Barking Carnival

Mas cinema. This from SydneyCarton. - S.R.

__________________________________________
Hi!
Due to the continued dearth of off-season topical conversation, Sailor Ripley has entreated a few guest lecturers to contribute to The Barking Carnival. Fortunately for him, my unchecked hubris, proclivity towards wild exaggeration and generality, and immediate recognition that HenryJames is an unrepentant fairy should allow me [...]

As we continue our quest to turn this sports blog into Ain’t It Cool News, I give you another Guest Film Crit lecturer - our pal, Scagnetti.
- S.R.
_______________________________________
There seems to be no middle ground on here, albeit a ground that’s well-tread with expansive, intelligent discourse. Appears we either ham up the art or pick [...]

Frequent Carnival visitor EnglishAg mentioned to me that he was an English exchange student in College Station. This struck me as an interesting situation so I asked him to write it up (with no hope for any ball kicking). Here it is.
[...]

Chris Applewhite will likely be along shortly to add his excellent ‘Review for Nerds’ but I thought I’d post some quick thoughts in the interim. 
A buddy and I have a tradition of seeing most of these sci-fi/comic book/adventure films at their opening midnight showing as the people watching often surpasses the quality of the film [...]

As a big fan of non-fiction writing across all genres, from John McPhee’s takes on feats of civil engineering to Paul Theroux’s travelogues, a good biography on a notable historical figure is hard to beat. A recent article in the New Yorker reviewed new biographies of four titans of 20th century media, starting with treatments [...]

Remember literature classes where some crazy allegory was pointed out in an otherwise interesting book (i.e. “The Nautilus represents Verne’s expressions of inadequacy as a man.”), and you thought, “Man, they are really making too much out of this.”? I’m about to do that with “Solaris”, the 1972 Russian film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky [...]

The Deadliest Warrior is a new series on Spike and it’s excellent guilty pleasure guy fare. Morning stars crashing into human replica gel-filled dummy heads, katanas slicing pig carcasses in half, and interesting, often ludicrous - occasionally hilarious - match-ups soberly presided over by bio-engineers, ER doctors, paramedics, and IT geeks with computer simulation [...]

In part II of BC’s offseason film series, we continue to examine the inner workings of Barking Carnival’s hiring practices and fundraising strategies.
Sailor Ripley invited Lenny Dykstra over to discuss his new role as Barking Carnival’s desperately needed CFO. It went exactly according to plan.

Barking Carnival’s Henry James summons The Tortilla Retort’s Dedfischer to his lair. Learning ensues and a football rivalry is healed.

a h/t to EDSBS for the heads up.

After being fired by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stephen A. Smith’s tenure at ESPN has come to an unceremonious end. It has been reported that Smith and the World Wide Leader in Sports were unable to reach an agreement in contract negotiations. He will finish out his current contract on ESPN radio.
According [...]

Well here we are, inhabiting this Brave New Digital World, full of Blogoshpheres, Plugins, Links, RSS feeds, trackbacks, pingbacks, and a different brand of new media every week to help Gen X keep its ADHD addled minds abreast of every new technical wizardry that comes down the test tube.
Of course Barking Carnival seemlessly slid down [...]

I was surprised by the amount of feedback on my post about “The Bad Lieutenant”.  Anyone up for more movie talk?  I like to use Ebert’s “Great Movie” list as a DVR guide, and maybe I could post some thoughts on various films.  I feel these kind of posts are worthless without strong opinions, so [...]

This is a must-see documentary. As its tagline promises: Time Tells A Different Story.
Boxing serves as the vehicle for much deeper examinations of media manipulation, the nature of courage, racial identity, the power of symbolism, contest of will, the importance of forgiveness.
When I wrote a piece on False Icons in Sport on [...]

First, read Part I.

Would you like to learn about some of the games our kids will be playing? These should prepare them for shooting pirates in the head from the back of a destroyer.
My favorites, with comments:
Ball Wrestling - This is one of the favorite activities of my students.
Well, [...]

I was watching HBO’s Real Sports last night and I came across a follow-up on a story run seven years ago on the battle over dodge ball at elementary schools. Can’t find the video, but the segment included such activities as tag where no child is ever “it”, no-touching policies (no hugs, high fives, [...]

Terrible peril. Want a little peril you say? No. It’s too perilous.
Let me explain.
My second longest running internal debate is rather personal, but since Barking Carnival is such a community of nurturing individuals- communurturers, if you will- I feel okay discussing it here with all of you. I have long suffered from the [...]

There was once a great battle won during a Golden Age long past.
An Age when kids played Smear The Queer in front yards in full view of and with the sanction of adults; BB gun fights were routinely held on neighborhood streets in full daylight; children could disappear in the woods for hours [...]

The comments from this group will be better than the story itself. I believe that with every fiber of my being.
Momma….

Detroit isn’t quite ready to do that just yet.
I don’t blame them:
Every time Matt Millen showed up on camera during NBC’s Super Bowl pregame, Channel 4 ran a crawl at the bottom of the screen:
“Matt Millen was president of the Lions for the worst eight-year run in the history of the NFL. Knowing his history [...]

If you’re a true fan of MMA, a purist, it probably is.
Luke Thomas from the Bloody Elbow explains why. This is a rare match in sport - two champions who embody the evolution of MMA in their skill sets, are dominant in their respective weight classes, are at the peak of [...]