Sport

This tag is associated with 4 posts

The Hunger Wars!

Posted by Ricky D. Hall ⋅ October 5, 2012 ⋅ Leave a Comment

I learned a lot from the Hunger games. Mostly that I’m not even remotely beautiful enough to survive ever. Those were some beautiful people. Apparently in the future we’re going to gather all the beautiful people and make them fight to the death! I can’t say I’m against that. It sounds fair. I mean ugly people already have to be ugly, why must you make them fight to the death too? I’m against that. Plus it would be more enjoyable to watch beautiful people fight to the death. You can have discussions about how beautiful that girl looked as she got filleted alive by robot dogs, or the handsome dude who got set aflame because, you know, he went out of bounds. They’ll get a statue I’m sure. Beautiful people always get statues when they die brutally… I think. I haven’t researched it. Sounds about right though.

I’ve only seen the movie. I haven’t read the books, but I thought the movie was pretty awesome. It was hard to wrap my head around watching kids killing each other. Especially when the big kids just sword blasted the little kids. It reminded me of high school. You know except for all the murder. It was so messed up! They should at least break up the murder into a league or two. You know a little kid murder league 6 to 10 and the grown ass kids division 16 to 18. 11 to 15 year old’s get free ice cream. I think that works for all. They could even have special circumstances like a “Nothing but Nunchaku free for all!” You know, only Nunchaku can be used for your murdering purposes and you have to be shirtless, with kung fu pants like Master Lee, or you have to wear an orange mask like Michelangelo. Those who kill with a loud Kiya or a Cowabunga get free golden crowns. It adds flavor!

I thought Jennifer Lawerence was awesome in the movie. I’m sure I’m not in the minority, but I’m saying it anyway! She was badass, cool, she killed people with arrows. Arrows! Can you kill someone with arrows? Well some of you probably can, but can you look sexy and cool and say cool things whilst killing people with arrows? ….well she had a bow too. She didn’t throw arrows at people that would’ve been weird. I never had any kind of love for arrows or bows, or archery until I watched this movie. Now all of a sudden I want a bad ass leather jacket, some arrows, a bow(of course not a crossbow though don’t insult me!), and sunglasses, you know for added coolness. I want to go into a forest and start hunting deer. Move like a cat, become one with the shadows, become an archer Ninja. Then I’ll be recruited to go bust some heads. That’s the cool way to say it. I don’t want to run though. You have to run a lot. I don’t want to run. Running is boring. I could skip. Skipping is more fun. So I would skip through the woods killing teenagers with a bow and arrows. I’m a grown adult so I’ll probably be everyone’s favorite. Who doesn’t love an adult killing children? Well I guess no one does but I have a charming smile so it will be okay.

What point am I trying to make? I don’t know. Why should I know? Is that a rule or something? I don’t follow the rules I’m a renegade rebel on the edge! Seriously though I have no point. Everyone’s seen this movie there’s no need to tell you to watch it. Watch it again! There I made a point. You should watch it again. Watch it 2500 times than take up archery, and kill a deer. After that watch the sequel. When it comes out. Leave your arrows at home. I’m bringing mine though.

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A Brief Chronicle of NFL Fandom from across the Atlantic

Posted by irwinfire ⋅ September 9, 2012 ⋅ Leave a Comment

It’s been over six months since I was last here, hunched over the harsh nocturnal-blue glow from my laptop screen. It’s 2:30 in the morning and though my eyelids droop down lazily and my warm bed covers, mere feet away, beckon me with their loving siren’s call, I have no intentions of going to bed, as this is a night I have been waiting an eternity for. This is the first week of September; this is the return of football.

While all across America friends and family gather in front of the television – dinners a recent memory, still rumbling in their stomachs – I sit alone in a darkened room obsessively checking that my headphones aren’t so loud as to wake those around me, while a bag of pretzels sit by my side mockingly as I ponder exactly why I put myself through this torture.

It occurs to me tonight; halfway through the fifth time I watch the adverts for a Matthew Perry sitcom I’m never going to see and the new Toyota Camry that doesn’t even exist in England that my experience of watching pro-football is surely a far-flung vision from the vast majority of people. What should be wonderful about sport is how it transcends culture or background – you can put two people in a room with nothing in common but a love of football and they can talk for hours. There is nothing personal about sports; yes, people can judge you completely irrationally for being a Jets fan just as they can for being rich, or poor, or homosexual, but it never really feels the same because, when all is said and done, sport doesn’t really matter. We just like to think it does.

Sports are something that is meant to be watched and enjoyed in groups, before being dissected by back-seat quarterbacks on a Monday morning. Sport and culture go hand in hand – which is why, as I sit here, alone, in the dark, I realise what a strange sensation this is. I am only left to gleam at the Utopia a thousand miles away in which friends gather in strangely immaculate houses, exchange tame trash-talk and drink either Bud Light, Miller Light or Coors Light. Either way it’s Light beer.

“Oh, what a world!” I think to myself as I sip from a glass of water, as any form of alcohol will likely tip me over the edge into golden slumbers.

It is this disconnect – this dedication of mine – that can at times be so frustrating as an outsider looking into American sports. I doubt that most people realise the extraordinary lengths people in Europe go to follow what is still considered here, despite its growth, a fringe sport. In America football is culture, it is something that requires absolutely no effort to connect with because 24 hour news stations are swamped with time-filling featurettes and radio call-in shows and newspapers filled with articles on teams – and most importantly of all – a gluttony of friends with which to talk and share these experiences with.

Europe has football (soccer) for that, so we get it. Just as in America we have radio shows dedicated to frivolous discussions of nothing-ness, and gossip-columns and overanalyses of every minute detail; but American football has nothing here – it is silenced into the night. Tebow-mania wasn’t even a thing.

Yet, ever since the inaugural NFL International Series in 2007 at Wembley fans have posted message board comments with their droll, quasi-xenophobic sentiments of “it’s the National Football League, not the International Football League,” like that’s supposed to prove anything other than the fact that you’re a cunt.

While such responses may be considered a natural pact reaction to something most Americans will think of as “their” sport this is, despite their protestations, simply not the case any more. The world is getting smaller and American football will grow and grow, as has every other sport on the planet – something most rational thinking people can surely only accept as a good thing. It’s the fact that fans are so reluctant to share their sport – to give up just one game to another time zone – that shows how much Americans take for granted their niche, idiosyncratic sport; there is not a single other sport outside of America that has this luxury.

But while I am by now more than familiar with my ritual of late nights/late morning, my body attuned to bizarrely erratic sleeping times this is not something that comes easy to me, particularly after six months away.

It’s a sad admission to make, but like a professional footballer preparing for the new season I often stay up watching pre-season games of teams I don’t even support just to get used to watching football at 3am.

Worse still, for the last three years of my life I had to make the choice of watching Sunday Night Football, starting at 1:30am in the UK (finishing at close to 5am) or to make my lecture at 9am the following morning. It says a lot about the sport that last year I just about scraped through that class, coming up 3 points short of failing the semester.

That, my friends, is dedication.

All I ask of you is that when you settle down on Sunday night to renew your glamorous world of super-cold, freshly-brewed Bud Light, your friends surrounding you, finishing in time for the Nightly News, spare a thought for your brothers across the Atlantic for whom a whole other ritual has been reborn. We are the fans who spend Sunday nights alone and Monday morning with bleary eyes, tired minds and relying on our false idol of Red Bull to get us through the day.

Awesomesauce | Sports Beauty [HQ Slow Motion Montage]

Posted by Jasmine McGee ⋅ May 31, 2012 ⋅ Leave a Comment

I haven’t played any sports in a long time. I mean, I did use to play volleyball from a young age up to high school, but by a series of unfortunate events I got slight boutonniere deformity in my right hand. Now if you Google boutonniere deformity you’ll run across some series cases, but mine isn’t too extreme. Yet, I still can’t full straighten my fingers on my right hand, which makes playing volleyball and controlling the ball a painful experience.

Luckily, I can still stay active and enjoy other activities, but I do plan on taking up a sport again. But even if it takes me some time to figure out what sport I want to play, I can still enjoy watching sports. Ya know, the Summer Olympics are right around the corner, so I’m stoked about that.

Yes, I’m anxious to watch the Olympics, but there are other cool sports dedicated visuals out there worth watching as well. One visual that caught my attention is this beautiful HQ slow motion montage of athletes doing what they do best, be amazingly active.

The video is called Sports Beauty and it’s a bunch of awesomesauce visuals set to a beautiful song called “Adagio in D minor (Bombastic)” by John Murphy.

Awesomesauce | Delta Heavy – ‘Get By’ (Stop-Motion, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Knives, & Dubstep) (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | I’m Too Old For This Sh*t (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | Frog Sits on a Bench Like a Human (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | The Avengers 1978 Movie Promo [1952 Trailer + 2012 Trailer] (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | ‘I Know That Voice’ Movie Trailer (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | Barack Obama ‘Sexy & I Know It’ Mashup Video (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | Exclusive 4 Min Super Preview for ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | Hey Arnold!: The Movie Trailer (thinksoul25.com)
Awesomesauce | ‘Heymoonshaker’ Short Film, David Crowe Dubstep Beatboxing (thinksoul25.com)

Martin Solveig Must Really Love Sports

Posted by Jasmine McGee ⋅ May 10, 2011 ⋅ 1 Comment

I’m a huge fan of Martin Solveig and love his French approach to life, love, and music. From his song “Hello” to his new song” Ready to Go” ft. Kele from Bloc Party, he seems to have this intense passion for sports. His video for “Hello” featured another personal favorite, Bob Sinclar. One of the best dj’s in the world, not the number one best but one of the best. In the video the two are playing a tennis match, while Dragonette sings the lyrics and the beat continues to cheer on the tennis players.

Each of his recent video’s seems to have this recoccuring theme with sports, so I’m assuming Martin Solveig loves soccer and tennis. I always wanted to be a great tennis player, but volleyball was more of my sport. Who knows, maybe once I get through all this school work and have some free time this summer, I will pick up swimming lessons again and tennis. Swimming has been a passion of mine, especially since my mom had me take lessons when I was young. One day once I’m some successful writer or editor, I will make sure I have a house with a pool. Not only is swimming fun, but it’s a great work out. I love being active and playing sports, I need to take up a sport and join an adult league once I graduate. That would be pretty cool!

A lot of people love sports, but Martin Solveig seems to enjoy playing tennis and I’m sure he enjoys soccer as well. In his new video “Ready to Go”, Martin Solveig decided to film it at the Stade De France (National Stadium of France). The video isn’t too bad, it shows off his quirky personality, but the most important thing is the song. This song is actually on my workout playlist and I love it!

Check it out!