Blog Archives
Happy Monday!
Checkmate: Movie soundtrack edition.
Every amazing movie needs an amazing soundtrack. While Josh Waitzkin was left searching for Bobby Fischer (in the literal sense), director Steven Zaillian found the emotionally evocative James Horner to score his cinematic masterpiece from 1993 based on the true story of a young chess prodigy told from the perspective of a “chess parent.”
Randomly finding this movie playing last night was (and always is) an inspiring couple of hours everyone should experience.
That instrumental is fantastic…like a pawn-takes-pawn move that sets the stage for a cleverly disguised 12-move checkmate.
Have an Awesome Week!
P.S. Those fish won’t catch themselves.
Eskimo Bliss
The price for an average seat dipped to about $5,100 by Monday morning, but that’s still well ahead of the resale price of each Super Bowl SeatGeek has tracked since 2010.
–A.J. Perez, USA TODAY Sports, “Super Bowl tickets averaging more than $5,000”
For a sporting event that is well-embedded in popular culture and is perceived as the ultimate fan’s journey, $5,000/ticket just might be the cut-off for most people.
The play to “buy” a big screen television for the weekend of the Super Bowl and then return it days later because of a “space problem” in the family room is still alive and well. But for most people, spending $500 to $1,000 for a new TV is not a spur of the moment decision.
Keeping this in mind, what are we to think when a ticket to a championship game is a 5 to 10-fold spike compared to a new high-definition TV?
From a branding perspective, the NFL may be enduring its second major headache in recent years. When fans watch preseason games, the regular season and playoffs, they are invested in their team. As we know with ourselves, friends, family and random grown men dressed as gritty Vikings, we take this game seriously. And, if everything magically goes to plan through heroic victories and prayer, it can all lead to…
the Super Bowl!
Hwever, it appears that fans are being priced out of the NFL’s biggest game.
The headline of $5,000 per ticket to attend the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California will irk most people, especially fans of the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos. This pricing doesn’t even give people with good to great finances a chance or even a worthwhile bang for the buck. How can this discouraging trend be reversed? Odds are that this pivot will have to result from fans protesting and not going, visibly showing tens of thousands of empty seats during football’s most important showcase of the season. But what are the chances of that kind of random unanimity among all those non-media, non-VIP fans?
What are the odds of the Cleveland Browns going to the Super Bowl next year?
The image that attending the Super Bowl is only for celebrities and CEO’s will surely continue. At a certain point though, people will see what they need to through the highest definition in their living rooms (or their neighbor’s man cave). And living in a society that is increasingly pushing us towards building our own personal entertainment suites with gadgets and screens galore will have an effect on the multiple generations of current NFL fans, plus future generations who will be raised to know and believe the Super Bowl is simply a digital destination.
In the meantime, if only there was someway to overcome the impossible task of bypassing the $5,000 price tag?
And just when all appears lost and seeing, say, an Eskimo in the stands at the Super Bowl seems more likely than you obtaining that mirage of a ticket…
Boy Meets World: For the win.
Six Degrees of Breathing
We’re all first-time Jamaican bobsledders when our bones are chilling in single-digit weather.
When schools are increasingly being cancelled twelve hours before the start of the first class, that’s typically a sign to put on a pair of gloves, a scarf and a George Costanza puffy Michelin Man Gore-Tex jacket. The old school, non-digital thermostat that hangs outside everybody’s home will freeze in place at around 6-degrees tomorrow morning.
That’s chilly, even in Calgary.
Ahhhh…Smoke Breathe it in.
‘The Kid’ Gets His Own Place
Cooperstown’s population will be getting two new permanent residents.
Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York today. To be candid, Griffey Jr. was my favorite player back in the day when SportsCenter was on channel 11.
And by “day,” I mean the ’90s.
The former outfielder for the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds was incredible with his glove and bat. Here are a few of his achievements throughout his 20+ year Major League Baseball (MLB) career:
- League MVP (1997)
- Gold Glove (1990-1999)
- Silver Slugger (1991, 1993-1994 and 1996-1999)
- All-Star Game MVP (1992)
(Source: ESPN)
As a lefty, Griffey Jr. always had a curve ball of his own (so to speak) when at the plate or when climbing the outfield wall to deny a home run. Perhaps it was fitting that his first-time ballot vote had a special twist.
“A star slugger during the steroids era who was never tainted by accusations of drug use, Griffey was on 437 of 440 votes in his first appearance on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot. His 99.3 percentage topped the previous mark of 98.84, set when Tom Seaver appeared on 425 of 430 ballots in 1992.”
–“Ken Griffey Jr. (99 percent of vote), Mike Piazza head to Cooperstown,” ESPN
Ken Griffey Jr. is a great person and he was great on MLB’s big stage.
His remarkable talent was famously showcased on the silver screen. Little Big League, you’re up.
Sometimes in movies, characters and events are exaggerated to enhance suspense, drama and action. However, Griffey Jr.’s smooth swing and monster of a home run was a scene right out of a real Mariners game.
And it’s awesome that 99.3% of Hall of Fame voters chose to give “The Kid” his feel-good movie ending set for release this summer.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 