Last night, the Cavaliers went down in flames for the third time. The end draws near and I find myself in a spot. Thursday night will be my last chance to sign up for a credential to cover the game and I can’t get myself to do it. I’m a photojournalist but I am also a fan. I was there for the drive; I was there for the Tribe’s great run in the ’90s. In fact, I still remember driving home from an ALCS win drenched in champagne from the lockerroom celebration. I don’t want to see another dejected crowd of fans and indifferent multi-millionaires.
The Indians will continue to do the same thing. Winning season or not, what’s the point? They will lose because that’s what always happens. Maybe not in the first rounds of the playoffs, but trust me when I say they will lose.
In a great twist of Cleveland-based irony, the only champion teams are in sports that nobody really cares about. We had a great soccer team that played in a nearly empty building. I would be willing to wage money that if we had water polo teams, the best in the world would be from here.
So after giving up on two sports in less than a week, I went off to cover the Browns mini camp this morning. Because, no matter what, if you are from this part of Ohio, you have to cling to something and that always seems to be “our” Browns.
I’m not sure how they really look -- as a casual sports fan, I think they look pretty good so far. It’s early in the year. We haven’t had the freak injury, the wear and tear of practices or the motorcycle accident yet. You have to feel good about Brady Quinn, a player described as “freaky smart”.
So I’ll cling to the Browns for now. After al, we have a couple of months until pre-season starts and the Cavaliers become the life preserver for fans adrift in a sea of losing teams.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Cut to black--So long Tony Soprano
There are a few absolutes in life.
The Super Bowl doesn’t end in a tie, what goes up must come down and to lose weight you need to expend more calories than you consume.
On the other hand, most things in life are a lot more uncertain, and a lot less tidy.
In this particular instance, I’m talking about the finale of The Sopranos.
How could a show that has shown so much creativity end in such a shamelessly uninspired way? They teased multiple possibilities throughout the entire episode; why not give the fans a sense of closure?
Ah, could it be we are all missing the point?
Maybe what we saw was the right way to wrap it up after all. If you think about it, in the final minutes of the episode we had a chance to view life not through the eyes of Tony Soprano but from that place in his mind that harbors his inner demons. In his world, there is no closure, you don’t get things tied up in a neat little bow.
Take Tony’s friend, Paulie, for example. He looked like he was up to something – like he could he be ready to roll over and give testimony about the family or worse.
In the final scene at the restaurant, we have Tony eating dinner with his family. How many parts of that scene showed the threats to his wife and children? The thing is that they didn’t materialize and that makes us, the viewers, angry because we want to see the resolution.
In Tony’s world, it’s just one long line of persons who might be gunning down the people you love, one more threat to the power that is held onto by using fear and intimidation.
In the end, the final episode faded to black. What a fitting conclusion because in the end, all the drama that is Tony Soprano’s life – that life we devoured for the years it filled our TV screen – eventually will end, fading to black, too.
The Super Bowl doesn’t end in a tie, what goes up must come down and to lose weight you need to expend more calories than you consume.
On the other hand, most things in life are a lot more uncertain, and a lot less tidy.
In this particular instance, I’m talking about the finale of The Sopranos.
How could a show that has shown so much creativity end in such a shamelessly uninspired way? They teased multiple possibilities throughout the entire episode; why not give the fans a sense of closure?
Ah, could it be we are all missing the point?
Maybe what we saw was the right way to wrap it up after all. If you think about it, in the final minutes of the episode we had a chance to view life not through the eyes of Tony Soprano but from that place in his mind that harbors his inner demons. In his world, there is no closure, you don’t get things tied up in a neat little bow.
Take Tony’s friend, Paulie, for example. He looked like he was up to something – like he could he be ready to roll over and give testimony about the family or worse.
In the final scene at the restaurant, we have Tony eating dinner with his family. How many parts of that scene showed the threats to his wife and children? The thing is that they didn’t materialize and that makes us, the viewers, angry because we want to see the resolution.
In Tony’s world, it’s just one long line of persons who might be gunning down the people you love, one more threat to the power that is held onto by using fear and intimidation.
In the end, the final episode faded to black. What a fitting conclusion because in the end, all the drama that is Tony Soprano’s life – that life we devoured for the years it filled our TV screen – eventually will end, fading to black, too.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
1,000,000 Views and counting
Our first full year posting videos on the Chronicle web site has come and gone and we just passed one million video views.
We have been posting on youtube.com since the inception of the project and it has the advantage of speedy loading but the video quality is lacking. We are looking at other options that will provide better quality and fast downloads.
I have included a list of the top ten videos that can be viewed at our youtube site http://www.youtube.com/my_videos
While the top ten videos are mostly the tragic side of life we have had huge hits on everything from the Playstation 3 craze, the baby giraffe and equally cute baby koala born at the Cleveland Zoo, the snowy home opener for the Indians, and our sneak peek of the new Maverick roller coaster at Cedar Point.
Speaking of sneak peeks, I’ll let you in on a another one, this fall look for much more coverage of our local football teams. Let us know what you want to see and we’ll do our best to bring it to you.
Rank
Chroniclet.com YouTube Video Name
Views
1
Fatal truck/car accident on I-90
311,698
2
Sheffield Village Police Taser incident
135,427
3
Scene of a fatal car accident on Quarry Road
70,986
4
Farm tractor fatal accident
41,941
5
I-90 truck accident in Elyria
21,165
6
Amherst Police Dashboard Camera Footage 1
17,837
7
DeWine visits Lorain County
14,439
8
Man falls off cliff near Cascade Park
12,244
9
Amherst Police Dashboard Camera Footage 2
8,670
10
Brunswick man is in critical condition
6,826
We have been posting on youtube.com since the inception of the project and it has the advantage of speedy loading but the video quality is lacking. We are looking at other options that will provide better quality and fast downloads.
I have included a list of the top ten videos that can be viewed at our youtube site http://www.youtube.com/my_videos
While the top ten videos are mostly the tragic side of life we have had huge hits on everything from the Playstation 3 craze, the baby giraffe and equally cute baby koala born at the Cleveland Zoo, the snowy home opener for the Indians, and our sneak peek of the new Maverick roller coaster at Cedar Point.
Speaking of sneak peeks, I’ll let you in on a another one, this fall look for much more coverage of our local football teams. Let us know what you want to see and we’ll do our best to bring it to you.
Rank
Chroniclet.com YouTube Video Name
Views
1
Fatal truck/car accident on I-90
311,698
2
Sheffield Village Police Taser incident
135,427
3
Scene of a fatal car accident on Quarry Road
70,986
4
Farm tractor fatal accident
41,941
5
I-90 truck accident in Elyria
21,165
6
Amherst Police Dashboard Camera Footage 1
17,837
7
DeWine visits Lorain County
14,439
8
Man falls off cliff near Cascade Park
12,244
9
Amherst Police Dashboard Camera Footage 2
8,670
10
Brunswick man is in critical condition
6,826
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