This week, TJ and The Tux consider “Stereotypes, Values and Decency” through the lens of the anniversary of Malcolm X’s death with three notable names in recent days: Jeremy Lin, Rick Santorum and Whitney Houston. Jeremy Lin answered questions this week to the national media about prejudice, while ESPN pulled it’s “Chink in…READ MORE…
We at Shock and Awesome are taking a break. Some of us are still drunk from last weeks Van Halen concert, some of us are going to Jamaica for a month and some of us never really got over the Jets not making the playoffs. Whatever the reasons, none of them as serious as what James Murdoch is facing at News Corp, we need some time to retool the show and take it in a new direction. In a few weeks, when the show is back, we will still look at topics through our unique lens but we are going to take our listeners on a deep dive centered around interesting topics instead of strictly being about social commentary and political gossip jokes. We are interested in presenting ideas in a “stream of conciseness” way where the show is held together by a common thread but takes the listener far from the point where they started listening. It will resemble those curious days spent searching on the internet where link after link, click after click you find yourself many topics away from the initial bit of info you where interested in defining. The show will be about discovery in an organic way… plus hookers and blow… and great stories.
This week, TJ and The Tux consider “Stereotypes, Values and Decency” through the lens of the anniversary of Malcolm X’s death with three notable names in recent days: Jeremy Lin, Rick Santorum and Whitney Houston.
Jeremy Lin answered questions this week to the national media about prejudice, while ESPN pulled it’s “Chink in the Armor” headline. The headline that followed the Knicks first loss after eight games with Lin as the starting point guard.
As we look at racism in America once again, this time through the Asian American lens, Lin is seen as one who instantly changed the “urban hoops culture” according to Sean Gregory in his Time magazine piece. No longer are Asians perceived as just hard workers on the court, who will lose in the end.
TJ shared his own personal stereotype story of his “cheap Jew dilemma” after having dropped a quarter on a restaurant floor in Little Italy this past week. Did he pick it up?
Will stereotypes ever become legally policeable on the courts and fields of American sports or will politically incorrect statements continue to be seen as tricks for getting an edge against your opponent? In the English Premier League John Terry, captain of England’s national soccer team and the powerful club Chelsea, faces a criminal charge over accusations that he made a racial slur during an October match, apparently becoming the first player to be prosecuted for remarks said on the field.
As for values, has America always been a country that talks freedom but attacks those who don’t share core Christian values? Rick Santorum is on the “hot seat” for his 2008 comment that Satan is coming for America. Is Santorum wrong? After all, we are a hedonist Kardashianistic collection of party going wannabe royalty, arent we?
Decency was hard to find throughout the Whitney Houston funeral drama. What kind of people where in her life? Items from the funeral and life were placed on ebay days after her death. Someone sold The National Enquirer casket flicks. Itunes price gouged for her songs.
Anything to make a buck we guess…
The #artistoftheweek is Mount Moriah. Follow them @mountmoriahband
Looks like Archbishop Timothy Dolan didn’t have to go to Rome to be elevated to a Cardinal, Pope LINnocent VI is right here in NYC.
One week ago, The New York Knicks were 8 and 15 and sinking fast. Their coach, Mike D’Antoni was on the hot seat for failing to win gems despite having two All-Stars on the team’s roster. Some think that the only reason he still has a job is that the Super Bowl Champ New York Giants distracted the rabid media for the last month.
Desperate to find a court leader, D’Antoni turned to Jeremy Lin, the last player on his bench. Lin is a point guard from the perennial basketball powerhouse Harvard University, and has already been cut by two teams during his first two seasons in the NBA.
Since Lin was given his chance to start, the Knicks have been on a seven game winning streak. Lin was named the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week, and he became the first player in NBA history to post at least 20 points and 7 assists in each of his first four starts. Lin’s late game heroics made him an international phenomenon from New York to the Bay Area to Tiawan. Media buzz, both social and traditional, has catapulted this 23 year old, who only weeks ago was sleeping on his brother’s coach in the LES, into the potential savior of the New York Knicks.
This all coming during a battle between the MSG network and Time Warner Cable that has blacked out games at home for a lot of fans in the Tri-State area. While MSG stock has skyrocketed and the NBA tries frantically to produce Lin merchandise to meet the demands. This week on Shock and Awesome we asked ourselves, can this poor kid survive?
TJ and The Tux spoke with long time college coach “Turnaround” Tom Penders about “Linsanity”, Coach D’Antoni (Pender’s dear friend), and more.
Former New York Yankee Kevin Maas also joined the show to share his own experience of exploding onto the New York sports scene and becoming the heir apparent to Donnie Baseball. Maas has the MLB record for the fewest at bats (72) to hit 10 home runs when he did it in 1991. This prompted the New York media in all their wisdom to make realistic comparisons of him with Babe Ruth. Maas provided some insight as to what Lin may be facing as the drama continues to unfold at Madison Square Garden.
Who DOESN’T love an underdog? Jeremy Lin has more points in his first three games as an NBA starter than anyone since 1977. Not bad for a guy already cut twice by other NBA teams. A player who last week was the 15th Knick and a potential for being cut once veteran Baron Davis got healthy enough to return. Not anymore.
Davis will play BEHIND Lin now when his injured back is ready to go. This thanks to this national sensation leading the Knicks from being a selfish disorganized unit, into becoming a pass first, look for the open player team. A team that was down in the dumps but has now thanks to Lin, won four straight.
The struggling Knicks, owners of three marquee stars were desperate to find the one who could glue the club together. In choosing to give Lin a shot four games ago since nobody else they had tried at the quarterback position of point guard could do the job, they have miraculously found that guy.
The next goal will be for Lin to find his own apartment. The days of sleeping on his brothers couch on the Lower East side, are over. This ain’t no overnight sensation. This is the guy who is bringing the buzz back to the Garden.
New York city is exciting in a different way when the Knicks, the city’s team playing the city’s game, are a contender. Lin’s story is testimony to the fact that dreams DO come true as long as you hang in there and refuse to quit.
This could be the beginning of a magnificent ride.
Tiki Barber sure hit the nail on the head when he once said that Eli Manning was not a true leader and was incapable of leading the Giants. Now that Manning has a second ring in four years the spotlight has turned to the Patriots and their newfound “Super Bowl Bridesmaid” role.
TJ and The Tux spoke with Pats Superfan Paul “Fitzy” Fitzgerald about the tabloid sagas that have engulfed the City of Boston: Gisele Gate, Gronk dancing like Don Cornelius on a high Ankle Sprain, The Welker/ Butterfingers stunt as well as the new internet fad called Bradying.
Tux then gives the finger back to MIA and her cheap halftime ploy.
Republicans talk all the time about not wanting government in our lives. Why is it ok then that the Catholic Church wants to impose its own rules about contraception?
Rick Santorum, like Eli Manning, made believers out of non-believers this week with his caucus wins in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota. But, unlike Eli, is Santorum’s social message the right one for 2012 or would it have worked better in 1955?
As we have been saying for weeks, Super PACs are taking over. Democracy 21founder Frank Wertheimer spoke with TJ and The Tux about the effect this is having on the American political system. Wertheimer said the American system is now one “where super rich people and corporate spenders have far too much influence on the outcome of elections.”
Paul “Fitzy” Fitzgerald is hilarious. Period. His stream of conscious rants, parallels to pop culture, and delivery, are worth the wait folks. Listen to TJ and the TUX dial up “Fitzy” for his thoughts on “Gisele-Gate,” The Welker “Butterfingers” controversy, Gronkowski’s post game Soul Train Dance-A-Thon moves on a high ankle sprain, and the new internet fad called “Bradying,” tommorrow on the Shock and Awesome podcast “Believe.”
Above is a look at a pre Super Bowl 46 piece he did for his website www.townienews.com
Fred Wertheimer is the Founder and President of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to strengthen our democracy and ensure the integrity and fairness of government decisions and elections.
Wertheimer has been described by The New York Times as “the country’s leading proponent of campaign finance reform,” by Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne as “the eminence grise of the campaign reform movement,” and by Brit Hume of Fox News, as “Mr. Campaign Finance Reform.” The Boston Globe described Wertheimer as a “legendary open-government activist,” and The Washington Post said “Democracy 21 is one of Washington’s foremost watchdog groups.
In an interview with Shock and Awesome today, Wertheimer lamented about the new SUPER PAC culture, that has driven the pace of the 2012 race. “We have a system now where super rich people and corporate spenders have far too much influence on the outcome of elections.” Ones who “are able to buy influence with the people that are elected.”
Hear the entire interview with Wertheimer Thursday on the Shock and Awesome podcast “Believe” then listen to the Tux ask why rich people don’t simply spend their money on cool ideas like “cars that drive themselves,” instead. Since when did being wealthy become about imposing your values on the rest of the country?
When you are champions like the Giants, you get parades. When you lose the final game like the Patriots, you are forgotten. Cruel, but that’s how it goes. Downtown New York City was packed moments ago along the Canyon of Heroes as Big Blue received keys to the city. Congrats to the Super bowl champion G Men.
Why is it that when teams lose big games, their fans, media, and players always talk about what THEIR side didnt do? That it was THEIR own fault for losing the game, not the other’s teams ability to win the game?
Tom Brady’s world famous supermodel wife Gisele was caught on camera pissed off and grumpy after taking heat from Giants fans. So naturally she stuck up for her husband in blaming the receivers for dropping balls in Super Bowl 46, not Tom himself.
Couple that though with this jerkoff’s column in the Boston globe noting how the “loss” was all Brady’s fault and his legacy is now tranished, and you have yet another blame game running full circle.
Here’s some breaking news for those of you calling your own out, up in Beantown. The Super Bowl was WON by the Giants. Not LOST by the Patriots.
Big Blue played within themselves, avoided huge mistakes, and capitalized on the Pats Rob Gronkowski, Brady’s top target, not being at 100 percent, by staying attentive to the entire rest of the New England wide receiving corps.
Eli Manning made the biggest play of the game with the clutch 50 yard completion to Mario Manningham with less than 4:00 left. As he had done all season, in what was his best season as a pro. The Giants led the NFL in fourth quarter scoring in 2011. It was not luck that the Giants came back and did so against a maligned Patriots defense.
The Patriots? They HAD a chance to win late, but Wes Welker couldn’t make the tough catch off a difficult throw from Tom Terrific. So what? It happens. It wasn’t a choke by Brady or Welker on the play. In fact if anything, Boston writers should remember that if the Ravens’ Lee Evans could have held onto that ball that two weeks back, one that he’s caught a thousand times in his life, New England would have been watching the Super Bowl at home just like we were.
The Giants have beaten the Pats three straight times now dating back to 2008, unlike any team has in the NFL. They’ve done it thanks to their speed defensively up front which has sped up Brady and his decision making in all three games. Instead of pointing fingers, the Patriots and their extended family need to regroup and obtain their own pass rush, in order to slow down the likes of Eli Manning and other pass happy machines going forward.
The losing side has to quit blaming people and see the whole picture instead. Not just one isolated play, or a handful of them. In Super Bowls, the other team is always damn good too.
There were no goats last night, only heroes, who go by the name of “G-Men.”
Betting on the Pats to redeem themselves on Sunday from their 2008 loss to the Giants in the Super Bowl? Nick Bogdanovich, Nevada’s Club Cal Neva Sports Book Director, told TJ and The Tux “Revenge is the most overrated intangible used to handicapping sports.” Find out more sports betting secrets and the likelihood Madonna has a Super bowl halftime nipple slip on this weeks Shock and Awesome.
To get a better sense of who may win the big Super Bowl XLVI (that’s 46 for all the kids reading this who can’t spell, write in cursive or decipher roman numerals #allofthem) rematch in Indy between the Giants and Patriots, Shock and Awesome, at the advice of Bogdanovich, opted NOT bet on the predictions of ex-NFL stars who are, according to the Sports Director, terrible at envisioning outcomes. instead, The Derelict Duo looked for inspiration from a classroom of kindergarten sportswriters. Five stacks on The Gints it is!!!
Now that the Florida primary is in behind us Newt Gingrich seems to be driving a car without a rear view mirror or breaks. Mitt Romney will be getting secret service and Newt won’t. Take the hint Newt. Open the driver side door and tuck and roll into the highway ditch before more mudslinging colleagues and exs from the past make this an experience you need the jaws of life to get out of. Mittens, on the other hand, pun intended, needs a code name now. How about “Trebek” for looking like a 60s game show host. Or “The Fortunate Governor’s Son” to echo John Fogerty’s legendary CCR lyrics. TJ and The Tux throw a few ideas around.
The #artistoftheweek is Saint Motel. Tweet them @saintmotel
Middle Eastern correspondent Aya el Batrawy (@ayaelb), who correctly predicted a year back that El Baredei would not become Egypt’s new leader, called in to give an update on Tharir Square. This to celebrate the one year anniversary of the #Jan25 uprising. So often we lose sight of the long struggle that continues after the bright lights and Anderson Cooper has left the scene for more theatrical pictures.
TJ and The Tux got their second chance to speak with Governor Roemer this week and he was fired up. To date Roemer has been shut out of 21 Republican debates and because of that he is starting a unity ticket by picking a Democrat for his Vice Presiden- tial running mate. Erskine Bowles of the Simpson-Bowles debt reduction plan is on the short list. Instead of being about a party, Roemer’s 8 years as President would be about America. In Roemer’s words, “Obama is owned by wall street. Mitt Romney is the 1% and Newt Gingrich is a lobbyist for the 1%. Meanwhile big business controls all of the reforms in Washington, banks are still too big to fail and corruption is all encom- passing”. Each party is blaming each other and Roemer is the only candidate that is “free to lead”.
