July starts off with another edition of four question Friday. Today, we are joined by Mike Nascarella, who writes the blog The Bull Rush. The problem with this feature is that one of the people I ask will say yes, and then won’t answer the questions. That means I have to ask 20,000 people next time. I don’t even know 20,000 people. I guess that’s how I’ll be spending my 4th of July weekend. Before I go do that, to the questions.
Has running a blog changed the way you watch sports?
Blogging was just the beginning for me. When I began blogging, I was exposed to an entirely different realm of college sports coverage. Before I began writing, I’d only had opinions that no one outside my facebook friends would ever see. When I began writing, it wasn’t long until I found that some of the things I write can influence people all over the world. One of my first posts was even linked by rivals.com for a rip I made on UCF, and it got something like 45 comments. But the thing that really changed the way I watch sports was Twitter. Before I got a Twitter account, I only was able to talk sports with my immediate friends and people I knew online. Twitter allowed me to view opinions and hear news from people all across the Big East and the rest of the country. Hearing what people with different standpoints have to say about the same subjects has really galvanized the way I view the entire sports world as a whole. Additionally, by running a blog I feel obligated to break relevant news with correct facts. I feel that as a member of the media (and I do use that term loosely) I have opinions and information that people actually want to hear, so I’ve had to really concentrate on what I watch and research so I can make sure I’m relaying all the right stuff.
BB: Blogging changed how I watched UC games a great deal. Instead of just enjoying the game like a fan, which obviously I do since I’m just a fan, I look for different angles and take notes on the games. I sit there with word, or blogger open and actually keep notes during games. It seems a little over the top, but it’s a good reminder of something I want to touch on in write ups, or stand alone posts. Twitter has been a good thing as well. I like the idea of everything becoming it’s own little community. It seems like on twitter you aren’t the only one watching Rutgers-South Florida, but part of a group that is watching it, and you can all share your ideas and talk about it. Stuff like that didn’t exist years ago. When you stop and think about it, it’s a little weird it exists now.
If someone were to give you season tickets to one professional sports team, what team would you pick? You can’t sell the tickets, and travel isn’t an issue. What sport and team would you pick?
This is a particularly hard question for me, being a Knicks and a Jets fan. I mean, I would love to see the Madison Square Garden 41 times a year, but damn do the Knicks suck. However, I think I’d go with the Florida Marlins. I grew up with the Marlins, so they’re my childhood team automatically. Also, they’re the only team I actually chose for myself. I sort of inherited the Knicks and the Jets from my dad, but even though I was 3 years old at the time I still had the good conscience not to follow my dad’s footsteps as a Mets fan. I’ve been to almost every Marlins home opener since their inception in 1993, and I still make the trip down south from school every April for the game. So yeah, the Marlins aren’t great, but they’re mine. And they’re opening their new stadium next year, and you can be sure I’ll be there for Opening Day, season tickets or not.
BB: I’m with Mike’s train of thought here. I wouldn’t go with an NFL team. NFL games are a lot more fun to watch on tv than they are to go to. Plus, the Red Zone channel is the best thing ever. I wish there was an NBA team that I cared about a little bit, because going to NBA games would be cool. I think I would like it. Same with the NHL. There isn’t a team I’m behind enough. That leads me to baseball. I would take Reds season tickets. Baseball is a lot more fun to watch in person. The ins and outs and ebbs and flows, it’s a great game. Plus, I assume my magic scenario tickets would be awesome, and great seats for baseball are one of the best things ever.
Why is it that showers on road trips are either a thousand times better, or a million times worse than your shower back at home?
Because when you touch yourself in the shower you don’t have to be concerned with getting the drains clogged with your mess. It’s not your drain, who cares!
But seriously, that’s gross. Depending on the trip, the shower experience varies. If you’re taking a real RV road trip, there is no shower experience, which is awesome. Not taking a shower for a week and smelling like campfire while growing a week’s worth of scruff really makes you feel like a man. If you’re on a road trip to an actual destination, like on business or something, it depends on where you’re staying. Nice hotels = nice shower (and nice towels + shampoos to take with you); Crappy hotels = leaving the bathroom door open so you can hear if someone comes in, because no one wants to get killed when they’re naked.
BB: I think some high end showers are trash too. That’s where they decide to skimp. Some lesser hotels have awesome showers because they are before the days of flow protection, or whatever it is, and have a nice shower flow. I stayed at my friend’s house last week, and his shower was kind of weak, which made me think of that question. If you didn’t stand directly under the thing, there was no water. It was inconvientant.
What’s the worst movie you’ve seen this year?
I’m going to cheat a little bit and assume “this year” means “in the past 12 months”, and in that case, I’m going to upset a lot of people by saying Avatar. I think the movie was a complete plagiarism of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, and I’m really not a fan of James Cameron. I think the Apple company and James Cameron movies are exactly why people in China hate Capitalism so much. As for the movie itself, I think they really could have cut like 70% from the outrageous amount of money dumped into it and still have gotten some pretty good special effects work. The story was one that had been told a hundred times: Americans see something they like, they take it by force, the people who own it fight back powerlessly, but some Americans develop a conscience and start feeling for the people they’re taking from. Like I said, read The Martian Chronicles and you’ll know exactly what I mean. The only difference is that Bradbury wrote that one 60 years ago.
BB: I did mean the past 12 months, because the worst movie I’ve seen was Kick Ass. Kick Ass was a movie I thought would be right up my alley, but I just didn’t enjoy it. It seemed like it tried too hard to be cool, and just wasn’t. Plus, I heard a lot of good hype about it, and it didn’t measure up. There are probably much worse movies I’ve seen, but that popped in my head when thinking of the worst one.
Thanks again to Mike. Be sure to follow him on twitter. Have a great 4th of July weekend. The blog will return Tuesday.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
