever be?
To be ready or not ready. Now that is the question.
by Timothy Weisberg | Sep 23, 2010 | Blog
Photo courtesy of Olivia Ruhland
Orlando Hudson and the Minnesota Twins clinched the AL Central Sept. 21, holding off the fading Chicago White Sox. Hudson’s former team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, were mathmatically eliminated last night, and will be sitting at home come October.
Since Hudson’s departure, the Dodgers have taken a full on nosedive–a question of ownership as the McCourts battle it out in divorce court, measly performances on offense, the absence of an ace, a complete deviation from last year’s NLCS team.
The curse of the O-Dawg. Hudson left the Diamondbacks in 2008, and they have lost over 90 games the past two seasons. With Hudson aboard, the Diamondbacks went to the playoffs in 2007, and if it weren’t for a late season collapse in 2008, they would have had another October. Even then, the Diamondbacks finished second in the NL West.
What the hell the Dodgers were thinking last season I do not know. And now that they sit on the outside looking in, I frankly do not care. It’s frustrating thinking about what could have been. Only to see them in fourth place, Joe Torre leaving the Dodgers and contemplating a managerial return in New York.
It’s complete chaos in Dodgertown. Hudson “faded” down the stretch, was benched, and in comes in utility player Ronnie Belliard. Here are his 2010 statistics: a .216 batting average with two home runs and 19 RBI’s in 82 games for the Dodgers. What a freaking joke. Hudson finished last season, keeping in mind he was benched at the end of the regular season and into the playoffs: .283 batting average with nine home runs and 63 RBI’s in 143 games. Did the Dodgers forget this was the same second baseman who hit for the cycle on opening day?
Hudson has never batted over .300, hit more than 15 home runs, or driven in more than 67 RBI’s. How were his numbers a “slump?”
But as Hudson left the Diamondbacks for the Dodgers in 2009, joining a playoff team and leaving the Diamondbacks on the outside looking in, the O-Dawg is on the Minnesota Twins, awaiting the playoffs and letting karma smack the Dodgers organization right upside the head.
The deals made over the past two seasons have been abismal. Ronnie Belliard, trading Juan Pierre in favor of Manny Ramirez for two lowly minor league prospects. I mean you name it. The Dodgers have done it. Can’t forget Andruw Jones’ spectacular .167 batting campaign in 2008.
While McCourt was worrying about his pending divorce and his over 400 million debt that has accumulated since purchasing the Dodgers, he let Cliff Lee go to Philadelphia, Roy Halladay go to Philadelphia, and even Roy Oswalt join the darn Phillies. Yes the Phillies have beaten the Dodgers in two straight NLCS appearances, and now will be in the playoffs while the Dodgers scratch their heads.
Conservatism might pay off in politics, but it has made the Dodgers organization look weak amidst a crippled franchise. Matt Kemp has put up terrible numbers since signing a 2-year, 11.5 million dollar deal in the off-season. Ethier has never been the same since he fractured his pinkey.
And now the Dodgers are looking to hitting coach Don Mattingly to be the manager-in-waiting? The same guy who has never managed a team at any level? Keep in mind this is the hitting coach. If anything he should be replaced by someone who can get the Dodgers to hit.
It’s a shame that Kershaw can’t get a win giving up one run because the Dodgers continually fail to produce. All this ranting has left me upset. O-Dawg was another piece to the puzzle that exemplified a winning franchise, and what do they do?
“Hey O-Dawg. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”
Guess who got the last laugh? You screw over quite arguably one of the best second baseman in the game, fail to make any attempt at getting an ace, and let Manny be Manny and make it be all about him.
McCourt. Go ahead and sell the team. Then go to a far away place where nobody will be wanting your head. Oh and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Let the curse of the O-Dawg begin. Call this one the Los Angeles Dodgers series of unfortunate events. Let the games begin…in 2011.
