NY Times: Disney and Pixar: The Power of the Prenup. Pretty good story about the fruits of the Disney-Pixar merger. John Lasseter does seem to be making a pretty noticeable impact on the creative direction of the company and I love that they’re breing back cell-animated features. Interestingly, this story was sent around in of our internal ESPN newsletters, which normally focus on sports media.
Archive
Summer session takes on a whole new meaning at Caltech. Division III basketball school California Institute of Technology hasn’t won a conference game since 1985. That’s probably because most of the players are super students doing undergraduate research and are getting 4.0 GPAs in physics majors. Kind of flies in the face of “winning is the only thing” but its a fun story.
Washington Post: Redskins Cheerleaders Shake Up Cricket in Modest India. Usually anything involving cheerleaders makes me groan, but this is a great story. Perhaps this is outsourcing in reverse - India provides America with engineering, medical and financial talent and we’ll throw in the cheerleaders 
More on cricinfo.
I was told to post something to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Seinfeld’s last episode (continuing a TV theme week on my site I guess), so I decided to see what people were writing about it. Ironically the finale was the first episode I ever saw and I started watching the reruns in syndication thereafter. Hearing writers trying to describe and analyze something you love makes me sick, so here are some lines taken out of context I wish I hadn’t read:
- “Another reason the show has held up as long as it has, I think, is the variety and quality of the sets.” Daivd Noonan, Newsweek
- “Perhaps the shallow nature of the characters and the nihilism inherent in the show, which led to its label “a show about nothing”, turned British audiences off.” Dan Worth, The Guardian
- “Seinfeld” was that rare series that was more than just a TV show. Why? It’s hard to say.” Amanda Cuda, Connecticut Post
- “There’s a reason that the great —”The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “M*A*S*H” and “Taxi,” to name a few—still work. They’re not just about being funny; they’re about people who grow enough in a week, and over time, to keep them interesting. They have depth. Jerry and George have issues. That can be amusing, even occasionally hilarious. But after a while, it all has started to sound like a whole lotta yadda yadda yadda.” Marc Peyser, Newsweek
- [Headline] Final episode of ‘Seinfeld’ reveals great circle of life. John Gottcent, Evansville Courier Press
Simply put: Seinfeld is still great, TV critics are still not.
Feeling bored in my apartment this weekend, I decided I needed to take a trip and find someplace new to spend a day. In trying to think of where to go, I came up with the idea of searching for the real Stars Hollow, CT. Stars Hollow is the fictional town that played host to the Gilmore Girls, a television show which I embarrassingly admit I used to watch. On the show its portrayed a quaint little town with lots of quirky characters and it kind of shaped my expectations of Connecticut when I moved up here. I did a quick search on the Wikipedia and discovered that show creator Amy Sherman-Palladino based Stars Hollow on the real-life town of Washington Depot, CT. And less than an hour away, it seemed perfect for a quick weekend pilgrimage. Continue reading ‘Visiting the Real Stars Hollow: Washington Depot, CT’
Tennessee’s Lofton quietly faced and beat cancer. Just an amazing, must-read story that’s really well done. It’s easy to get cynical about ESPN, especially when you see it warts and all on a daily basis, but this story and one earlier this week about an opponents carrying an injured softball player around the bases washes over all that for me. It makes me a little prouder than usual to be working of the worldwide leader in sports.
President Bush appearing on NBC’s ‘Deal’. This is a meta moment. Two years ago Paul Weitz directed a farce called American Dreamz which had an unpopular Bush-like president appearing on a reality show to boost his image. Dreamz was a good idea for a staire, but didn’t quite have the guts to be as dark and truthful as Network. Still the fact that Bush has time to make appearances here and at the Nationals game earlier this month makes me think he’s more focused on waiting out the last months in office.
NY Times: Changing Speeds to Go the Distance. Take that Bob Costas. Instead of the clichéd triumph-over-tragedy stories, the Times is writing about the mechanics of training. Today in text, graphics, and video they showed what a typical workout routine is for runner Sara Hall with tips for the non-Olympic runner.
Bill Clinton: Older voters too savvy to fall for Obama. Obama is elitist, Clinton is ageist. The whole extended primary process is just getting uglier every day. My response to President Clinton is a saying they had when he was my age: Don’t trust anyone over 30.