Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

Ireland / memories / photo / Rowan / sports / Tuesday / video — Comments Off
07
Apr 26

Another cold week, then

It is funny, how we all cope with chilly weather in different ways. Phoebe, here, is trying out a bit of late morning sunshine.

Poseidon went for one of his old favorites, a bundle of covers.

It only got to 56 degrees today, but the kitties are doing fine. They like it warm, of course, but they have fur and sunbaths and covers and kitty caves and so on. Me, I have to walk into class and pretend to be excited while it is 56 degrees outside! Hooray spring, guys! We won’t see the 60s until the weekend.

In Rits and Trads today we talked about media rituals, we talked about the characters the media helps create and accentuate, and the atmosphere they create. We talked about how we see military flyovers and see someone sing the national anthem at big events, so we talked about nationalism. We also talked about things like player introductions and postgame interviews. We talked about the Olympic ceremonies and other things the media participate in. And we talked about Rich Eisen running the 40 for charity, and the simulcam replays. Hands down the best part of the football year.

In Criticism we talked about media framing and representation, using these two stories.

USWNT’s Sophia Wilson gave herself grace after the birth of her daughter:

Sophia Wilson says being a mom has helped with her “goldfish mentality” of living in the moment.

Wilson was named to the U.S. national team roster for three upcoming matches against Japan, starting April 11 in San Jose, California. She took time away from soccer for the birth of her daughter and has not played for the United States in 17 months.

“I feel like my perspective on just life in general has shifted a lot, I think, in all the best ways,” Wilson said Thursday. “I feel more grounded, I feel more present. And I think that’s how I view the game as well. I’m trying to approach it with — I always have, but I think more than ever — a goldfish mentality. It’s just, be present in whatever practice, whatever game I’m in, and then it’s on to the next.”

[…]

“Watching her play 70 minutes the other night, it was almost like I couldn’t believe she’s had a baby and come back to perform at the level she’s done,” U.S. coach Emma Hayes said. “Real, real credit to her and the team around her that have really positioned pre- and post-pregnancy planning in a fantastic way.”

People that research gender representation in sports media are often critical about how women are portrayed in coverage. My argument, for several years now, has been that we don’t properly celebrate these sorts of comebacks. She is a mother, yes. She’s also one of the world’s best athletes. And she’s returned to form. Emma Hayes is going to talk about that, and she should. Others should, as well. And so I got to wax on about that for a bit.

We also talked about this story. How 3 Muslim sisters helped change the rules of American women’s wrestling:

“We always said we would never be able to wrestle in college,” said Jamilah, 22.

Coaches recognized their talent when they were teenagers, but they couldn’t wrestle with boys, nor could they wear the required wrestling singlet — due to their faith.

Eventually their passion for the sport – and their perseverance – led to rule changes allowing Muslim women to compete in full-body uniforms at collegiate and national levels.

It’s probably comical when I, the white guy, talk about representation. But there’s a bunch of people that need to think about it, and some of them are in my classroom. They’re just stuck with me at this point.

I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation. So, I’m sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. It was a great vacation. I have a lot of footage. This will go on for some time. Enjoy it with me, won’t you?

We saw several places that didn’t have signs or historical significance or car pullouts, they were simply majestic. That’s where you’d want to live, safe on a hill high above it, looking down on this glory, pondering time and patience, and everything in between. For more ocean dramatics, go here.

adventures / Ireland / Monday / photo / video — Comments Off
06
Apr 26

Flowers and Easter

There’s a certain sequence to spring. Sequences, perhaps. There’s the macro and the micro. And now we can look at some of the smaller parts of it. Different things burst into life at different times. And we dutifully trudge out to see them all, pretending that we understand how we can improve something that is so vibrant unto itself.

You may know, I often do not.

In the backyard we have this taller-than-a-shrub, shorter-than-a-tree exhibition. It looks great when you step back and view the whole, but it’s rather chaotic up close.

Across the yard is this guy, which is one of my favorites. I like the delicacy of the florets. They’ll soon be everywhere and get into everything, but that’s the price you pay. That, and being barely able to photograph them.

And then these beautiful specimens, which never appear with quite the right tone on the screen. Any screen. But they bloom and persist. Long-term show offs.

We went to my godparents in-law (just go with it) for Easter. It rained. The kids in their family did an Easter egg hunt in the basement. They broke them down by age groups, so the hunts went on for some time.

They put out the plastic eggs, and each kid is looking for a specific color egg. Each egg has some change or a few bucks in it. And someone creates a map recording where all of the eggs are hidden. For recall and recovery, I suppose.

I stayed out of the way, watching other kids playing hide-and-seek, wondering if they hid eggs in different places for each age group, or recycled the hiding spots. Probably they should.

A 5-year-old and a 6-year-old spent the afternoon hiding from one another. The boy would count, and the girl would hide. He couldn’t find her, so she talked him in. “When you hear the sound of my voice, that’s me.” Eventually, he’d track her down by ear. And then the girl would count and the boy would hide. I was telling her where to look for him. They’re adorable.

They did not share with me their Easter money.

Got a lovely lunch and wonderful company out of the deal, though.

This is Old St. Dympna’s Church.

Friday / Ireland / memories / photo / video — Comments Off
03
Apr 26

The flowery content begins

Right by the corner of the garage we have an oversized shrub. It shows off these deep crimson leaves, a few branches of which will need to be trimmed back this year, for ease of navigation purposes. But, right now, as one of the many heralds of spring, it is giving us the seasonal show.

The more spring the merrier. And this one is quote variable, which the science tells us is a sign of the times. It has been 84, 61 and 76 degrees the last three days. We also had a late seasonal freeze. Now we’re waiting to see what crops will be hurt by all of this. (Quite a bit, would be my guess.)

But that shrub looks lovely!

Happy weekend!

basketball / Ireland / memories / Rowan / Thursday / video — Comments Off
02
Apr 26

To be fair to me, the weather was overcast today

In Rituals and Traditions today, we talked about the future of these things. How do you do that? Peer into my crystal ball, students, and see what I know, for I have thought long and hard about the hybridity of historic rituals with digital-first engagement. This is all about audience immersion, increasing fan accessibility, perhaps more personalized experiences, fancy gear and swag, and evolutions in youth sport.

Blending tech with tradition is going to be the goal in that future. This is going to further boost E-sports, more advanced virtual reality for athletes and fans. It’ll change how we experience live sport, we’ll be talking about mediated attendance which will become a ritual unto itself, and, what I’m excited about, historical reproductions. That led us to a discussion of alt-athletes, which is a term that never took off. Weekend warriors was just better alliteration, I guess. But the idea is sound. People want to play, and millennials are a huge marketplace here. The numbers I found said something like 76 percent of the people there, and much of it is about turning solo activity into team fitness and shared achievement. This looks like club teams and loose orgs, but they’ll vary with varied sports. Ultimately, this could become about finding meaning in sport and identity in exercise and recreation.

Also, you can turn that into a spectator event. In 2021 57,000 people gathered to watch the Crossfit Games. The US Open of surfing draws hundreds of thousands of spectators.

You wonder how many personal rituals are emerging in those athletes, and their fans.

We watched this documentary today in Criticism. It’s a good film, but this is the only clip they’ve put on YouTube, and it in no way explains things. Allow me.

In March 2008 — this story is getting old and I should probably take it out of rotation, but it’s good — a tornado bore down on downtown Atlanta. At the same time, the SEC basketball tournament was underway. A last second desperation shot forced overtime, and kept a bunch of people in the arena. And the arena got hit by the storm. The thought has always been that, perhaps, that shot saved a lot of people’s lives. Roll Tide. The tournament must go on, however, and there are other storms, the venue is unsafe, there are logistical considerations and there’s just a lot going on. We never think, really, when we go to a sporting event, about the hundreds and thousands of personnel hours that go into making an event happen, making it safe, making it enjoyable, and here they had to change plans mid-tournament, with the March Madness selection program just hours away.

Also, Georgia had an improbably run in that tournament. Still not sure how that happened. They weren’t good, but they played over their heads, and so the documentary is about that, too.

(My alma mater was hilariously in and out of the conference tournament in just the one game.)

And, yes, I spent part of the documentary reflexively glancing out the classroom windows. You just don’t break habits of living in places where you can get tornadoes.

Spanish Armada viewpoint.

Ireland / memories / photo / site / video / Wednesday — Comments Off
01
Apr 26

Happy April

No April fools jokes here. I’m only fooling around with the usual stuff. I cleaned up my computer. I updated my cycling spreadsheet — I need to ride more. I updated my website spreadsheet — we’re on pace for another record year. I updated some templates that serve the site.

I did some work for classes. This includes writing a lecture that is, really, a shot in the dark. Also I had to watch a documentary that we’re watching in another class. There’s also a lot of grading getting done in my online class. We’ve been reading Jenny Davis’ discussion on affordances, which means we’re about to head into the final project of the semester. It’s a busy time.

And so you make time for all of that by tearing yourself away from the fun stuff, like these guys. How can you turn away from a face as cute as this one?

Her brother, meanwhile, is clowning around in the kitchen. He’s stretching this “I’m on the mail, not on the counter” thing to the limit here. But if he’s being cute and not being a jerk he usually gets a pass.

The kitties are doing great. They are not, however, doing my work for me. We’re going to have a talk about that.

The sheep are everywhere. You can tune them out or enjoy the novelty of it. I won’t be putting a bunch of ovine videos up, but it’s tempting.