As you do on Holiday, I devoured books like Godzilla over Tokyo. I took a really great range of books, some political (and eerily prescient) to the salacious, but fascinatingly detailed story of a Star (more on this one next time) and another Peter Biskind book that felt like you needed a degree in film theory and cold war politics to truly understand. While Miss. Mullen took what seemed like every single Malcolm Gladwell book going and devoured each and every one.
But secretly, I had taken a book that I had waited months to read, to find the perfect spot, the perfect atmosphere to soak it up, for I knew that this book would be an indulgence of the highest order. 700 pages of pure unadulterated Basketball. From the first page to the last Bill Simmons book The Book Of Basketball was a love letter to a sport that is much more than the sum of it’s parts. (more…)
As I’m sure most people are aware, England just launched it’s new kit, alot has already been written about it some of it good, most of it bad. I must say it does seem an easy kit to lampoon but I personally think it’s great. Smart, clean certainly retro but super stylish with it. It’s no surprise that there is some serious style credentials behind it. But what really drew my attention (via Twitter natch) was the website. Developed by Anomaly, it is a fantastic interactive journey into the history of England kits (with live comments popping up around the team photos) the inspirations behind the new kit, and the tailoring and design process. I love the depth that the site goes into (little things like make your own kit with your name on it are cute and effective…), as well as the Umbro blog, which helps position Umbro as the heritage brand of English football, all in all a nice change of pace from the glossy edifices of Nike and Addidas.
Last night, as part of NBA all star weekend, was the dunk contest, which last year was won by the Magic’s Dwight Howard with a rather spurious dunk (he technically throws it in I think, but can’t do much about it now)… This year, Howard went up against Nate Robinson in the final, 5’9 guard from the New York Knicks, a few years ago he jumped over the equally diminutive Spud Webb – the original tiny dunker. Well, Robinson won it with this dunk (5’9 jumping over 6’11? I’ll take that)
But I thought it would be churlish not post some of the classic dunks from contest’s past. Looking back, the contest seems to have got more gimmicky as the years have gone by. But without a doubt my fave is ‘The Human Highlight Film’ Dominique Wilkins, with his two handed windmill jam from the sideline AMAZING.
This guy used to play for the Celtics is now pretty much out of the league, but boy could he dunk. No.1 in this list is the one dunk I never get tired of seeing.
A great article from the NYT on the evolution and importance of annual Superbowl logo, there’s certainly a few trends that start to evolve as you go along. I personally love the early ones Superbowl III and X, and XIII stand out for me, and Superbowl VII looks just like it was lifted from the opening titles of Superman II (or maybe it was the other way round…)
Here are also one of the best finishes to a Superbowl ever.
And of course, a classic Superbowl commercial (from 1984)
While looking at ACL i noticed he had posted some stunning images from the LIFE archive (available via google images.) The World War II images are amazing, the colouring gives you a whole new sense of that period of time. I went diggin around the archive looking up one of my passions: the Boston Celtics and whaddya know? There is a whole set of fantastic images from the first golden age of the team (1956 – 1969) All the classic ’60’s Celtics lineup are there (Cousy, Heinshon, Russell, Havlicek etc…) in action. But what makes these shots really stand out is the unconventional shooting style the blur on the shots gives you a fantastic sense of the speed that basketball can be played at. It’s such a fluid and dynamic game. It’s been called America’s Jazz and these images go someway to explaining why that tag is bang on.
