Green with envy.
Ah, the luck of the Irish. I still like KG and at least the East gets better. But, is there a pot of gold at the end for the Celtics?
Yo’ Mully, what you got planned?
G. Dolin
PS. I see he picked #5. Good choice my man.
Fear Carl Hayman.
This dropped into FTB’s inbox last night and is well worth sharing. Apparently, we are not alone in recognizing the value of ferocious bearditude in athletic competition. Nor is this a phenomenon limited to the myopic context of North American major sports. Behold, the international reach of the beard and a fine Kiwi sibling site to Fear the Beard.
More improbably, the fine lads at Hayman’s Beard motivated a nation of men to grow beards to accomplish the twin objectives of: a) getting Carl to grow his beard back, and b) national solidarity leading up to the big show in France. So here’s to wishing Carl Hayman and the All Blacks a triumphant and hirsute run to the title in rugby’s World Cup.
Daniel Turman
Gentlemen,
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jon Scrivin, and I’m from New Zealand. You may have heard of us…Lord of the rings, sheep…actually that’s about it. Anyway, we play rugby. Which you may also have heard of. Although maybe not. That’s not really important, but the point is that the World Cup (of rugby) is on this year in France, and once again our national team (the most successful team in the game’s history) will be doing everything to win it.
Rugby is our national game, and as such we’re somewhat obsessed with it. We haven’t won the world cup since 1987, and it actually depresses us to think about, it’s that bad.
Our team, the All Blacks, have consistently been at the top end of World Rugby for over 100 years. So it’s a very important game to us.
Why am I telling you this?
Because we have a player named Carl Hayman, and for the last few years he had a beard. Well, not just a beard…The Beard. The power of The Beard meant that he was capable of destroying entire teams by himself.
And this year he shaved it off. Fearing for our chances at the World Cup, I started a national campaign to make him grow it back (we’ve been successful by the way), and we’re now focusing on making every Kiwi worldwide grow a beard between now and the World Cup in October to support the All Blacks.
So in searching for beard-relatedness online I discovered your site, and I wanted to drop you a line and express my admiration for the hairy path you have tread.
When you state that “the beard is a talisman of belief, of a swagger, of a mentality…” & “…we at fearthebeard.org wish to nominate it as a totem of East Bay pride that extends to a culture larger than professional basketball. From the Murder Dubs of the east side to the ivied halls of Berkeley, let the beard show you the way. Believe in the beard and the beard shall reward thee. Oppose the beard and you will experience its full fury” I truly understand and agree with your sentiments.
From one who believes in the power of The Beard to unite people behind a common cause, let me congratulate you on a great site, and a great philosophy.
Our outlooks are similar, but I don’t think there’s much room for confusion between rugby and basketball, or indeed much else…
Anyway, good luck and keep the faith.
Hairy regards,
Jon Scrivin
Hayman’s Beard
PS. Mr. Scrivin is getting it done, done and super done (on Kiwi TV, no less) for the big man with the bad-ass carpet.
PPS. Jon, I’ll trade you a Boom Dizzle GS Dubs throwback jersey for an All Blacks Hayman, whaddaya say?
The 48 Laws of Power as Applied to The GSW’s. Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions
Have you ever played one-on-one against an old man and got completely hooped up? I have some experience with this. In your imagination you’re a one man “And 1″ highlight reel, while your opponent is so old his memory is in black and white. So, how did you get schooled? It’s all about the art of concealing your intentions. That’s the difference between a veteran’s game and a newbie’s. The old dude’s moves were so subtle that he got you thinking too much about what he was going to do, leaving you stupified with a little push-off and fade-away–a young Luke sparring with Obi Wan Kenobi. This is one of the reasons we love basketball so much: it’s not just every possession, but every single moment is pregnant with drama. Every moment is a drama baby mama (aaah, how I sabotage my own profundity). The art of the cross-over, the pump fake, the pull-up jumper, the fade-away–these are all about how well you can conceal your intentions until you are already in the act.
So, how does this apply to the Warriors? Right now our youngsters, like Monta and Andris, have great versatility in their game, but that’s not enough. They need to be able to master the subtler game beneath the game, much of which relies on concealing your intentions. If Monta looks like he’s improvising on the court, relying mostly on his athleticiscm, he probably is. The key is to be able to look like your improvising when you’re actually not. That’s what the veterans on this club can teach the younger cats.
And regarding the club in general, there are a lot of concealed intentions. Is Nellie returning? Why did we trade Jason Richardson? Are we making a play for Garnett or another franchise big man? What’s the story with Brandan Wright? There are a lot of questions left unanswered with this team, and oh how we love the drama–off and on the court.
Matthew “Makaveli” Meschery
Marco Belinelli, summer league Drano.
I’m liking this. I know it’s only the summer league, but holy mother of Sleepy Floyd. Straight Drano from deep. It doesn’t matter where his legs are going, his shoulders are always square. And man, oh man, the range. Handles? Yep. Dimes? Well, at least one tasty one. I can’t wait. Turman approved.
Daniel Turman
Rest in peace, Bill Walsh.
Love and condolences to family and friends from everyone here at Fear the Beard. The genius will be missed.
Magpie Festival 2007.
The seventh-annual Magpie Festival went down in Sierraville, California on Saturday. Once again, the Magpie’s patented blend of poetry and singer-songwriter acousticisms captivated those in attendance. The pine-scented air. The DIY orientation. The overall vibe. Somehow well-conceived lyricism just echoes more gracefully at Magpie.
The Mad Russian himself, Warrior-legend Tom Meschery, threw down an epic sonnet about the Western Conference-winning team from 1962/63, of which he was a member. The poem, entitled “Reunion 1994,” commemorates a gathering of the squad some thirteen years back. Tom is most likely the only member of both the Bay Area Sports and Nevada Writers Halls of Fame, so click through below to see the double double. The scoreboard? How about the career numbers, 17 and 11, racked up against one of the more demanding forms of poetic verse.
Daniel Turman
Barack Obama summer book club: part III.
Anyone out there catch the CNN YouTube debates the other night? With questions submitted via YouTube and answered by the Democratic candidates onstage at The Citadel, it was a watershed moment in digital culture. While the 1960 election was famously influenced by Nixon’s decision to forego makeup, which made him look extra sweaty on the small screen, the next election may be decided by digital-age savvy. No matter what happens with our oft-indifferent electorate (one can hope that this level of accessibility would prove to be motivational), the real winner last night was YouTube, which furthered its inroads into the political discourse with an impressive showcase of its populist potential.
Within hours of the debate’s conclusion, Barack Obama’s camp had fired off a mass e-mail citing the Washington Post’s favorable review of his performance in the morning fish wrap. It also linked to a video of one of his most poignant responses of the evening (about Iraq, linked above), as well as a clip from 2002 where he is making much the same point. Pretty clever use of technology to drive home an important point about consistency and values. Oh, and of course it had send-to-friend viral functionality too.
Interestingly, Obama is becoming increasingly focused on values as a cornerstone of his campaign. In fact, that is the subject of chapter two of The Audacity of Hope. He disparages the lack of values in politics and laments that they have been replaced by ideologies, which are not necessarily flexible or even anchored to fact. Values on the other hand, guide decision-making and discourse, but do not have to be as unblinkingly rigid as ideologies. Moreover, he goes on to assert that the best values are driven by a sense of universal empathy. “Walking a mile in another’s shoes” as he puts it, is in fact an effective tool for governance. He goes on the assert that an empathy-based system of values is precisely what is needed in (and by implication missing from) the White House. The inference is that even though there is a type of conservatism at work in the rhetoric of communal values, the (generally progressive) needs of the majority of the electorate would automatically surface for leader who is genuinely committed to empathic values. Like getting the hell out of Iraq, for starters.
Second-half help for the A’s.
It’s common knowledge that the A’s are a second-half team. But this year they’re lagging ten and a half games out of first a couple of weeks after the All-Star Break. Seems to me that a move or two might be in order. They need a sparkplug. And somehow this looks totally natural. Ray Durham rocked the “cinco” to good effect a few years back, but I’m ready to insert Baron at shortstizzle tomorrow. Any objections?
Turman
PS. Boom Dizzle threw out the first pitch last Friday, but hey, we can dream, no?
Rebranding the Dubs, part II. SJ Sharks case study.
Now 20% more aggressive. I think. Well, at least that seems to be one of the stated objectives for the redesign of the San Jose Shark’s identity.
“The shark looks a little bit meaner and you can never go wrong with something like that,” said Cheechoo. “It’s great for the fans because it adds something new and it doesn’t change too much from the old. I think it gives it a little more color and makes it a little more menacing.”
Upon first glance, the obvious difference is the color. A much more prominent shade of Pacific Teal covers the top of the shark’s nose, giving the logo more of a three-dimensional look. The shark’s eye glows orange and the triangle no longer has the gray ribbing, but now sports black orange and pacific teal.
“Now we’ve got a little more orange,” said Bordelon. “We can pop the shark’s eye out a little bit and bring teal into the body which helps add that 3-D effect. We’re pleased with the final results.”
I have to say that I like the dimensionality and Anime/comic book rendering. But those glowing orange eyes are a bit demonic and make it feel like some sort of sinister robotic devise from a Roger Moore era Bond flick.
Regardless, according to the SJ Mercury News reader poll, 53% (as of 5:20pm tonight) like the new one more than the old. I hope that was worth the effort.
Fellow beards, was it successful? Your thoughts please.
Admit it, you knew something was wrong.
When watching Phoenix and San Antonio battle for what would effectively be the NBA Championship, I remember distinctly being appalled at the officiating. The possibility that the fix was in (at least for game three) makes the piss-poor calls in that game even more disheartening. Now that the commish has made his first public statement on the matter, the Beard will weigh in with our own.
Honestly, when this game was played I thought the way it was called was more the product of a David Stern-led mandate to reward defense and punish “street ball” (as played by the Suns and Warriors). Now I’m not sure what to think, other than that the entire series should be replayed with a FIBA officiating crew and the NBA refs, Stu Jackson and D. Stern banished to the D-league. How this level of blithe indifference to the integrity of the sport could reach all the way to the corner office is beyond me. And until something major is done to restore our collective faith, we’ll all be wondering if the players wouldn’t be better off calling their own fouls and meting out their own punishments blacktop style. And somehow, I don’t think Phoenix is losing that series.
In praise of real basketball,
Daniel Turman
PS. Donaghy made $260,000 last year to work from October to June. And this was not enough?