..you’re not too close, but someone’s passing judgement on you, anyway.
From Vinyl Mine’s Clip Shack :
Gerard Cosloy’s sports thing has a obscure reference to the band White Boy that only his hipster readers who don’t like sports anyway got. The ones that read it for the sports are going huh?
I’m sure it will come as news to those readers who commented on said “obscure reference” that they, despite professing otherwise, don’t like sports anyways. Likewise, “the ones that read it for the sports” (?) are obviously such a bunch of IQ 32’s, a cultural reference to something less universally recognized than Michael Jackson or Paris Hilton is gonna zoom right over their low-brows.
I can tolerate criticism of CSTB. Jessica Hopper says it is a bullet-point version of the Sporting News. Another correspondent, whose favorite subject is (surprise!) herself, says CSTB is “insular”. Whether either of these persons are completely out to lunch or just slightly, is for you to decide. Me, I’m comfortable either way. The notion that any particular group of people may or may not “get” something in CSTB never occurs to me, because I write/compile this for my own entertainment. If others happen to enjoy it (and the monthly bandwidth bill indicates that more than a few of you do), that’s terrific.
But either way, it should be evident by now to those who actually follow this thing that CSTB is aimed neither at “hipsters” nor “those that read it for the sports” (though said persons would have nothing to apologize for), but rather, free thinkers who are willing to kiss my ass in lieu of paypal donations.
I ask not for any defense of CSTB, dear readers, but how does it feel to know that you are the ones being stereotyped? That a person you’ve never met already knows that if you’re savvy enough to be aware of WDC’s late White Boy, you couldn’t possibly follow sports (tell it to David Wells!). And that the same commentator is pretty sure that if you do have an interest in the sporting scene, you either have no idea what I’m going on about the rest of the time or you require things to be spelled out for you.
I’m having none of that. I respect the intelligence of CSTB’s readership —- even those of you laboring under the delusion that the comments section serves as a guestbook where you can leave personal messages for Barrett Robins, Carmelo Anthony or Huckapoo. If another blogger thinks CSTB is unoriginal or that I’ve got nothing to say of consequence, hey, bring it on. But when they start picking on you, that’s when I take exception. I will not sit by idly as CSTB Nation is characterized as a bunch of posuers, dumb jocks, retards and cultural illiterates.
Because I don’t think you’re posuers.
I hate sports and music, so I have no idea what I’m doing here. Maybe it’s the rotisserie chicken?
Those who truly love both sports and music miss the regular columns of total fucking tool/only decent national hockey writer John Buccigross of ESPN who, in the middle of columns full of Ray Ferraro in-jokes, would regularly remind us that The Joshua Tree is the greatest album of all time, and would recommend things like The White Stripes and Queens Of The Stone Age over a year after they broke. I think Vertical Horizon and Semisonic may have received props over the years as well.
When he sticks to hockey, he’s pretty damn good though.
Confession: I don’t get a single indie rock reference you make. But I understand all of the sports stuff, even when you are writing about the Bundesliga. Now fucking Vinyl Mine has to go making me feel inadequate about it.
If you will excuse me I have to watch SportsCenter with Foreigner playing in the background.
Mea Culpa.
As I don’t know many who have an interest in the “sporting scene” and the few that I do know usually get tuned out as soon as I hear “the game last night” or they start arguing about the prowess of one overpaid jock vs another overpaid jock.
I’ll admit I made most of my assumptions about sports people from reading snippets of Tony Kornheiser and Tom Boswell while waiting for my fried tofu to drain. Other than that, sports to me is about betting against whatever horse Andy Beyer is touting this week.
Little did I know that sports writers were such connoisseurs of such great bands as, ahem, Semisonic and Queens of the Stone Age. I now anxiously “root” for Kornheiser to pen a column reassessing the legacy of G.I. predecessor Stab and Tom Boswell to disavow the return of baseball to DC in exchange for the return of Don Fleming to The Velvet Monkeys.
But I apologize to all your non-poseur readers and will be sure to aim all future barbs directly at CTSB.
Sure, its a fued as old as the hills, or at least as old as 7 Seconds “I Hate Sports” but really I think Gerard’s integration of sports, music and interesting anecdotes is more about creating a business model built around controlling the intellectual property and leveraging this brand called Can’t Stop The Bleeding.
Dave
Hey, I don’t know many cannibals either, but you won’t catch me disparaging their way of life or pretending to know what else they’re into.
I’m just curious when it became acceptable to so easily dismiss entire groups of people based on their interests being different than your own.
so there’s a hockey guy into AOR. Fine. I’m totally down with that. Much as I’ve always supported Peter Gammons’ god-given right to regale us with gratuitous mention or 2 of just what Buffalo Tom are up to. None of the above are my particular cup of tea, but I don’t think less of anyone who is entertained by it. OK, maybe a little bit less. But not a lot less.
If Don Fleming moves back to DC, can Portland get the Nationals?
Dave,
thank you. And with that in mind, look forward to the Cafe Press hooded sweatshirts, mouse pads, coffee mugs and Scott Weiland bobblehead dolls, going on sale sometime between now and 2009.
i don’t mind the obscure cultural references. it lets me fondly recall the days twenty-five years ago when i knew all the cool indie bands. and cstb makes me resolve to listen to more wfmu.
All this chatter and no one even mentions how Bonds dropped Vashti Bunyan’s name in his latest outburst.
Hey, Gerard.
If you see jon easley, say hi for me.
Hey, CSTB knows sports, and also knows White Boy. It’s a blog, right? Is it such a shock that blogs are often as scattershot as most people are? Isn’t that the appeal?
But would it be in bad taste to bring up this? Yes, yes it would.
As a music know-it-all but a sports poseur (Steelers fan only), I appreciate that CSTB winks and nudges at me on the former, and enables me to keep up in conversation with my sports friends — and my bookie — in the latter category. Not since they pulled the plug on Nick Bakay’s “Sports Monster” way back in 1990 has the medicine gone down this easily.
I mean, somebody’s gotta watch baseball for me, right?
haha i’m gonna get paid for watching baseball this season! score!
i can buy more indie rock records now.
John,
Mr. Easley passed away some 7 years ago. Much as I and all of his friends miss him, I would prefer not to see Jon for at least a few more years.
I am living in the hinterlands.
By day I host a sports talk radio show (for which I shamelessy pinch material from CSTB) at night I can sometimes be found doing my best Stephen Malkmus or Jeff Mangum at indie rock karaoke. Though, I’m probably not cut out for either gig since I actually like Barry Bonds and think Achtung Baby is one the greatest albums ever. I guess I fall somewhere in between hipster and total fucking tool. But hey, you only live once. Shoot to thrill CSTB!
though I seem to recall he was opining on the rock/wrestling connection, allow me to quote handsome dick manitoba: the one thing sports fans and rock fans have in common is that they’re all morons
“By day I host a sports talk radio show (for which I shamelessy pinch material from CSTB) at night I can sometimes be found doing my best Stephen Malkmus or Jeff Mangum at indie rock karaoke.”
I had no idea Christopher Russo was a reader!
holy fuck, i lose internet access for a week and come back to find a cstb post with 18 f’ing responses. i must confess i haven’t bothered to read any of them. and as far as the original entry from
the sporting newscstb goes, i also confess that i do not understand the rules, objectives, or popularity of either professional sports or indie rock. i read cstb for the hidden juice newton references.All blogs are insular, by nature. I’m too old to be a hipster, I don’t follow sports at all, and I don’t know who White Boy is. I read this blog because it’s funny and interesting, and I will continue to look for hidden Juice Newton references.
I cannot be the only one who spent much of last year gritting my teeth whenever Rob Dibble took the mic on Baseball Tonight. I soon found an appropriate vent for my anger by making a a-capella rendition of the Queer Pills’ classic “Get off the Air,” substituting “Rob Dibble” for Rodney Bingenheimer: “You’re a fuckin’ piece of shit, Rob Dibble — Get off the air!” The existence of CSTB implies that there may have been others doing the same thing. A place for me, a place for me at last.
“11pm / Dibble’s On The Air
He’s Beating Off In Karl Ravetch’s Hair”
OK, I’m no Mike Saunders. But I can appreciate the sentiment, Steve.