MORE SENSELESS ACTS OF BLOGGERY

So you know Muhammad Ali is the latest celebrity casualty of 2016.

Which means, among other things, that he and Howard Cosell are together again.



I have to admit, I’ve never been a fan of boxing. But Muhammad Ali’s self-professed greatness transcended the sport. He was very much a part of my pop culture landscape as I was growing up, appearing on talk shows and the occasional sitcom. He even had his own Saturday morning cartoon for a bit.

And he was easily the most quotable sports figure of my generation outside of professional wrestling.

It’s interesting too that he was an Islam convert – which was controversial at the time, but arguably not as much as it would be in 2016 if some major non-white sports figure was to do the same. Certainly it didn’t prevent Ali from becoming a beloved pop culture icon. It’s fair bet that most Americans had forgotten Ali was a Muslim until Donald Trump inadvertently reminded them.

Anyway. Respect.

Like a bee,

This is dF

Rowdy Roddy Piper is gone.

Which may not mean much to non-wrestling fans, except the ones who liked They Live.



For me, of course, Piper was part of the Toontown that was the WWF’s heyday in the late-80s. And he was always one of the standouts, whether in the ring or on the mike.

Also, while he wasn’t the first WWF superstar to break into films, he was one of the few who made at least one really good one (see above). The rest of them were mainly straight-to-video B-movies, but I’ll take that over Hulk Hogan’s kids films any day.

Piper brought Hell to Frogtown.



He went to the police academy with Jesse Ventura.



He inspired a punk rock song.



It’s hard not to respect that.

I think Jade Bos sums it up well:


Amen.

Sooner or later everybody pays the Piper,

This is dF

As many of you know, I’m not a big fan of sports. And I’m especially not a fan of American football. So when my Facebook feed is full of, say, Super Bowl fandom, I have a tendency to sneer a little.

But then, around this time last year, I came across this post from the guy some of you remember as "popfiend" in defense of football fandom. His overall point was this:

Football fandom is really no different from any other kind of fandom. Almost everyone is a fan of something that means a lot to them – bands, RPGs, videogames, comic books, Doctor Who – and you know how you feel when people crap all over you for being a fan of something they don’t really “get”. So lay off the football fans.

To be clear (and he does makes this point clearly) he’s coming from this as a fan not only of football, but of many of the geek/nerd things mentioned above. And he is not saying “you don't get to criticize stuff I like” – he’s just asking you to be nice about it instead of acting like a smug hipster.

That’s a good message.

But I have a problem with the analogy – so much so that’s taken me a year to work out just what the problem is, and how to articulate it. Make of that what you will.

Anyway, my problem hinges on two assertions made in the post:

1. People who mock the Super Bowl are smug hipsters.

Okay, maybe some of them are – at least I think so. The term “hipster” gets thrown around a lot these days to the point that I’m sure what it actually means, if it ever meant anything. It seems to mean “anyone who hates stuff I like and acts like it makes them smarter than anyone else”. I’ve known people like that, but we didn’t call them “hipsters”. We called them “pompous dicks”. So I guess “hipster” is the word we use for that now.

Anyway.

I can see why some anti-Super Bowl memes come across as smug to football fans. But there is a difference between perception and intention. I can only speak for myself here, but I don't feel particularly superior to people who like football. I just don’t understand the appeal, just like football fans don’t understand why it doesn’t appeal to me.

That said, I admit I’m not sure where the line is between fair criticism and smug hipsterism, or who gets to say where the line is. For example, I see football as a senseless emo rollercoaster of institutional violence based on land acquisition and an extreme display of sexist stereotypes (male gladiators fighting for the honor of the tribe whilst being cheered on by nearly naked busty women with perfect bodies, etc). Can I say that without denigrating football fans? And if not, should that matter?

2. Football fandom is no different from comics fandom, or Star Wars fandom, or the kind of fandom usually associated with the geek/nerd crowd (whatever that might mean to you).

This is technically true. Sports fans can be as obsessive as comics fans, and their love for it can be just as sincere. So they’re not all that different, right?

Well, not exactly. There’s one key difference: football in general – and the Super Bowl in particular – are assigned levels of sociological importance that traditional “geek” categories do not have, and have never had.

From Little Little League Whatever to high school, college and the pros, team sports – especially football – is a benchmark of social conformity. This may vary depending on where you live. When I was growing up in my home state of Tennessee (go Vols!) sports were practically a gauge of yr sexual orientation. They possibly still are, at least for certain communities or people over a certain age.

Let me be clear: I am not saying that all football fans are homophobic bullies, or that they actively enforce social mores that say you must like football or else. They’re not, and they don’t (and if they are and do, it’s not because they’re football fans). The point is that team sports play a mainstream and influential role in society and culture that has an impact well beyond its actual fan base. Sports are so mainstream as to be ubiquitous. You can always opt out, but yr always going to be exposed to it no matter what, and you’ll almost always be the odd person out on Game Day.

Comics, SF, RPGs and every other geek/nerd pursuit you care to name do not fit that description. Yes, they flourish more now than they ever did when I was a schoolkid. But they are nowhere near as ubiquitous or as woven into mainstream society as sports, nor are they as institutionalized.

The Super Bowl is a textbook example – perhaps THE textbook example. As sports events go, it’s an overblown, overpromoted gazillion-dollar goldmine that you can’t really avoid unless you don’t have a TV or an internet connection – or, like me, you live outside the country. And even then, my Facebook page will be swamped with running commentary on the game, or the halftime show, or the TV ads. It's an event that dominates the entire national conversation, whether you want to participate in that conversation or not. 

The same cannot be said for the average SF/comic convention – not even Nerd Prom. In terms of media saturation, commercial buy-in, watercooler discussion and mainstream cultural ubiquity, the two events don’t even compare. Not to me.

This is why a lot of non-sports fans push back against Super Bowl Mania a little harder than perhaps is fair – it’s not just the game, it’s all the sociological baggage that comes with it, and the fact that they can’t really avoid it the same way that people can avoid “nerd/geek” culture if they choose.

So no, sports fandom and geek fandom aren’t really the same. Maybe they are from the perspective of people who are fans of both. I get that. But for non-sports fans like me, the difference couldn't be more obvious. 

Now … having said all that, I will reiterate again that I fully agree with the key point of the post: if yr going to criticize the Super Bowl, there’s no need to be a jerk about it.

So after a year of analysis, I’ve found that I basically agree with his overall point – I just disagree with the methodology used to arrive at it.

But then I think football is a senseless emo rollercoaster of institutional violence based on land acquisition and an extreme display of sexist stereotypes (male gladiators fighting for the honor of the tribe whilst being cheered on by nearly naked busty women with perfect bodies, etc), so I would, wouldn’t I?

Super duper,

This is dF

As some of you may know, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is coming up.

Here in Hong Kong, local broadcasting powerhouse TVB won the broadcast rights to the World Cup, and has spent the last year promoting it. Last month, TVB released their official theme song for the World Cup, sung by pretty much every major star on its roster.

It’s pretty awful.

It’s a matter of taste, of course. But it seems to me the point of a World Cup song is to be a rousing anthem you can sing in the stands to get the crowds going.

Leave it to TVB to do a World Cup song that not only sounds like standard feel-good Cantopop instead of a football anthem, but lyrically sounds like it’s not about the World Cup so much as it’s about TVB bragging about winning the broadcast rights.

Granted, I’m going mostly by the English-language chorus. The Chinese lyrics do have something to do with football, kind of, or at least with fighting to win trophies. But given how much self-important noise TVB has made about this, I’m pretty confident about my interpretation of it.



It’s all about you,

This is dF

Burger King can kiss my ass, gibroni.





Background here.

FUN FACT: That menu makes me hungry.

The once and future king,

This is dF

There has been talk about Russia’s “Don’t Say Gay” law being applied to athletes competing in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which is pretty straightforward – sport a rainbow/AIDS pin, go to jail. 

Gay rights advocates are, of course, angry about this. But they’re also angry at the IOC for not being as angry about it as they are.

I understand this. But I have to say, I also understand the uncomfortable position the IOC is in. 

The IOC has always maintained a politically neutral stance to the Games, which are supposed to be the one arena the global community can stop arguing about politics for once and have some good old-fashioned sports competition. It’s not supposed to be a venue for making political statements. And the IOC by its very nature can’t afford to be taking sides.

The problem for the IOC is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to stay politically neutral in a world where EVERYTHING is political, and more and more people refuse to compromise on their position to the point where yr pretty much expected to take a side, and refusing to do so is the same as opposing you. Yr either with us or against us, as someone once said.

Of course, the situation is a bit more complicated, because the problem isn’t really Russia’s opposition to gay marriage or gay rights. Look at any Olympic event since the Games started, and you’ll find they all took place in countries where gay marriage was still illegal, and where gay rights were at best patchy. The real problem is free speech – Russia has decided even openly expressing support for gay rights is a crime punishable by deportation.

The IOC has already expressed concern over this, and is pushing the Russian govt to at least exempt the Olympics from the law. Supposedly the govt has given them written assurances that the law won’t affect anyone attending or competing in the games, although apparently no one told Russia’s Sports Minister that.

Mind you, I’m not saying the Russia law is good, or that people shouldn’t oppose it, or shouldn't boycott the Games. I’m just saying it’s not really the job of the IOC to become an agitator for sociopolitical change, no matter how much you might want it to be. Apart from “quiet diplomacy”, there’s not much they can do about it at this stage.

As for boycotts, well, that’s fine, though I don’t think it will help much. The US and the USSR used to boycott each other’s Olympics all the time (well, twice, anyway), albeit with negligible results.

What I’d like to see – and what I hope happens – is athletes and attendees openly defying the law. I’d love to see every athlete wear an AIDs pin or wave a rainbow flag. Is Russia going to arrest and deport them all? Not likely. Even if only some athletes do it, I don’t think Russia will actually arrest any of them (except maybe the Russian ones). That’s what I’d prefer – mass gay rights support to the point of making the current Russian govt look isolated and out of touch.

It will also annoy and alarm certain American politicians and news commentators who will be forced to agree with Vlad Putin about something. Bonus!

Say it loud,

This is dF

As a journalist, I get press releases.

Sometimes they're from the Lingerie Football League.

Which is nice, cos they send pictures and stuff.





The “news” is that the LFL is now available on KIX, a local/regional “action channel”, under an exclusive licensing deal. But it also highlights the fact that the LFL has now apparently become an international success, with a Canadian version launching this year, and an Australian league coming next year, and European version 2015.

Because few things have international appeal like women playing full-contact football in their underwear.

This is the best part of the press release:


So basically they’re claiming LFL is more popular than the WWF was before it went huge in the mid 80s.

Perspective!

Still, that’s not bad for a cheesy idea that started as a Super Bowl halftime joke, has struggled to find enough cities willing to host a franchise team, and basically serves as a cultural signpost that football is such a guy-oriented sport that fans will only watch women play it if they’re half naked.

Offsides,

This is dF

[Via Vintage Sleaze, which has more on lady wrestler magazines here]

Zay Oncle,

Theez ees dF

Yr Extra Frisky Paranoia lede of the day:



That will, of course, mean it will take longer longer to get into the stadium. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy suggests you arrive earlier:


Because nothing makes long queues and enhanced pat-downs more tolerable – or people more tolerant and patient – than getting a little soused beforehand.

That said, it always seemed inevitable to me that enhanced pat-downs would start appearing outside of the obvious venues. Up to now, most people have generally accepted the necessity of extra security procedures at airports (at least until it happens to them) to the point where it’s considered normal now. We even have toys and Disney park rides that make searches and bag scans all part of the “fun”.

Still, I predict the new procedures will not go over well with fans, and that they’ll be rescinded, albeit only if it hurts attendance. Or if enough surly fans get tazed by security guards.

In which case, history books 50 years from now will say that after 10+ years of sacrificing privacy for security, Americans drew the line at major sports events.

Illegal procedure,

This is dF

I get press releases.

Sometimes they’re about fake basketball teams.



No surprise, in a way – after all, basketball has a respectable following in China, thanks to Yao Ming going pro. And hey, they’re called the Globetrotters for a reason, I guess.

BACKGROUND: Like a lot of people my age, I first learned about them via Saturday morning cartoons. Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal were a part of my pop-culture landscape. They never made me want to pick up a basketball beyond some backyard hoop-chaw (as we call it in Tennessee), but they were a whole lotta fun to watch.

And even then, I had no idea the team had been around since the late 1920s. And they were actually from Chicago, not Harlem.

The things you learn about yr pop-culture past.

FUN FACT: Henry Kissinger is an honorary Globetrotter. Make of that what you will.

ANOTHER FUN FACT: The Globetrotters’ theme music is “Sweet Georgia Brown” by Brother Bones.

All the way from downtown,

This is dF