Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Games of Life


Have you ever thought about the essence of sports? Of course it's big business, top-tier entertainment and all that jazz; but honestly what's the big deal? I sat back with my main man KT and we laughed about the notion of grown men playing Sports. The conversation took place on a Sunday afternoon amidst the heart of football season. We sat and watched commentators sit around in suits and talk about big fat men pushing each other, *crickets*, sounds pretty silly doesn't it.

Its quite paradoxical that grown men get paid hefty garbage bag money to play a kids game. The commentators are dressed in the same garb that CEO's wear. The other adults in attendance, fans, paint their bodies and wear ridiculous costumes to games. The whole atmosphere is astonishing. Stadiums are millions of dollars and the furnishings are the best money can find. Players often come to the venue with their suits on, meditate and ruminate on music and philosophies. I hope the vision is now palpable.

With all that is put into it, perhaps you can see now why people take sports so seriously. Many people who aren't big sports fans will say that its just a game and its not that serious, which is true. But when everything else contradicts that i can see where the signals would get crossed. For kids and even adult athletes that lose tempers and go to extremes to get an edge, i can see why they have become this way. I am reminded of the all the athletes caught cheating with steroids and other methods such as Mark McGuire, Bill Romanowski, and Marion Jones; as a fan I have often sat back and thought, "what could make these people think they could get away with this?" Maybe they didn't think they could get away with it but perhaps the potential gains outweighted the losses for them. Sports are games, but everything that surrounds it is a whole lifestyle and culture. I believe from the moment many of us are introduced to sports as children we quickly understand the grandiose environment that sports create.

With the recent win of the New Orleans Saints a lot was made of how the city could really use a championship to boost spirits and help heal some of the traumatic wounds that still ached a recovering city. Journalist are "story-tellers", couple that with carefully selected images to supplement the story and it makes everyone believe that sports are more than what they really are. Honestly there is very little that a New Orleans Saints Superbowl win can do for such a ravaged city. As a matter of fact it will probably hurt more than it helps realistically. The Saints organization doesn't win and then spend an additional amount of money on housing development or community programs. The Saints win and then they charge more for season tickets and spike prices in general because now the demand is higher. Perhaps there are more patrons from Houston traveling across Interstate highways to get there. T-shirts and jerseys may cost more. Then most of the free agent players demand more money because they think they are better than what they are or deserve more money because they've won a Superbowl.

The point is try to keep sports in perspective. Its only a game but it is entertainment.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Hive Modern Furniture











This is what happens when i click on ads on nytimes.com. I end up finding pictures like the following. These are from a company called Hive Modern. I've long been a fan of contemporary furniture and everytime i see pieces im intrigued. For the record i do not know why this stuff cost as much as it does, but im sure some of you can afford it (not to say that its THAT much). The website is Hivemodern.com.