On the other hand, one of the fun parts of ESPN's Bowl Week is seeing which broadcast team gets assigned which game. The high-profile teams (Ron Franklin-Mike Gottfried; Dave Barnett-Bill Curry-Mike Golic; Mike Tirico-Kirk Herbstreit-Lee Corso) all got decent bowls. The other bowls were scattered among their other teams that all seem to run together. But I guess ESPN considers the Continental Tire Bowl (actually a decent matchup between Virginia and West Virginia) the least of the bunch since it's sending Wayne Larrivee out there. Wayne always does the last-choice Big Ten game on ESPN Plus, which is seen only on GamePlan or on local affiliates if you're lucky (which I'm not down here in the South). He's a solid announcer, but it's funny to see him stuck with the fourth or fifth Big Ten game each week. At least that got Mike Gleason out of the GamePlan studio to actually work a game (he'll be joining Wayne in Charlotte).

Take the gamblers bowling
The college football bowl season is one of the strangest animals out there in all of sports. While there is plenty of clamoring for a national championship playoff, the bowl system will never go away. In fact, I sometimes wonder why the NCAA even legislates Division I-A college football. The organization awards that same plank-like plaque to the champion of every sport -- except major college football. It just doesn't seem right.

Anyway, the reason the bowls were originally created (and some of this holds true today) is to draw tourists into a city to spend money at hotels, restaurants, attractions, etc., and oh by the way, there's a football game in town. It works well when the bowl is in a warm-weather city, but then again, in December and January, places like Nashville, Atlanta, Mobile and Charlotte aren't always the most comfortable. And what in the world would compel people to go to Shreveport? (Their Chamber of Commerce "come visit our city" ad during today's Independence Bowl had me rolling.)
The way the money is thrown around during bowl season (fans spend, spend, spend; and teams/conferences take the payout), it ain't going away. Even if a company were to front millions and millions of dollars for a tournament, it would be concentrated on just a few cities and teams, and it wouldn't help that many people out. Cities want the cash, fans want games to go to, sponsors want their name out there, teams want a reward for a good season plus practice time to prepare for the next season. Forget the perfect world of a playoff -- here's your reality check.

One comment that really threw me during one of the lesser bowls was that all of these games were like the first couple of days of the NCAA basketball tournament. It seems that way by sheer numbers, but it's so wrong as well. We know most of these games mean little, especially if you're not a fan of the team. Whereas there is a do-or-die feeling in all of the tournament games, and there's a feeling that the team you're watching could win it all. Then again, I guess both the flood of crappy bowls and crush of 32 games in two days are compelling if you're betting on games or in some type of pool. (Isn't that what's making football the most watched sport in the first place? Betting and fantasy leagues?)
The one thing that is very similar though is that the overload makes the national championship game almost anticlimactic. The ESPN commentators are already beating the Fiesta Bowl matchup to death, and there's a week to go. In the NCAA tournament, it all leads up to the Final Four -- that national championship game itself often seems like an afterthought.

At the movies ...
I had a post about a couple of my trips to le cinema last week, but something ate it up. Oh well. Anyway, I lucked into a free ticket The Two Towers last Wednesday, and despite missing about 25 minutes of the movie trying to find the theater (my thought -- it's a 3-hour movie, what am I really going to miss?), I really enjoyed myself, even though I'm not a Tolkien fan. It definitely was a dark film, although the battle sequences at Helms Deep were magnificent. It's a good way to keep things moving, even though it's hard to do, given it's the middle of a trilogy. The ents were cool but they often seemed superfluous (hey, we haven't seen those other hobbits in a while, let's check up on them) until that closing scene, including the quick part where the one who was on fire dunked his head into the rushing waters -- a nice touch.

Also lucked into a screening of Chicago and had a great time. It was a lot of fun and definitely over the top, although not as much as Moulin Rouge. I enjoyed the way the story proceeded as is, then put the musical numbers in a faux-vaudeville show to accentuate the action. Catherine Zeta-Jones finally was able to use her past singing and dancing skills, although the way she tries to cover up her distinctive accent can be off-putting at times. Renee Zellweger (by the way, did they cast this by reading the SAG directory backwards???) did the cutie-pie thing well and was serviceable in her singing and dancing -- she didn't embarrass herself. Richard Gere was very over the top, which worked in his favor since it really took jabs at his own celebrity. The real surprise was Queen Latifah, who showed plenty of vocal range and decent acting ability.
Tangentially related to this, it was the first time in ages I actually saw a movie with Alyson despite the fact we both watch a lot of movies. I guess schedule and geography both have a lot to do with it (there are plenty of googolplexes in the Atlanta area), plus the fact that we both like a lot of control in what we do.

Belated Christmas blogging
Finally back on this thing after a long hiatus thanks to being alternately lazy and busy. Yup, all the requisite Christmas stuff was done -- cards, presents, even getting a tree (albeit an $8 thing from CVS with its own set of ornaments). However, this Christmas was a bit strange on a number of levels:
-- For one, most of the "real" celebration won't be done until Sunday when I head up to New Jersey to visit the family. (The gifts will be waiting for me, which is fine by me.)
-- Second, other than a great dinner at Casa Groce on Christmas Eve, it very much seemed like any other week at work -- except it was extraordinarily busy because just about everybody else in the office was off, leaving just a few of us to handle a lot of stuff that didn't seem to let up even though it was Christmas. And the work isn't going to let up until I'm on that plane to Newark on Sunday afternoon.
-- Finally, despite all the different Christmas media out there, I don't think I was immersed in it as much I used to be. The fact that one of the stations down here started playing Christmas music in mid-November turned me off to most of that, even when it seemed appropriate. Plus, I think I'm struggling to find choices for a second Christmas mix CD, so I guess I've given up trying to listen to the stuff more than I have to. Also, other than the great Charlie Brown Christmas, I missed most of the TV specials, although I'm mad I didn't stay the whole way through for a couple of the Rankin-Bass specials. But so it goes.

A couple of clarifications, explanations, etc. to why certain TV questions come up:
-- There is a definite geek factor involved when it comes to stuff like Buffy, the Trek universe, Simpsons, Dr. Who (back in the day) etc. Not only are players naturally drawn to shows like that, but since we're supposedly good at retaining knowledge and asking questions accordingly, it only makes sense that there would be a nearly savant-like quality to the questions.
-- Game shows are probably asked a bit much more in relation to all the other shows out there. It makes plenty of sense, however. We're playing a game show (albeit one that isn't televised) and given our interest in knowing things and showing off our knowledge, one of the best outlets for that is screaming at the TV while shows are going on. Thus, it's a natural match to see a bunch of game show questions written.
-- Crappy shows like My Mother the Car show up because of the "trashy" factor. It also helps that TV Guide had it on its 50 Worst TV shows list. Another thing that should be taken into consideration when stuff on short-lived TV shows, one-hit wonder musical artists, etc. shows up maybe a bit more often than others is that they often have short listings in different reference books, Web sites, etc. It's easy to glean enough information to write a tossup with a gettable answer. Yes, we can be lazy, and it's easier to condense a listing in some TV or music encyclopedia than it is trying to find different sources to layer a question.

Sorry I’m good
After lots of everything going on, I guess I should finally do some looking back at last week’s Trashmasters, although I’m still waiting for Charlie to post the final numbers. I’m not surprised by my team’s 9-5 record – we lost to the top-five teams there. Those are the breaks, and it was fun if a bit stressful playing some really close games.

Oh yeah, now that K-Tel Hell has moved more into stuff I’m more familiar with, I was finally able to win the belt. I guess it was the first time that the top seed out of the written round won the audio portion. So I’m happy, although I’m surprised I ended up nearly lapping the field. I suppose one thing this proves is that I listen to a lot of “mainstream” radio, which according to many people is downright evil.

Which segues nicely into some recent posts from Victoria and Craig about the nature of trash tournaments. I got hooked into playing these tournaments after pretty much blowing through a lot of the pop culture questions at CBI and later NAQT (the latter showing that those types of questions could be written as well as the academic questions I’d played on at ACF-ish tournaments). I suppose it helps that it touched on subcategories I knew well – sports, reasonably recent pop culture (TV, movies, music). Thus when I finally got to play trash tournaments, I did very well. And since these tournaments draw the “masters” crowd, it’s a good way for me to stay connected with the circuit and have some fun.

Now it looks like with some of these discussions I feel like I should leave because I’m too successful for my own good and for the good of the growth of this circuit. I’ve even considered just being an assistant TD or writer for Trashmasters, but then I realized I’d still be writing those questions that supposedly hinder growth, so that wouldn’t do much good for some, now would it?

It looks like music is the biggest target for this talk, and it’s hard to reconcile all the different wants and needs of players since it is so broad. “Popular” doesn’t even mean the same thing to all people. If we want to go by straight numbers, we could have situations like in quizbowl where if you went by the percentages of majors, we’d have tons of business questions, which obviously isn’t the case.

For good or for bad, there are certain archetypes of personalities playing the game, and thus the questions will sorta skew that way. Hence, the reason why Weird Al is asked a bunch as well as “geek rock” (which can include Elvis Costello, TMBG, Weezer). I don’t think classic rock is asked about as much as some people think, but then again when those types of questions are asked, it’s usually about the more well-known artists (Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Rolling Stones; plus, REM and U2 are now played on classic rock stations). Rap and hip hop are definitely asked about as much as they could be, given their popularity, even among quizbowlers. I don’t know country all that well, but it’s not all that hard to write questions on that. Sometimes you have to push yourself to write questions outside your interests.

At the same time, you need to find something to hang your question on – some type of “hook” clue, whether it be a notable song (sometimes an album), a notable musician on board or some “newsy” clue. The Velvet Underground is definitely askable, if not because of the actual music they performed, but the fact that Lou Reed was part of it. Phish becomes askable because of its band members (you try to name a Phish song). Why do we ask about a one-hit wonder about Right Said Fred, for instance? Because you can dig up trailing clues on whatever but finish up with “I’m Too Sexy.” However, it takes some work to put that giveaway clue on some influential artist that doesn’t have a notable song or album. Remember, it’s not just the “popular” or “mainstream” artists that pass this test. Even Wesley Willis, not the most mainstream artist out there, has a giveaway song or two (at least to the quizbowl community) that makes him at least reasonably gettable. I’m sorry if you hate hooks, but that’s what draws people to things, good or bad.

There is definitely a whole universe of answers/topics that have yet to be covered in trash tournaments, and we should try to open ourselves to write questions covering them (as opposed to some of our pet topics, which some of the more prolific writers definitely have). That type of stuff makes more people interested in what we do. Just remember that there’s a certain point at which questions stop becoming canon-expanding and become chump stumping. In fact, Charlie’s bragging rights, especially at larger tournaments, actually has the secondary purpose of pointing out which questions were probably too hard.

I'll be doing some alumni admissions interviews again this year for Northwestern, so I do read over some of the cases regarding affirmative action and admissions with close scrutiny. Michael Kinsley emerges from wherever he's been with a solid argument against the Bakke decision and the current case at Michigan's Law School.

I had my own screams of affirmative action years ago when I thought some of my high school classmates who I thought may have been slightly less deserving than me got into some big-time colleges ahead of myself and one of my friends who was valedictorian and well-credentialed. (That's an odd thing about being Asian. We do face many obstacles of being a "minority" but we're often not considered minorities when talking about poverty/affirmative action/etc.) However, we all should wonder to ourselves whether we would've made some of those schools even if there weren't affirmative action/quotas/etc., not comparing ourselves to the quota-admitted folks. Worry about ourselves, not about others.

Besides, if colleges are trying to create a diverse campus, accepting lots of the same people with the same numbers and activities, where's the diversity? Then again, the whole college admission process is a bit goofy anyway. Something to discuss at a later time after I do the interviews.

Hey, remember this guy?

Cue Alanis???
There has to be some irony in the fact that Ads.com has shut down due to lack of funding. It's also somewhat unfortunate that the one site where people want to see ads has gone down due to lack of interest while ads we don't want to see pop up everywhere.

And unfortunately, Volkswagen has yet to put their new Beetle convertible ad, which has become a favorite of mine, on their commercials page. It's fun seeing them know that their target youth audience isn't always doing something exciting. Yes, many of the scruffy 20-somethings do have boring day jobs and a set routine of waking up, commuting, doing office work, drinking coffee, going home. It's not a glamorous life, but it's definitely functional. The peppy music that goes along with it at least gives the illusion of the corporate drone work being satisfying, that is until he sees the new car driving along -- that escape the protagonist wants but doesn't necessarily need. As usual with many ads, I wasn't too sure what the hell was being sold until the end, but I did enjoy the fact that there was an accurate depiction of what many young people are actually doing (as opposed to the "extreme" world that's being sold out there).

Holiday at the movies
While the latest Harry Potter movie waits to be watched, I ended up catching a couple of movies the past couple of days while on vacation.

I really enjoyed 8 Mile, even if it's nowhere close to Curtis Hanson's best stuff. Eminem was solid, even if he's pretty much playing himself. At least it's a start and at least it's not this classic. The story was decent, if cliched, and I guess I enjoyed the music more than I thought. Although someone mentioned that it was odd hearing more mainstream tunes at times in the background ("Insane in the Brain," "This is How We Do It") as opposed to more hardcore/underground/etc. rap.
Oh yeah, it still baffles me that Brittany Murphy (who was raised in my hometown of all things) is the same actress in Clueless.

With my dad being a big James Bond fan, it was only fitting that I saw Die Another Day with him. If you like Bond films and all of its conventions (lots of stuff blowing up, cool gadgets, two-dimensional villains, good looking women, funny but cliched jokes), you won't be disappointed. If you're looking for breakthroughs in filmmaking, you're going to the wrong movie. Halle Berry looked amazing, and thankfully was actually integral to the plot. However, there wasn't as much hubbub about Rosamund Pike, who actually played a young, attractive British agent. Then again, she wasn't playing a typical Bond girl role (nor the greatest miscast in film history -- Denise Richards as Dr. Christmas Jones).