Linkworthy

Free Flow Dates: The Dew Tour’s amateur brother gets a winter sister. (And yes both disciplines includes skiing.) Gatorade put up the cash for the title sponsorship so I guess we can say that they are living up to the initial commitment they made by signing a few action sports young guns and heavy hitters last year. If only Reebok had the same cojones a few years ago there might have been an influx of investment from shoe companies as Nike amped up its profile.

Yankees vs. Depression: The apparently sad stakes of what rides on this years Fall Classic.

1st Lesbian Sports Team Owner: Now when will athlete come out? (Sorry John Amaechi but former athletes don't count)

To Charge or Not To Charge: Farhad Manjoo debunks battery myths.

Speaking of Farhad, libertarian paternalist Cass Sunstein is tackling modern disinformation as I wait for the “True Enough” paper back to come out. A trip to the library may be necessary as these two books would be an interesting simultaneous read. This New Yorker piece, which I saw on Murketing, delves into the Right Wing’s abuses of disinformation and makes Farhad look like a seer for an article he wrote around the time Obama’s Fight the Smears campaign got rolling. Despite her partisan tone, Elizabeth Kolbert offers a money quote that speaks volumes on the current state of political identity.

In an interesting twist on group polarization, some liberal bloggers, who had initially not been keen on Sunstein’s nomination, decided at this point that it must be O.K.; as one of them put it, 'If Glenn Beck and the other loons are against him, how bad could he be?'"

Do we need another Paul Shirley? Maybe so, maybe no. But if I was forced at gunpoint to read about life in Hungarian Pro Basketball Luke Bonner would be my preferred author.

Some Perspective for Human Hubris

I have an extreme amount of faith in humanity. We have made it this far in time, built magnificent societies, and amassed a wealth of knowledge. Despite the specters of population growth, global warming, and environmental degradation, I am encouraged to believe that we will be able to meet whatever is around the corner. And there will always be something.

In spite of this human hubris I am always fascinated by how little we really do know at this point in time. With all that we have discovered and built, there is so much to life that just does not make sense. In this TED talk John Lloyd explains that so much of what we take for granted as facts and science are actually invisible. It is simultaneously humbling and inspiring. Enjoy!



Seen via The Browser which is a most excellent aggregator.

Linkworthy

Wes Anderson and stop animation were meant for one another

A Lottery with no losers

Cobra Kicks (via uniwatch)

The Coen brothers get in touch with their Jewish roots (via kottke)

And last but certainly not least, Andrew Leonard declares victory over the recession

Futuretech: Sixth Sense

If the future is coming it’s probably coming from M.I.T. In this TED talk Pattie Maes reveals one of the newest developments from the institute’s Media Lab. The applications appear to be rough but no less fascinating. There are a number of questions to pose about this technology but the first that comes to my mind is this:

Would this hardware be less or more queer to wear than a Bluetooth headset?

Style might be the least of our concerns though because as Maes mentions at the end of the talk “Who knows maybe in another ten years we will be here with the Sixth Sense brain implant.” I don’t want to overreact to a light-hearted closing quip, but imagine the implications! If you thought Paris Hilton’s cell phone hack was bad what about when President Jonathan Krohn brings the first SixthSense (copyright: Research In Motion) brain implant to the white house. Manchurian Candidate here we come.

Dew Dates

The Winter Dew Tour dates were announced today in what amounts to a coup for the East Coast. The tour kicks of at Breck in December before heading to Snowbasin and then Mount Snow. The Mount Snow stop will have increased scrutiny this year, as it is the last major snowboard half-pipe event before the Vancouver Olympics and the Dew Cup will be on the line. Let the hype begin.

The complete 2009-10 Winter Dew Tour schedule is as follows:

Dec. 18-20 Breckenridge Ski Resort – Breckenridge,
Jan. 15-17 Snowbasin Resort – Huntsville, Utah
Feb. 5-7 Mount Snow Resort – West Dover, Vt.

Rendering Authenticity

Joseph Pine speaks about authenticity in marketing in this TED talk. One interesting concept that he brings up is that products can be classified as Real Fakes and Fake Reals. Real Fakes are what they say they are but are not true to themselves. Fake Reals are true to themselves but are not what they say they are. The examples Pine uses are Universal City Walk as a Real Fake and Disneyland as a Fake Real.

This concept made me think about how it applies to music. Chuck Klosterman has an article in Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs called Toby over Moby where he essentially argues that modern country music is so successful because it is more authentic to the general American experience than alt-country, Bob Dylan, or Moby.

At first this made me angry. I like Steve Earle and Uncle Tupelo but I don’t make $52,000 or drive a Saab. I feel like I’m having a genuine middle class American experience but I didn’t run out and get the new Dierks Bentley album. I did get the new Felice Brothers album. Am I really that out of touch? Does that make me a music snob?

The more I listened to my music the more it bugged me how right Klosterman was. As much as I love the Felice Brothers, their tunes of murder, love, and drinking reek of a bygone era. One of my favorite Old Crow Medicine Show songs, James River Blues, is a tale of outsourcing circa 1840. The narrator is a ferry boat navigator lamenting the new train bridge that has taken his job. It strikes a cord if you’ve lost your job to some virtual assistant in Bangalore, but really how much can you relate?

Modern Country, for all it’s overproduced twang, is obviously a product of our times. Brad Paisley’s song Celebrity pokes fun at reality shows like American Idol and Fear Factor while maintaining the country sound. In the parlance of Joseph Pine it is a Real Real. It is what it says it is and it is true to itself.

Alt-Country however is largely a Real Fake. It is Country Music, but the lyrics are all about the past. Obviously this doesn’t apply in every condition. Steve Earle’s Copperhead Road and John Walker’s Blues had timely themes. In fact the themes of those two were so timely when they came out that now they seem dated. Despite the Steve Earle anomaly, I think Pine’s approach to authenticity supports Klosterman’s argument about the value of Modern Country. It sells better because more people identify with it as as authentic. Alt-Country, for all it’s rousing accordion solos and down home grit, suffers from an envy for times gone by. So does that make me an elitist music snob? Ya, probably, but authentic or not, it still makes me want to dance.

The Firing Line

Say what you want about hipsters and American Apparel but Vice magazine’s web counterpart VBS.tv is pumping out a plethora of quality content. Series such as Epicly Later’d, Inside Afghanistan and the previously posted Vice Guide to North Korea are prime examples of the site’s approach to web programming.

Spike Jonze, of music video and Jackass fame is the site’s creative director. His influence can be seen in the sites visually comfortable layout. The backdrop looks like something from a hipster flat, a white brick wall with bookcases strewn with film cameras, CDs, and records. Advertising banners are perched on the bookshelf or plastered up on the wall like posters. The sites video is framed in the middle of the layout to look as if it is playing on a wall mounted flat screen TV. This setup is aesthetically pleasing because it creates a vibe that feels less like the Internet and more like real life. You are still staring at pixels but the atmosphere created by the home decor is much more comfortable than what surrounds the Youtube screen.

The following episode of Americana is one of the most interesting produced by the site. It offers a peak into gun culture through the lens of a New York shooting range called the Firing Line.



I personally found the conversation with Peter Stechler and his young grandson Tommy the most interesting. Tommy, who appears to be about eight or ten years old, mentions that he shot an uzi. In the wake of the accidental death of and eight year old who shot an uzi at a Westfield, MA gun show last October this was alarming.

Tommy and Peter also show the difficulty of passing on safe gun ethics with the following exchange:

Interviewer:What do you like best about shooting?

Tommy: Well, I’m not a black belt yet and I need to defend myself with a gun.

Peter: (Reservedly interrupting) No, you can’t do that.

Tommy: I’m just kidding, but still, its just its fun.

Updates: Gatorade and Co-Housing

After Gatorade jumped into the action sports realm last January by inking Chaz Ortiz and a slew of others to endorsement deals I was curious about how deep their commitment would be. They are playing the part well, signing on as title sponsor of the Free Flow Tour, the Dew Tour’s amateur series. They will also be the title sponsor for the Winter Free Flow Tour which launches next season. Details are not tied down yet but a Transworld Business interview with Alli Sports marketing director BJ Carretta revealed the following:

We’re going to have some East Coast events, one or two Midwest, Rockies, and then West Coast. Then the finals will happen at the Toyota Challenge at Northstar-at-Tahoe. The overall winner gets placement into the next year’s Winter Dew tour.

From the same interview Carretta says “It will be all the same disciplines as the Dew Tour.” No word on whether that means just slopestyle and halfpipe for snowboarding or if that includes skiing.

In other news this NYT piece on co-housing reminded me of earlier posts on Communist fashion and the evolution of American living arrangements. Housing cooperatives, communities where participants have individual homes but share common facilities and services, are garnering increasing interest in with the slumping economy. As we slip further from the Cold War it seems Americans are becoming less averse to practices formerly seen as Communist.

“For a long time we’d always be referred to as ‘communes for the ’90s’ or ‘the new commune,’ ” said Mr. Ragland of the Cohousing Association. “But increasingly people are seeing that it’s really just a new type of neighborhood.”

The similarly community minded Zipcar service, which offers members car rental on demand is making buzz with its new iPhone app. From Farhad Manjoo:

When you need wheels, load up the program to find available cars displayed on a map around you. You can pick a car you like and reserve it right from the phone. That's when the real fun begins. As you approach the Zipcar lot, you find two buttons on your phone: honk and unlock. Yes, your iPhone can now double as your car keys. (I guess that means if you lose it, you're doubly screwed.)

Who knows if America can get over its Communist stigma but it appears that some are increasingly open to collaborative functions.

Maybe Next Year Coach

Yesterday the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced the members of its fiftieth enshrinement class. It is not one to sniff at, as the lineup includes His Airness, The Admiral, Captain Short Shorts, the legendary yet titleless Jerry Sloan, and Rutgers women’s coach C. Vivian Stringer. As a resident of the Pioneer Valley, I am glad that these five people will find a link to eternity in Springfield come September.

I am not surprised by the names on the 2009 enshrinement list but by one that was left off of it. Bob Hurley, the coach of St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, New Jersey was overlooked once again in the consideration for enshrinement. A high school coach? Seriously? This is what’s grinding my gears?

Though it may surprise you, there are already three high school coaches in the Hoop Hall. Most notably DeMatha Catholic of Marlyand’s Morgan Wootten who coached for 45 years and won 1,274 games. Bob Hurley is not far behind with over 900 wins and 23 state titles all garnered in one of America’s most tumultuous urban climes.

Despite innumerable offers to jump to the lucrative world of college coaching Hurley has kept a steadfast commitment to St. Anthony and the community it serves. The money he gathers through his many clinics and lectures is all funneled back into the school.

I recently finished reading Adrian Wojnarowski’s The Miracle of St. Anthony, which covers the season he spent with the team in 2003-2004. The book is A Season on the Brink meets Friday Night Lights, yet more timely and relevant than either of those titles. I actually picked it up in the Salvation Army knowing only that St. Anthony was a high school hoops dynasty and that Bob Hurley was the father of the former Duke point guard Bobby Hurley. The book was a pleasant surprise and a must read for any hoops fan.

CBS Sunday Morning recently did a profile of Hurley and St. Anthony, which I have posted below. Even if he doesn’t make the hall for another ten years, it is reassuring to know that in a world where sport is often commercialized beyond recognition, there are men like Bob Hurley.

Watch CBS Videos Online

The League of Extraordinarily Affordable Tee Shirts

Ten Bills is one of the best shopping sites on the web because it offers tee shirts with original artwork for only ten dollars. Each week the site releases a new tee. This week's tee the League of Extraordinary Lovers is posted above. As much as I love the clothing at mooseshirts and No Mas there is no chance of finding anything on those sites as affordable as ten bills.

Also: 30GB Ipod video on woot for $99.99!

Kim Jong Il: "Stop Filming My Country"

After reading that the two American journalists who were detained in North Korea on Tuesday have yet to be released, I wanted to post this vbs.tv series The Vice Guide to North Korea. Having grown up in the U.S. it is surreal to consider experiencing the structure and suppression that is evidently present in North Korea. This series is the best insider’s account of North Korea that I have seen.

The journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were detained after straying into North Korea across the Chinese border on a shallow portion of the Tumen River, which is often frozen into April. Two male counterparts reportedly escaped back to China and are being held there.

One can’t help but empathize with the people of North Korea and anyone else in their custody after viewing these clips. It is evident that the North Korean officials are very sensitive to how journalists portray their country. After the posting of this series I cannot imagine that they have warmed much to the notion of Free Press. All of the episodes are enlightening but perhaps the most amusing is episode 14, in which our guide belts out a karaoke rendition of the Sex Pistols Anarchy in the U.K. to a room of stunned handlers. It seemed downright ridiculous that this tune made it into a karaoke set of North Korean anthems but maybe it was just a case of reverse Engrish Funny lost in translation.

The Wisdom in Routines

“Be regular and orderly in your life, like a good bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.''-Flaubert

As someone who is on an unending quest for greater personal efficiency the site Daily Routines has been an oasis in the desert of self-improvement sites on the net. Daily Routines posts little nuggets of info on the habits of successful people such as Barack Obama, Roald Dahl, and Charles Darwin. With this wealth of information all packed together on one site I decided to do a little number crunching to find out what an average day in the life of a genius might look like.

I tallied the available info on when these geniuses woke, began working, and went to sleep. I also recorded the hours each day that the subjects devoted to work and reading. Not all data points were available for each subject so this is far from being scientific or conclusive. Nevertheless, I figured that this would offer some insight on what makes these people special. The results are not particularly surprising because they lend credence to Ben Franklin’s proverb “Early to bed, Early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

A typical day in for these geniuses began by waking at 6:26 am. By 8:14 am the work-day began. Work lasted an average of just over seven hours but was often broken up by a long lunch. This supports the theories behind the slow food movement. The ideal subject was in bed by 10:09.

The average time spent reading was 5.75 hours a day but this number was skewed by Joseph Campbell’s practice of reading twelve hours a day when he was jobless during the Great Depression.

The Origins of Corporate Imagery

While snooping around instantshift I came across this new template, which I am hoping to tweak a little to my own preferences.

Among the many other interesting items on that site is a post on the evolution of brand logos. Of particular note are Apple’s wood engraving Newton logo, Volkswagen’s swaztikaesque logo, and BMW’s Bauhaus logo of the 70’s and 80’s. From the sample here it appears that logos are getting simpler (Apple, Shell, Nike, IBM, Canon, Pepsi) and making more prominent use of shading (Apple, Xerox, BMW, Google, VW, Firefox, Ford, Mercedes).

I like the shift towards simplicity but the shading is more difficult to swallow. In most cases shading a two dimensional logo just makes it appear like a cheaper version of something that is meant to exist in 3D. The current Apple, Google, and Firefox logos seem to work in spite of this. Perhaps their virtual presence creates a sense that their shaded logos are more real in print or on screen as opposed to the car companies whose products have a more physical existence. Mercedes gets a reprieve of judgment on this matter as they began shading their logo back in 1909.

The Circus Comes to Salt Lake

Traveling Circus - Episode 5 - Vegas to SLC from Line Skis on Vimeo.

Episode 5 of Traveling Circus is live and a must see. Check out what Will and Andy bring to SLC's famed rail garden.

Monster Thrash

On Monday the United States of America Snowboard Association (USASA) and Monster Energy announced a multi-year deal that will make Monster the official energy drink of the amateur organization. This is a great move for Monster because it builds credibility with the young athletes who are key influencers in the board sport culture. From the press release:

The 2009 USASA Nationals will be held at Copper Mountain, CO on April 6th-10th.The attendance expected to be over 1600 competitors and 10,000 spectators. In addition, the USASA Regional's season begins in November 2009 at 33 regions , and over 100 resorts and 500 events throughout the US.

This sponsorship highlights the differences in marketing between Monster and their rival Red Bull. And yes, it is now a rivalry. The Bull currently bests Monster’s market share by only 7% as opposed to 28% at the end of 2006. Red Bull’s approach is decidedly alternative in that it favors title sponsoring innovative events such as the Snow Scrapers, Buttercup Series, and the Cold Rush. They are the victims of their own hipness because this method gives them loads of street cred but it forsakes straight-ahead grassroots opportunities such as the USASA sponsorship. As time passes the proof will be in the profits but I think this is a large score for Monster.

Renting A Dream

Richard Florida writing at the Atlantic offers up an informed and well-developed outlook on how the United States will respond to the current economic contraction. It is a fascinating read and likely more grounded than similar analysis offered by James Kunstler. He poses that creative urban areas benefit from a spillover of innovation that will lead them to be the central locations in the new American epoch.

Big, talent-attracting places benefit from accelerated rates of “urban metabolism,” according to a pioneering theory of urban evolution developed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers affiliated with the SantaFe Institute. The rate at which living things convert food into energy—their metabolic rate—tends to slow as organisms increase in size. But when the Santa Fe team examined trends in innovation, patent activity, wages, and GDP, they found that successful cities, unlike biological organisms, actually get faster as they grow. In order to grow bigger and overcome diseconomies of scale like congestion and rising housing and business costs, cities must become more efficient, innovative, and productive. The researchers dubbed the extraordinarily rapid metabolic rate that successful cities are able to achieve “super-linear” scaling. “By almost any measure,” they wrote, “the larger a city’s population, the greater the innovation and wealth creation per person.” Places like New York with finance and media, Los Angeles with film and music, and Silicon Valley with hightech are all examples of high-metabolism places.

Florida also suggests that the government is supporting the ideal of home ownership to the detriment of society and suggests some incentives create a more mobile workforce.

If anything, our government policies should encourage renting, not buying. Homeownership occupies a central place in the American Dream primarily because decades of policy have put it there. A recent study by Grace Wong, an economist at the Wharton School of Business, shows that, controlling for income and demographics, homeowners are no happier than renters, nor do they report lower levels of stress or higher levels of self-esteem.

I am curious how strong generation-xyz holds on to the dream of home ownership. It’s understandable how the greatest generation put owning a home on such a pedestal. In the red fearing aftermath of WWII nothing could have been less Communist than being the king of your own castle. The communes of the 1970’s tried to create a new model for living but they were just a flash in the pan. Now that we are almost thirty years removed from those ventures the modern generation may be more open to alternative and semi-communal living arrangements. Over the next thirty years condominiums, credit unions, farm shares and zip rides could all hold a much more prominent place in American life.

Who seddit?

As an avid reader of the Freakonomics blog I often glean over the posts of Fred Shapiro. He is the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations and often blegs readers for the relevant language of the 21st century.

I have always had an interest in quotes because they offer, theoretically, profound knowledge boiled down to simple language. In the grapevine of their growth quotes can get as maligned as the message in a childhood game of telephone. Even if the structure of a quote is held intact it can be attributed to someone who never uttered it, or to someone who is not the originator of the quote's essence.

Shapiro is the Sherlock Holmes of quotations and has begun taking on charges from readers. On Thursday he put a shock to my world as I learned that one of my favorite Winston Churchill quotes can actually be traced to earlier origins. For the sake of style I will repeat it in my preferred form and then provide Shapiro's insight.

"Any young man who is a conservative is without a heart, any old man who is a liberal is without a brain."

One of the pleasures of compiling The Yale Book of Quotations was tracing and cross-referencing different versions and precursors of famous quotes. This one is usually credited to Georges Clemenceau, but W. Gurney Benham’s Book of Quotations cites French premier and historian Francois Guizot (1787 to 1874), translating his statement as “Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head.” Benham asserts that “Clemenceau adopted this saying, substituting socialiste for republicain.”

But I was delighted to find that John Adams had expressed a similar idea well before Guizot entered adulthood. Thomas Jefferson preserved this quip, writing in a 1799 journal that Adams had said: “A boy of 15 who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at 20.”

Let No Good Art Go Unlitigated

Shepard Fairey is feeling heat from the Associated Press on the eve of his exhibit at Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. Is this truly copyright infringement? Does it have any effect on the original image? Does anybody care? Boing Boing offers the video posted above along with the following nuggets from photographer and Fairey collaborator Glen E. Friedman:

#1 the shot is literally a dime a dozen shot, absolutely nothing special about it, Shepard made it special, in fact the un-cropped original i’ll attach here, as you can see was more important before he cropped it for his art. (george clooney made it special)!

#2 he actually donated every penny he made from it back into the campaign to get Obama elected. Unfortunately all the after market sales of his posters he has no control over, and the people who bootlegged his stuff and sold it of course he has no control over. and when he first created it it was mainly a wheat paste poster made to go around the country before super tuesday, it got viral after that. at which point he probably just should have approached AP for rights which he probably could have gotten pretty cheaply for this use, just to be 100%. but so goes the life of a graffiti/street artist. one is in The Smithsonian now.

#3 if Shepard did profit from the use other than the obvious gain we all receive by not having a total piece of shit head of state, i as the photographer would certainly be concerned, but when an image is used for charity or something other than straight merchandise that helps a "cause" not just someone's bank account, I’d be cool with that. But make merch of an already iconic image, and profit on it, or attach your brand to it? without release from the image maker or the subject? and indeed i will make sure you get dragged through hell if i can help it.

The Long Emergency in the Short Term

Yesterday I came across this TED talk by James Kunstler and it struck up a memory of a Freakonomics quorum on the future of the suburbs. Kunstler, the Lewis Black of urban design, can be depressingly pessimistic but I am sympathetic with much of his analysis. His 2009 outlook is so dire he makes Nouriel Roubini look like Ben Stein.

I have always had a hard time understanding the parameters economic growth and Kunstler has a good case for contraction, however apocalyptic it may sound. I do not share his level of anxiety but it is surely something to consider in such tumultuous times.

Playing Communist

Stephen Marche over at Esquire offers some analysis of modern America’s fascination with socialist aesthetics. He cites Shepard Fairey’s Obama image as the most recent incarnation of pseudo socialistic sympathies hitting the mainstream. For generation Y it truly has been hip to seem red. In my early teens I rocked my Che emblazoned Rage Against the Machine t-shirt religiously and talked trash about NAFTA but I was just about as subversive as my Abercrombie dudded compadres. It will be interesting to see if this trend stays alive as the gap between the Cold War and the present widens.

X-Games Homerism

Capping off perhaps the most controversial event in X-Games history Simon Dumont took home the gold medal in ski big air, topping Jon Olsson’s switch kangaroo flip with his own double front flip. This comes on the heels of Friday’s bungled snowboard big air in which Travis Rice snagged gold despite reverting each time on his signature Double Cork 1080. Conspiracy!!! Corruption!!! Sadly neither can be blamed for the state of affairs at the 2009 Winter X big air.

This year ESPN decided to throw a bone to the spectators and let them determine the winner of the head to head big air match ups by texting in the initials of their preferred aeronautical maneuverist. In theory this idea has a lot of merit. Big air has long been unrivaled in its ability to draw crowds until the recent surge in halfpipe attendance. (I have no figures to back this up but my eyeballs tell me its true.) Why not let big air go to the dogs? Slap a wireless title sponsorship on the event for increased revenue and provide an avenue for fans to interact with the brand. (Wait, Winter X- did this without even having a wireless associate sponsor, D’oh) If anything it should create some drama and unpredictability.

After two nights letting the crowd judge it turns out that nothing could have been more predictable. In both events Americans (Dumont, Rice) advanced through semis and finals over foreigners (Olsson a Swede, and Norsemen P.K. Hunder, Torstein Horgmo, and Andreas Wiig) who had clearly executed better jumps. Dumont’s double front layout, while impressive, could not hold a candle in difficulty to Olsson’s switch kangaroo or Hunder’s switch double cork 1260. In Rice’s case the issue wasn’t difficulty but simply that he scrubbed the landing on his dub cork 1080 while Wiig and Horgmo each threw near flawless switch backside 1260’s.

Ordinarily I am not one to get fussy about judging. It is always subjective and almost antithetical to the underlying spirit of these sports. However, with only one medal being awarded for each big air discipline valued at $30,000 it betrays my sense of justice to turn a blind eye to this issue. During Friday’s semifinals Wiig egregiously could only muster 8% of the vote in his matchup with Rice. Leaving judging to a fan base that is so clearly lacking knowledge on the intricacies of these sports makes the event into a popularity contest.

Now that the athletes have a better understanding of the fan judging aspect, maybe it would be better to retain the format for somewhat of a mockery competition. (Calling Tom Dolezel and Rory Bushfield) As my sister said it could be the People’s Choice awards to the X-Games Oscars.

Nevertheless, the American/foreigner dynamic troubles me such that I think ESPN should scrap the text judging. There should be no place in sport for this type of bias.

Loathing in Aspen

As the Winter X-Games coverage kicks off this evening the ink has yet to dry on an agreement to keep the event in Aspen for three more years. Announced yesterday, the contract cements an eleven-year stay for the ESPN property in the home of the Freak Power movement. The length of this partnership signifies that ESPN is incredibly comfortable with what Aspen has to offer. After attending the 2005 event I can vouch for the resort’s strengths. A single dedicated venue for all events, a large hotel capacity, vibrant nightlife, and a local airport are all valuable assets.

In spite of its past success, the stability that ESPN has found in Aspen is actually diluting the X-Games brand. Part of the appeal of premier events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl is that the host city offers a little local flavor to the event. Staying in Aspen for the past eight years has made winter sports taste a little vanilla. The world of winter sports has so much more to offer. Whistler, Mammoth, Park City, and Tremblant would all be excellent host resorts. ESPN is losing potential to build the X-Games brand for the sake of the Aspen’s convenience.

ESPN reports that attendance has doubled since first coming to Aspen 2002 and that last year’s viewership grew 17% from 2007. What was Aspen’s role in this growth? Would the X-Games have struggled at another resort? Can the success be attributed to the growing viability of action sports as a whole? As encouraging as the numbers are I am positive that there is at least one viewer who is becoming disillusioned with the brand. While I’m at it, the Summer X-Games need to get out of L.A. for a bit. Philly was a great host city. How about Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, or Toronto?

Ready, Set, Biography!

On the eve of Obama’s inauguration I would like to post this piece by David Maraniss. Maraniss is among the plethora of authors who have declared they are writing Obama books in the coming years. This process will likely descend into a rat race, but I am eagerly awaiting Maraniss' (Clemente) and David Remnick’s (King of the World) respective offerings. Other notable names taking on this monumental charge include Time’s Mark Halperin, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza, and Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe.

G'd Up From The Feet Up

As reported in Sports Business Journal this past Monday, Gatorade has stepped on to the actions sports scene by signing skateboarder Chaz Ortiz, BMX rider Nigel Sylvester, and snowboarder Ellery Hollingsworth. This may be just the beginning for the Pepsi Co. Brand. 5ones brings us the following “Whats’s G?” video that features snowboarding legend Terje Haakonsen. (.22 in sandwiched between Basketball icons John Wooden and Jason McElwain) Word on the interweb is that the announcement of Terje’s signing is being delayed until around the Super Bowl to provide Gatorade with a double shot of coverage.



It is always nice to see more investment in the industry but this particular entry is encouraging because Gatorade appears to be a company that understands the action sports dynamic. Ortiz won the 2008 Summer Dew Cup just one year after conquering the Dew’s amateur Free Flow Tour. Sylvester is a charismatic dude who appears to have the business savvy and passion to reach outside the core demographic. He just received a signature frame from Mirraco and continues to throw down on the street scene. Hollingsworth hails from the hallowed halls of Stratton Mountain School. If her third place showing at this past summer’s New Zealand Open is any indication, she is poised to follow in the tracks of SMS alumni Lindsey Jacobellis and Ross Powers.

It is of note that Gatorade is receiving consultation from the Fuse Marketing agency. Fuse, a longtime accomplice of Mountain Dew, has recently orchestrated the rebranding of Eastern Mountain Sports, Converse, and New Balance toward the action sports set. I personally think that EMS and Converse are both resounding success stories. The New Balance campaign leaves me a little skeptical but otherwise I am a huge fan of Fuse’ work. It will be interesting to see what athletes and properties Gatorade chooses to align themselves with in the coming year.