If you didn't catch the Oscars...

It's been almost a week since the Oscars, and most coverage has been dedicated to who wore what and who got snubbed from the presentations.

I personally am not interested in the specific fashions, unless someone is wearing a dress made out of a swan, but I enjoyed the show itself and found some of the coverage interesting.

John Stewart, arguably one of the more influential members of the media, however sarcastic, was entertaining in his second year hosting. His opening segment was full of political slights. He went after Hillary Clinton with a husband joke, John McCain with age and Iraq jokes and Barack Obama for his name being similar to a terrorist and a dictator.

As for the awards, there were some surprises as Tilda Swinton and Marion Cotillard won awards for supporting actress and lead actress, respectively, and some fulfilled expectations as Daniel Day-Lewis was named Best Actor.

The most interesting coverage of the Oscars was the up-to-the-minute style. Wesley Morris kept us in the loop on the Boston Globe's Movie Nation blog, which he updated about every 15 minutes, if not more often, from 9:09 p.m. to 11:44 p.m.

It was full of awards updates, but also interesting observations and details about the show that someone who missed it would appreciate. His observations were brutally honest and often quite entertaining. Here is what he had to say about one of three Enchanted original songs that were performed, "Oh my God, this "Enchanted" number is like being at somebody-I-can't-stand's wedding reception. I don't want to sleep with anyone in the bridal party, and the bar just closed. I want to go home, but my ride is getting some bridesmaid's phone number. Arrgh."

This is certainly not Oscar coverage as we know it, but with "an all-time low of 32 million viewers," according to the Globe's Ty Burr, this may have been the best way to take in the show.

More than Balls of Fury

I recently watched "Balls of Fury," a cinematic masterpiece about a ping pong champion brought out of retirement for a sudden-death tournament hosted by a notorious criminal named Feng, played by Christopher Walken, which was my sole reason for watching.

With ping pong on my mind, I noticed a story on the New York Times Web site about table tennis, the more formal name for the sport, caught my eye.

The story is about Wang Chen, a Chinese-born American citizen who has been a table tennis pro since the age of 11. After being ranked fourth in China and missing out on the Olympic spots that go to the top three players, Chen decided to move to America.

In New Jersey, Chen met Jerry Wartski, a 77-year-old Holocaust survivor who gave her a job managing his New York City table tennis club, now called Wang Chen's Table Tennis Club, and supports her training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In China, Chen says, table tennis is like baseball in America. This year she will try for a third time to qualify for the Olympics Games that she was never able to reach at home. This time, however, she'll be representing the United States.



As compelling and interesting as the story was, I found the video that is posted with it to be even more so. The video includes, photos and interviews with Chen, but is mostly her playing table tennis as the narrator, Brent McDonald, tells her story.

In particular I liked the part where she and Wartski play table tennis, because it really brings to light how different the two are, but also how alike.

As are important with a good article, the piece has a memorable opening and closing. To begin the noise of the ball being played back and forth runs in the background as the title of the piece appears and then at the end there is video of Chen serving in slow motion and then striking a winning shot. I thought the slow motion added more drama to the end, especially when paired with the audio of Chen expressing her uncertainty about the Olympics.

I think this is a good example of how an average story can benefit so much from the multimedia aspect available on the Internet.

Walken picture from LA Times
Wang picture © 2007 NBC Universal

Steroids

A big topic in the world of sports is, of course, steroids.

In recent months George Mitchell and his committee have released their report on the use of performance enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball, which has created a media frenzy around those accused, but I'm still not sure what kind of impact the Mitchell Report (read the whole thing at your own risk) will have on baseball because very few players have been punished.

While admitting to my Red Sox fan bias, I don't understand how New York Yankees can continue to admit their guilt and receive an immediate pardon for their actions.

Jason Giambi should be the spokesperson for Human Growth Hormones and appear on the bottles or boxes full of syringes, because he is so frighteningly steroid-built. His opponents have admitted to being concerned by his appearance and persistent sweating on cool afternoons. So it was no shock when he admitted to using steroids and apologized, but why was he allowed to keep playing with no repercussions?

Yesterday Andy Pettitte arrived at spring training, where he held a press conference to deliver what appeared to be a heartfelt statement about his admitted use of HGH after being named in the report. He is, however, at training camp and ready to take the mound in 2008.



Admitted steroid users get away without punishment because they claim to have used before it was illegal in baseball, but how can we know if that's true? Pettitte claims he gained no advantage, because he was only trying to help rebuild tissue in his elbow, but how isn't that an advantage over other pitchers whose tissue grows on its on?

There is something to be said for these players admitting their guilt and attempting to explain their situations, as opposed to the waste of money and time that is the Roger Clemens show. Is there truly nothing more important for our nations' politicians to be doing than hearing Clemens' pointless he said/she said trial?

It's also important to recognize baseball's effort to clean up the game by requesting the Mitchell Report and increasing the rules in recent years, but there needs to be a better system that doesn't tolerate this behavior and can prove allegations definitively, like track and field and cycling can.

Even if you can't suspend or ban players who have admitted to using in the past, why shouldn't their awards be taken away? Olympic athletes caught using performance enhancing drugs, like Marion Jones, are stripped of their medals. So in my opinion Jason Giambi should be stripped of his 2000 MVP award and if Clemens ever gives up this ridiculous charade and admits his guilt, his Cy Young awards should go to their rightful owners, the runners up. I think the Hall of Fame should also be out of the question for such users.

If those in charge really have the kids to whom players are role models in mind, there needs to be a better system and more consequences.

Giambi photo © The Sports Hernia Blog

Writers' Strike and the Internet

According to a Los Angeles Times article, the 100-day writers' strike has finally ended, as 90% of the 3,775 writers who voted made the final decision.

Writers showed their power and influence on the industry, as more than 60 shows were shut down as a result of the strike. This was no doubt a costly message for the studios. The Los Angeles economy also lost out on an estimated $3 billion in the process.

The writers were protesting their lack of rights to content used and created on the Internet, but have reached an agreement to increase their revenue from work distributed on the Web. "Rather than being shut out of the future of content creation and delivery, writers will lead the way as TV migrates to the Internet and platforms for new media are developed," Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West, told the LA Times.

The strike shows the clear trend of media moving onto the Internet, but even during the strike some great Internet content was there for viewers with nothing else to watch.

-Funny or Die

The new deal should be good for viewers who may now see more episodes available on the Web thanks to the deal. The major networks, ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, all show full episodes on their Web sites for free, so the future of television seems like it could be as bleak as the future of print journalism. Who wouldn't want to watch episodes on their own time with the ability to pause and watch anywhere they can get an internet connection?

Television journalism is already making it's way to the Internet in part due to the decline of TV.

Just like the decline of daily newspapers, I think TV will go to the web in the near future, but in both cases it won't be the catastrophe some might think if the industries are creative with their revenue and prepared to make the change.

Sign your Herbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock took home the the Grammy Award for album of the year last night, over people you've heard of, like Kanye West and Amy Winehouse.

Apparently everyone was surprised, as this morning's AP headline read "Hancock Steals Grammy Album of the Year" and Hancock himself said "It's immeasurable how surprised I am."

Which left me wondering, who is Herbie Hancock? As far as I know, Tommy Boy taught me he was one of our founding fathers.

Hancock did not sign the Declaration of Independence, but he has won 12 Grammy Awards, including his two this year, and an Academy Award in 1986 for the soundtrack to Round Midnight. He is a 67-year-old jazz pianist and composer and has been considered one of music's most influential figures for decades.

Hancock even displayed his musical talents on Sesame Street.


He took home album of the year for his "River: The Joni Letters," a collection of Joni Mitchell songs covered by various artists.

Although train-wreck of sorts, Amy Winehouse came away with five awards and was apparently let out of rehab to perform her hit song "Rehab" via satellite, kept the award show rooted in celebrity madness, it also awarded some true musicians. Legendary rocker Bruce Springsteen was also justly rewarded with three awards.

I think it's kind of refreshing to see someone I don't see on MTV win a major award at the Grammys. It makes me think that sometimes the awards really are about the best quality and most inspiring music, rather than just whatever album the most teenagers bought.

Check out all the Grammy winners, including Barack Obama who managed to beat Hillary again.

Image © 2006 Herbie Hancock.

Impressive showing by Huckabee

No matter who comes out on top, on either side, when Super Tuesday is officially said and done, it seems like the biggest show of strength has come from Republican candidate, Mike Huckabee.

Just before the results starting coming in, I was having a conversation about why he was even still in the race when candidates who seemed to be doing better in the previous primaries had already dropped out. Yet, in the early going Huckabee had won more states than clear Republican contender, Mitt Romney.

The question will be whether Huckabee can sustain this victorious momentum, as he couldn't after getting a big win in Iowa.


Click to enlarge