Brooklyn, the Remix: A Hip-Hop Tour

Let me just leave this link here.

The New York Times, originally published May 10th, 2013.

UPDATE

Greetings,

First, my apologies for taking a sabbatical of sorts from this blog - worry not, I still write - thus, the purpose of this entry.

I will occasionally use this forum to post things I've written, for the most part links to the sites hosting said masterpieces.

Below is the link to something I wrote that was picked-up by Deadspin.com.

Margaret Thatcher And Her Attempts To Destroy English Football

Enjoy.

Bourdain Does Toronto

Everything I love and dislike about my hometown, perfectly encapsulated in a 45-minute episode and described by Anthony Bourdain.

Bourdain's new show, The Layover, veers in a slightly different direction than his previous work, No Reservations, focusing on a city's worth, both culinary and culturally. Perhaps I'm a little too biased on this matter for my own good, as I am both a fervent supporter of the city and anything Bourdain does, but this episode is an ideal guide for tourists and Torontonians alike.

Enjoy.

MODERN ARTZ N CRAFTZ

Allan Hill, the Man Who Lives In Detroit's Packard Plant

I believe I've found the way to deal with my love of solitude, wide-open spaces and devalued and forgotten scrap metals.

Meet Detroit's Allan Hill, my new role model.

Please Read This

Tom Ley is a man of words from the Denver area. For all intents and purposes, the two of us are brethren's forever bonded by the veiled anonymous nature of the internet. Regardless, the man can write; linked below is his latest article for the Goodmenproject.com - please read it and try not to get completely and most utterly emotional as a result.

Tiny Bits Of Joy by Tom Ley

This Week's WInner of The Dave Parker Award For Excellence in Excellence: These Guys

As you may recall, during this blog's heyday, there was a running featured that identified professional athletes who liked to smoke, based on the photo of Cobra Dave Parker smoking on the Pittsburgh Pirates bench. The photo stands-out as one of my favourite examples of candid sports photography.

Thanks to the good people over at Sports Illustrated for putting together this slide show of athletes who fancied a smoke. Beyond that, there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to this post, but to say hello.

SI's Sports Figures and Smoking

Oh, Internet.

Somebody spent a lot of time on this.

A BLOG POST

Just joking.

Here's somebody who like the internet more than me. Enjoy.

What The Holidays Remind Me Of

Despite the fact I grew up in a devout Roman Catholic household, once I left for university at the age of 19, I stopped practising my faith for various reasons. I became lazy and complacent towards my faith, and even more so, I became skeptical that something which could not manifest itself physically could have such on influence not only on my life, but the lives of my family and the creative foundation of the world.

My parents, being the passive and understanding pair they are, allowed me the liberty of an attempt at both a literal and contextual analysis of the church and scripture, which combined with the aforementioned malaise found me turning my back on my faith.

Save for a funeral or wedding, the only time I step foot in a church these days is to appease my mother and attend a Christmas Eve mass. When I'm sitting there next to my parents and brother and sister, an unmistakable sensation of guilt sweeps over me. Why, I have no idea? I reckon it's because I feel such an overwhelming urge to please my parents and make them proud. Regardless, Christmas Eve mass always evokes a sense of virtue and focus on my part, in so far as a renewed focus on what's important in life; family.

Time changes all, and rifts are created between friends and family members over various reasons, sometimes legitimate, other times completely trivial and wasteful where a person's pride masks the sobering effects of proper judgment. Come holiday time, I am reminded of the fact that at the end of the day, our families are all we really have. Blood binds people together like a metaphysical adhesive greater than that of any legal commitment or contract.

Despite the fact very little people will likely ever read this post - both because I've not posted much the last few months and likely decimated what little fan base I have and also because the first paragraph mentions the ever-tantalizing existence of church and faith - the fact remains, often we do the bare minimum when it concerns family. The holidays and the practise of worshipping a false idol (Santa, not Jesus) should not be the sole reason to come together as a family. Call your aunt, email your uncle, for God's sake, tell your mother you love her, because while time changes all, it also passes at great speed with very little notice.

Happy Holidays to everybody and thanks for reading.

Long-Form Sports Journalism: Alex Belth

As newspapers continue to drop long-form, researched pieces for short, attention grabbing bullet points, the internet is becoming a safe haven for sports journalist looking to rekindle a previous romance with full-length pieces.

I encourage everybody to read the following article by New York sportswriter Alex Belth, about a fellow sportswriter whose style and penchant for alcohol and drug-induced interactions with the athletes of the 70's and 80's evokes memories of a time I never experienced, but have read so much about.

Deadspin; Alex Belth, December, 6th, 2011.

Thank you for reading, and again, my apologies to the dozens of loyal fans of this site for it's general shittiness.

Gary Speed RIP

Sunday morning, police discovered that Welsh football manager Gary Speed had hanged himself. The 42-year old ex-Premier League and Welsh footballer leaves behind a wife and two teenage boys.

Though not the best of obituaries, the Telegraph's coverage features a nicely edited video of Speed's career accomplishments. I encourage you to have a look at the link if you'd fancy.

The internet doesn't need another obit, rather I've decided to post this link and share my sentiments because I always admired the man. Upon reading about Speed's suicide, I was absolutely gutted. He was a fearless leader and a brilliant example for younger players. His 535 matches played was a league record before being broken by ex-England keeper David James. He was the type of player who never showed dissent and always seemed to exceed the physical limitations his ever-aging body presented as obstacles.

Certain that possible reasons as depression or the like will be revealed in the coming days, it's safe to say his suicide has caught everybody who knew the man by surprise.

RIP Gary Speed.

Penn State Scandal: John Amaechi's Perspective.

Amidst all the nauseating accounts of Jerry Sandusky's actions and the uncovered allegations of Penn State's administrations lack of proactivite measures, many a Penn State grad or person with experience or perspective has been asked to express his or her sentiments regarding the case.

Former NBA center and Penn State grad John Amaechi appeared yesterday on ESPN's Highly Questionable with Dan LeBatard to share his disgust with Sandusky's actions and the manner with which Penn State's administrative hierarchy failed in dealing with it.

Besides being a very well spoken and eloquent individual, following his retirement in February, 2007, Amaechi became the first high-profile athlete from one of the 4 major North American leagues to announce that he is homosexual. He subsequently released an autobiography titled Man In The Middle and became a spokesman of sorts for inequalities in sport and the plight of the closeted homosexual in extremely heterosexual and homophobic environments. Needless to say, the guy is a class act whose sacrifices have paved the way for the next generation of educated and well-versed professional athletes.

The reason I'm posting this 6+ minute video and giving a brief account of John Amaechi's successes is because the sentiments he shared with Dan LeBatard are the most eloquent and sobering of opinions I've seen or read since this whole scandal unfurled not two weeks ago.



In this instance, eloquent seems like a bit of an understatement, but the point remains; Amaechi does well to separate where we should be directing our efforts and goodwill, and how easily people can become selfish in such times. I commend Amaechi for his opinions and hope that as many people as possible can as well in hopes of coming to grips with this disgusting scandal that will forever leave its black mark on college sports and the University of Penn State.

Lockout With Your Glock Out

In lieu of the fact that the NBA lockout negotiations continue to move slower than Jose Molina on the basepath and the apparent refusal by the owners and the players to meet half way like Oprah's belt, I present to you the closest thing to NBA basketball we have.

Here we find the Knicks' Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire discussing the term 'compare' with Grover. Carmelo's smile is about as genuine as a pair of Adidas I have with two stripes. Speaking of Adidas, it seems the people at Sesame Street are against brand recognition.



That's all I have for you today. Remember to show your appreciation for a Veteran today. The most poignant remark I've seen in recent days was from a colleague on twitter, who said something along the lines of "Veterans have signed a blank cheque to the country with their lives. Show them some love."

Well said. Thanks for reading BadNewsBlog. I apologize that the last few months have been pretty sparse, I hope to find a 25th hour in the day so as to placate both of your appetites for Pulitzer-level shit.

Tommy Craggs: One of America's Best Sportwriters.

Amidst all the hoopla surrounding Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow and his adoption by the sports media as "America's Christian Darling", there has been a very biased and narrow minded approach to covering him.

Despite his struggles on the field, the media has anointed him as a special one, namely because of his tidy ethical principles and well-spoken demeanour.

No sportswriter in America has tackled this issue with the same concise manner as Deadspin's Tommy Craggs.

Deadspin: Tommy Craggs, Friday November 4th.

Enjoy the article and thanks for your support of BadNewsBlog.

Read Something

I'm often asked by friends and colleagues for book suggestions. It's an ever-challenging task to speculate upon somebody's taste in literature, even when presented with options or a precedence of sorts for what another reader may fancy.

Different people enjoy different forms of literature, where the person's aesthetic presentation gives little insight to their preferences. As the old adage goes, you can't read a book by its cover.

My physical appearance would give an inquisitive passerby a sordid impression that I'm really into Niezstche and Sartre and critically acclaimed bandwagoneers the like, while simultaneoulsy bowing at the alter of the David Halberstam's and Dick Schaap's of the world. There was once a time when I read books I was told I would like because they were an influential artist's seminal work or some lavish and epic Tour De Force. These days I read because I want to be entertained, rather than the purpose of any form of enlightenment or to check one off the 'Must Read Before I Croak' list.

To come full-circle, if you want my advice, I'm going to suggest those books that I find entertaining. For every person who's fallen for a writer that was suggested to them or found on 'Must Read' lists, there is a person who adores the work of clandestine artists whose work is found on clearance racks masquerading as garbage heaps curbside.

The Death of the English Language: The Misuse of The Word 'Tragedy'

An aquaintance of mine in Chicago wrote an article about the misuse of the word 'tragedy' for CBS Chicago's 670 The Score site. The piece has received a fair bit of a backlash since it concerns the recent death of IRL driver Dan Wheldon at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway this past Sunday.

Tim Baffoe / CBS Chicago

While any accidental death can be considered unfortunate, as the author points out, using tragedy to define it is an innacurate application of the word. The article is well written and concerns itself not with making a controversial statement, but with simply conveying the fact that tragedy has become one of those often abused terms.

Enjoy the article and if you will, seperate yourself from any emotional attachment to an unfortunate death, and simply understand the writer's perspective.

Thanks for reading.

Scams, Albeit Entertaining Scams

Tony Sales is a 37-year old Londoner who is known to be one of England's largest and most successful fraud artists.

Vice Magazine tracked him down in London and spoke to him about his years as a fraudster and the various means by which he successfully robbed banks and other businesses of between 15 and 30 million pounds.

Rule Britannia: Fraud [Parts 1 - 3]

The three part documentary of sorts follows Sales as he shows examples of fraud and just how easily they can be carried out. Sales comes off as a likable individual, blurring the lines between criminal and a modern-day Robin Hood of sorts. It is an entertaining look into the changing nature of crime.

My hopes are that this brief documentary will entertain and inform. Identity theft is the fastest growing crime worldwide, and according to rough approximations, of a value greater than the Gross Domestic Product of England, France and Canada.

Scams, Scams, Everywhere are Scams.

No more than two years ago, I received an email from a British telecommunications company O2, claiming that I was eligible for a prize of roughly $400,000 (CDN) because my mobility provider (Fido) was working alongside O2 in attempts to spread the brand continentally. According to the professional-looking corporate email equipped with legitimate masthead and the like, I was selected at random to receive the prize and possibly take part in an interview for a Toronto news channel sharing the story of my fortune, and hence, providing a little street-level marketing for the British telecommunications provider.

Before I continue further, for those of you who are not a friend or acquaintance of mine and know me solely from these pages, I consider myself to be a bright, self-aware individual who is not easily coerced into believing things without a physical representation or scientific explanation - essentially, my tendency towards skepticism has truly hindered my imagination.

I had heard of the Nigerian Bank scams and the increase in email related frauds, and I was aware of just how little information was required for an identity theft. Nonetheless, I couldn't fight the urge to follow through on this email from O2, at least until the point when I had to put forward precious details that could be used to take advantage of other gullible innocents. To truncate an already lengthy story, I was told that in order to receive my winnings, I had to either a) fly to England, more specifically O2's offices in London or b) send an English lawyer $800.00 (CDN) to cover the taxes and tariffs on a foreigner winning a British-based contest and other fees related to having a barrister sign for my winnings, yadi yadi yadi, followed by some dense lawyer-speak. In other words, now I had to pay, one way or another, to receive my prize.

At this moment, I knew it was a scam. After feeling rather angry that I had actually considered the proposal, even if for but a second, I decided to do a little backyard detective work if you will. I phoned one of the numbers listed as legal representation. An African man with the thickest and deepest of accents answered, claiming that he was such and such, a reputable English lawyer based in Surrey, just outside the London proper. At first, he was quite polite, but following minutes of poking and prodding on my part, he became frustrated with the endless stream of questions. I told the gentleman that I would call him right back. Before doing so, I googled the name he gave me, and found the website of an actual Surrey-based lawyer who had received dozens of local awards and commendations for his work. Digging a little deeper, I was able to locate both a photograph and a home phone number for the lawyer. He was as white and frail as a snowflake. Clearly, this was not the man I spoke to on the phone, and now, I was in a position, based solely on the fact that I had myself done a little digging, to help this man 3,000 miles away, and in turn, help others avoid being scammed as well. Despite the cost of a trans-Atlantic midday cell phone call, I rang the lawyer (who'll remain nameless) and spoke to him for about ten minutes about this elaborate scam and how his identity was being used to facilitate said scam.

The lawyer was extremely gracious, and promised to contact Scotland Yard. Three days later, I received a wonderful email from the man saying the police had begun an investigation to track-down the individuals responsible, and that as of that moment, it turns out it was one of the largest scams in Europe, speculatively run by a group of Nigerian men based in England. Last week, I received another email from the lawyer outside of London. Despite nearly forgetting about the entire ordeal, he wrote to inform me that the investigation has finally come to an end and that nearly a dozen Nigerian men with English papers had been arrested and charged with a host of fraud-related charges.

If there is a message to be had from the entire ordeal; with each passing day, crime is becoming a more digital and invisible practice, where identities and financial histories are being stolen or ruined for the benefit of others. Where years ago a criminal could walk into a bank with a mask, pillowcase and Colt 45, now security has crippled physical thefts, giving rise to a new group of young, enterprising scam artists.

Hume Hits Nail On Head

For all the bashing of The Toronto Star that's been found on the pages, they do still employ a handful of talented writers. Christopher Hume covers Urban Affairs and Architecture for the paper. His concepts for the revitalization of the city's waterfront are both practical and cost-effective, and his understanding of the plight of the urban motorist and worker is without comparison.

In today's GTA section of The Star, Hume tackles an issue concerning Mayor Rob Ford that has angered me to no end; his blatant refusal to cater to the wants and needs of the suburban Torontonians and those living in the peripheries of the city. The crux of my beef centres around the Ford's cuts and further proposed cuts of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) not in the downtown core or affluent uptown neighbourhoods, but in Scarborough and West and North Etobicoke. The problem with such proposed cuts is that many of the people that live in said areas do not work 9 to 5 hours. These people work in kitchens or other occupations that require an effective transit system to get them home at all hours.

Mayor Rob Ford cares not for the people who were suspicious of his motivations and were abhorred by his bigotry and vaguely racist remarks. He cares about the white, middle to upper class Torontonians who supported him based solely on his fiscal policies.

Christopher Hume eloquently shares a similar opinion in today's paper, while pinpointed reasons beyond the TTC for why the Mayor has turned his rotund backside on many a Torontonian.

Toronto Star, September 26th

Enjoy and check back real soon ya hear!