Posts by Evin Demirel

I’m sure all of you have heard about Joe’s ungodly lucrative contract by now.
What interests me is that the Yahoo story that broke it generated over 1700 comments in a couple of days. It now has nearly 1900 comments!

I never imagined someone as low-key as Joe would generate such a reaction despite occasional fireworks such as this.
So many of the comments focus on what a ridiculous contract this is for someone who kind of choked in the second round of the playoffs last season, and is really good, but not at the Wade-Bryant-James level.
That’s a fair criticism, though Joe is also one of the few players who can claim to have led his team to more wins in each of five consecutive seasons while never getting into trouble off the court… I think that kind of consistency leading into this season’s playoffs built up a reserve a goodwill with the Atlanta franchise that 5 or 6 bad subpar games weren’t enough to erode.

But there’s another stream of vitriol running through the comments: the absurdity of professional athletes being paid tens of millions per season for playing games. I think the recession has only stirred the cauldron for those who see seemingly more dollars and media attention going to “pampered” athletes while the middle-class wages relative to cost-of-living have dwindled through the last few decades.

With the increasing chatter about this free-agent class in the preceding weeks, I believe a reserve of animosity was welling up in some of the general (internet-using) public, and news of Joe’s megadeal broke the dam. Unfortunately, Arkansas’ finest was the first to face the torrent.

Amid all the talk about the insane money being thrown around, the Boston Globe ran an interesting piece about a former NBA champion who’s now living out of his car. This player, Ray Williams, says he believes that players such as Joe Johnson should be sharing their new-found wealth with him since he helped blaze the golden trail upon which their Air Jordans tread.
Based on the majority of the 200+ comments, though, I’m not sure if Williams will get any help.

I heard about these lil’ guys on NPR today. They are led by a 15-year old Californian whose parents wrote a book called “How to Raise a G-Rated family.” What he’s started is a fire of foregoing foulmouthedness akin to the flames which occasionally sweep into his periphery of his Pasadena neighborhood.

Kid’s now writing a book about it all.

As you can well imagine, he’s been cursed out quite a bit since beginning all this - by phone, email, physical face, you name it. NPR even played a harrowing death threat. But he’s “ain’t fazed” by all that bullying, he told Jay Leno. He just keeps on a-flippity-flappin’ those arms and rapping his message home.

If you look at the facebook page of the rap video below, notice how all comments have been disabled.
I’d imagine no less than 150,000 would have written something disparaging about the piece by now.

Don\'t CUSS!!!!

Steve Nash doing some crazy Matrix shit.

I can’t take credit for this. The good folks at Interbasket came up with it.

So I was traveling down some seriously tangential path on Rhapsody tonight and stumbled upon the “laptronica” genre of music. Intrigued, I checked out the number #1 band for this particular subset of electronic music and was pleased to disccover a Swedish band called “The Knife”. It’s a brother/sister duo known to be really, really reclusive. Like THEY-ARE-NEVER-PHOTOGRAPHED-WITHOUT-MASKS-ON reclusive. And these aren’t your everyday run-of-the-mill masks either. They’re like that freaky shit seen on “Eyes Wild Shut” — peacocks and ermines and stuff. I love this stuff. I love the fact that people can be this ridiculously quirky and get away with it. It probably adds to their appeal (this entry would be case in point). It helps that they’re from frozen, weird Scandinavia. A couple of guys from Mississippi or east Texas who decided to perform only with masks on would probably get their mailboxes bashed in and goldfish abducted.

They’re not too bad, though. I recommend “Heartbeats” to brave ears.

Look at these people –

What do you think they say to each other when the photo shoot is over and they go back to their apartment in Helsinki? Here’s my take:

Dude on left: Well, Olga, we got them again. They really think we’re the weirdo creme de le creme. (soft chuckling while flipping through the phone book) Hey, do you feel like pepperoni or sausage tonight?

Chick on right: Pepperoni, Leif. (checking voice mail on cell phone) Hey, did mom call you too? Evidentally, the cat got out again and we wants us to come over AGAIN….

Dude, evidentally named Leif, on left: (long exhale) Yeah, whatev.

These roads are unreal — unREALLY dangerous. Actually, they are really dangerous — I vote for #1, the “Road of Death”, as being the scariest-looking.

For some reason when I saw this, the first thing I thought about was Zac laughing….

Here’s a quick snippet about Scot Pollard — a quirky NBA player to be sure — looking into the camera after a game and saying “Hey kids, do drugs.”

The league was not amused.

But I was.

I would like to come to Fayetteville and meet up with some of ya’ll over the break. I think it should be good (and possibly wholesome) fun. Z-Linds said that he’s up in thar from the 22nd - 28th. Will anybody else be in town in that period? We could have a small party or just go to play mini-golf and go to Taco Bell. Doesn’t matter to me…..

My friend emailed me this and it unsettled me mightily. I knew America was falling behind in math and science, but I didn’t know it was this bad. I am considering moving my kids to China once they are of math-learning age (in my book, from ages 7-16). Here’s his commentary on it….

It offended my mathematical sensitivities something awful. It is long, I recommend working while letting it play in the background. The main point is that grown people with management level jobs don’t know there is a difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents. They even say it is obvious there is a difference between 1 dollar and 1 cent and .5 dollars and .5 cents, but then say they don’t see the difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents. This was funny and sad and gut wrenching to listen to. I’m guessing ya’ll may have seen this before, but if not, enjoy.

There is a transcript on that page that would read a lot faster than it takes to listen to this, but I don’t know if it is as frustrating if you just read it. In the end I’d rather have paid $70 dollars than go through this conversation. There are other updates on that website about how Verizon is still messing this rate thing up.

I gotta believe this is.

I received this fine piece of work from a distant friend who I don’t think was kidding when she sent it. It’s incredible. How could anybody believe it? “Lou’s” parting line is magnificent.

Subject: pin # reversal

Keep on keepin’ on
Lou

As my title will have you believe, this has to be the hippiest-ass idea I’ve ever seen.

And yet, stylistically (musically), I’m getting some serious “long night in Rio” vibes.

Still, who can argue that this is a pretty sweetastic idea. Who’s in?

I was listening to NPR on the way home today and I was struck by this beautiful little song by Tom Waits. His voice is so remininiscent of Louis Armstrong’s that it’s downright scary.

From Pitchfork (I have outsourced my thinking about this song to them. I just enjoy.):

The anthem of Winter 2006 has surfaced early. A year early, if you note that it, Tom Waits’ “You Can Never Hold Back Spring”, was originally written for Roberto Benigni’s 2005 French film La Tigre e la Neve (The Tiger and the Snow).

Those planning on spending the cold months ahead bathrobed, drinking hard cider next to the fire, and dreaming of seasons to come will have a hard time digging up a track more appropriate than this one.

Here’s your quote for the day, ya hippies –

My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move
people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to
the library. -Peter Golkin, museum spokesman (1966- )

I am.

Here’s the first salvo in what I anticipate to be a full season’s worth of fantastical trash-talking the likes which have never been conceived or realized before and quite possibly may never be executed again….

Alright guys and gals (who care), let me first say that I am feeling nearly ecstatic about my team. I didn’t feel like I wasted any picks. I feel like I drafted everybody where they should have been drafted and didn’t get anybody too early (with the exceptions of Collison and Milicic). I feel I’ve done a lot better job than last year, when I drafted big man duds Chander, Curry, and Stro Swift. I also got Maggette last year, who didn’t play most of the year and when he did, wasn’t all that. Now that I think about it, the draft was a big reason why I lost the thing at the end b/c while I made wily waiver pickups, I didn’t have enough intitial big-man firepower to topple Ninja Man.

This year, though, I feel I have some super quality big men in Randolph, Yao, Boozer, and Diaw. Randolph has been reaming people in preseason and is a definite 20/10 type performer (he was a couple of years ago). I also have potential sleepers in Collison, Wilcox, and Milicic. R. Swift is injured for the year so Collison/Wilcox will get plenty o’ burn for the Sonics. Wilcox hasn’t gotten out of the gates very quickly, but I remember him being a super waiver pickup for me last year with something around 15 ppg and 9rpg with great %’s when he was with Seattle. I’m planning on one and maybe two of my big men getting injured so hopefully I’ll have enough performers to absorb that.

I’m admittedly thin at shooting guard and small forward but I have Ray Allen, Shawn Marion, and Peja Stojakovic there. My other SF is Mr. Sharp Face from the Bay area. Crazy Don Nelson will run much of the O through Mike Dunleavy as point forward this year, so he’s a possible sleeper and then there’s Kevin Martin from Sac-Town who was a pleasant surprise for me off the waivers last year. They got rid of Bonzi Wells to open up playing time for the guy. He’s a very efficient player and quietly puts up fantasy points — another possible sleeper.

I’m loving my PGs — Mike Bibby should be solid again this year, and reports out of Utah have Deron Williams becoming a big-time PG who could be a surprise star this year ala Boris Diaw or David West from 05-06. Providing depth I have a couple of semi-projects in, firstly, Mo Williams, who devastated last year in small amounts of time. Milwaukee moved TJ Ford to open up the position for him. He has gotten injured every year of his career and I anticipate injury again this year. Finally, Marcus Williams — heir apparent to Jason Kidd — this Kid has been killing in summer league and preseason and looks to be a stud. He’ll be backing Kidd up but should get burn b/c they want to rest the hall of famer for the postseason. Plus, Kidd could always get injured and then he becomes a major steal.

Overall, I am pleased with every one of the choices. I anticipate a couple of duds/injuries in my PGs and big men but no more than that. I should be able to absorb up to 2. If Dunleavy is able to have his best season, and Peja nearly regains his form of a couple of years ago, it’s over.

Let the trash talking begin! Who thinks they have the stuff to topppppple me?

I will make no bones about it — TV on the Radio is now one of my favorite bands in the history of the world. Why? Because their music is outrageously sweet. Listen to their song “Wolf Like Me” on their myspace page. It’s everything dark, brooding, melodic, and slightly phantasmagorical rock should be. They came to Dallas two weeks ago but unfortunately I could find nobody to go with : (

To see them in action live, check this video out. They’re playing “Dreams” with Trent Reznor and the lead singer from Bauhaus (whose rock-star stylings are a trip to watch). When the camera pans over to show the audience, you will be entertained : )

I got this speech video from a fellow teacher on a web group that I’m on and was very impressed with this guy’s views on the current state of public education in America (and, really, the first world). He’s a great speaker and pretty funny too. If you care about education and the future, then this is a must see. I agree with him — fortunately, a lot of modern teaching techniques involve teaching to the various intelligences — not just logical/analytical/verbal — and I am trying to incorporate Total Physical Response (TPR)-type activities into my Latin classes.

As a side note, speeches like this evidentally happen all the time at this “meeting of the world’s top minds” called TED that occurs every year in Monterey, CA. I need to figure out a way to crash this party.

Guys,

I know when you click on this link and see the gender and age of the members of this band, you’re going to think me a mighty big wussy. I can understand that. But listen to their song — “Find a Way”. So poppy, so catchy — when I first heard (randomly — I just downloaded a bunch of modern indie songs) them, I would have sworn they were adults. Such a mature sound for their age. Give ‘em a shot. They’ve already toured with Death Cab for Cutie and Pearl Jam!

The bell has rung and the US has fallen to Greece. Strangely, I am not as devasted as when we lost to Argentina in ‘04. I am slowly adapting to a new world order in which American teams (even with NBA talent) are not the best. I still believe America has the deepest and overall best talent in the world, but that has not translated into international tournament championships the last few years. Greece is the first team that has knocked out the US without current NBA players on its team (though Fotsis has played before and Spanoulis will play with the Rockets next year). They were, however, the European champions last year, which goes to show how advanced the best Euro teams now are compared to NBA teams. Even winning a bronze will be a tough order for the US — beating Spain or Argentina will be no easy task. I think there are a few main reasons that teams like Greece, Spain, and Argentina currently have a leg up on us in the Olympics and Worlds –

1) Their players have played together for much longer (I think Argentina is nearing 10 years) from the junior teams on up. Not only that, but there are no restrictions on practice time overseas, meaning whereas US college players are limited to 20 hours a week, the Europeans can practice twice that much if need be. This results in beautiful team chemistry, both defensively and especially offensively. The US simply lacked the defensive cohesiveness and a defensive philosophy to which they commited when dealing with the wrinkles Greece’s offense threw at them again and again — especially pick and rolls from the top of the key.

2) FIBA rules — it’s a different game than the NBA. The ball is slightly smaller. Periods are shorter. Less fouls. Fewer complete sentences. Goaltending allowed. Zones allowed. Shorter three point line. American NBA players have to adapt to these rules whereas foreign players grew up playing by them and there is little if no adjustment time.

I think the US is off to a great start in rebuilding its national program. Now that we have a 3-year commitment from players and coaches, the cohesion should be much better over the next two summers (though there will be some different players chosen, and Kobe will be on the team, which could take a little away from that elusive flowing harmony). They have to develop ways of dealing with the sophisticated offensive gameplans of these finely tuned and seasoned top flight national teams. Most importantly, a more team-oriented half-court offense needs to be thorougly practiced and implemented in game-time situations. This, however, plays against what makes the US team so strong in the first place — stellar individual talent and one-on-one ability (it’s the basketball culture our best were raised in).

Even with improvements, I’m not so sure that we’ll win gold at the Olympics. We’ll be vying, but I can still see the same problems that hurt this team against Greece coming back to bite us. Regardless, I have never been more excited about the state of basketball. Forget nationalities. The standard of play has never been higher, and the increasing parity worldwide should only help push and elevate the game to greater and greater heights. Sure, I want the US to win every time, but I’d rather see great basketball than us trouncing everybody last with the Dream Teams. I’ve never been more excited about a all-foreign game than the upcoming Spain-Argentina semifinal….

PS — Hats off to the Greeks for playing the game of their lives — they shot tremendously well, made their fourth-quarter FTs, and executed with surgical precision. At least US basketball is still respected enough to receive the best from its opponents every time.

Like the crazed, international basketall-thirsty fan that I am, I am watching the early morning US-Greece World Championships semifinal (though I may have mild food poisoning), and it is not pretty. We’re down by 14 with 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Our lack of offensive team cohesiveness (especially in half-court offense) and a gameplan to deal with the Greeks’ incessant pick-and-rolling (not to mention our atrocious free throw shooting) is killing us. It looks like we may lose this, and worse yet, doesn’t bode well for us were we to play Spain/Argentina. Sigh…..

On a better note, I’m going to Fayetteville this weekend! Hopefully, I’ll make it up Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon. It’s been a long while, so I’m definitely looking forward to good times.

Peering deep into the multi-page recesses of the apps that google provides to be attached to your google homepage, I came across a hilarious one that purports to show the percent of voting people who currently believe Google to be evil. How evil can Google be by including this in their own content? I love it.

I know Murder has already done the Flickr thing and all of you of course know about it, but I just bought the yearly subscription for all the fancy features and unlimited storage space and am in love with the potential of it all. Finally, a way that I can document, catalogue, and organize my whole life for the world to see (but in a classy old European way, with stills instead bourgeois grainy web-camming)! I have posted my new photos from my trip out to the hottest-hell place on earth Fresno to visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins for the first time in their natural habitat. I also have photos from Andy Wehrman’s wedding and my 25th birthday party.

It’s 547 X better than Yahoo because 1) I can write descriptions 2) No more duplications 3) You can choose different sizes for the pictures you want to view 4) easy downloading feature for those pictures you want to see –

Go to this page

Disregard the “photostream” you see to your left when you first arrive at the site — it’s confusing and has no reason or rhyme. Click on the “Fresno Pics” set on the right and browse those thumbnails

The pics begin with Andy’s wedding, go to my party, then on to Fresno land. Click on some of the photos (especially the first 20 or so and you may come upon a funny caption!).