Happy Holidays from The STATEtorialists

Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you're enjoying your time off from school or work, and are taking advantage of the time you have to spend with your families! Thanks again for reading, commenting, following, becoming a fan, or all of the above!

Finals Fashion

So, I've said before that your daily outfit should be based on your daily mood. So what do you do during finals week when all that's (hopefully) on your mind is crunching numbers for your accounting exam, or the conjugation for every single freakin tense, plus vocab for random words and how to compose your own sentence for each of the tenses for your spanish 3 exam. (Deep Breath). Sorry, Spanish is stressin me out, man. Where was I? Oh, what to wear, got it. Here's what you do. Wake up, go to your closet and.....DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. If you're thinking about what your wearing this week then your priorities are not by any means in order. If you're really that nervous about fitting in here's a sure fire way to. Wear Penn State sweats and/ or hoodies. Grow out that finals beard even if you haven't been studying and you've been showering every day, it'll give you that, "OMG I've been studying so hard I haven't been able to worry about anything else," look. Keep the beard until you go home so even if you fail every final, your parents will see some evidence that you worked hard. Wear those sweats every day, they will get comfier each day. Each second you waste putting product in your hair is another theorem you pass up on studying for your econ class. And most of all stay off of Facebook, ESPN, Perez, and all those other tabs in your bookmarks that you only click on when you're procrastinating. Now that I've been writing for a few minutes it hit me, I have a final in 4 hours so I should probably stop bloggin'. Gotta go, meeting Mike at Dunkin' Donuts to do some studyin', I'll be the one in the Penn State sweats with the finals beard.

Good Luck this week everyone

Peace and Love,

Ben

Condemned to Repeat It...

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Upton Sinclair

Everyone take a minute to read Paul Krugman's take on what needs to happen to fix this mess we're in. It is a very broad base article that summarizes what has happened. We've been in a mess like this before with the savings and loan crisis and the taxpayers bailed everyone out. Again, a level of deregulation has lead us down the same path and again our money has bailed them out. When will we learn? When will they clear away all the B.S. in front of their eyes and take a look at what's really going on so maybe, just maybe some necessary changes in the greatest country in the world will take place.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/opinion/14krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Check This Out

Hey everyone. If you're a fan of The STATEtorialist you might like this as well. Check out our buddy Joe's Blogspot blog.

http://theyachtclubs.blogspot.com/

We must be doing something right?

Check out GQ's blog, "The GQ Eye", and thier their "obsession of the day". Hmmm looks like something the Statetorialists endorsed here.

http://www.gq.com/style/blogs/the-gq-eye/2009/11/obsession-of-the-day-9.html

Hey, we might actually know what we're talking about!

My Spanish Professor, Ernesto.

Mi profesor de español canta y toca la guitarra. He's got some serious pipes on him, not to mention he's definitely looking good in his black tux.

"God's Work"

Lloyd Blankfein believes Goldman Sachs is doing "God's work". If God was on Goldman's side, I don't think He would have needed TARP money. This is a sad joke and I truly hope Blankfein chose his words incorrectly and isn't being serious. Amidst the controversy over the size of GS's employee compensation and the general discontent of Main St. towards Wall St., Blankfein found it appropriate to declare that GS serves a "social purpose." All of this commentary coming from an interview with London's Sunday Times. Blankfein says they're doing social work. "Social work," eh? Well to those who have lost their jobs recent and who's monthly budgets cost less than Lloyd's shoes, this social work hasn't quite helped society. Also, these guys sure get paid a lot for doing social work, don't you think? Well, maybe it's not such a great deal. My cousin Ron joked that aside from the humongous salaries public school teachers make in the south Bronx, they also get a 10% discount at the museums! Now THAT is a great deal. I don't know what it is with these executives, but Jeffrey Skilling (ex-CEO of Enron) also believed that he was "on the side of angels."

So, let me recap. Lloyd says that he and his crew are doing "God's work" and are serving a social purpose. He is equating GS and himself to likes of any Saint, and great social workers like Martin Luther King, Jr. My brother, Pete, had a great idea; maybe we should conduct a re-vote of the Nobel Peace Prize and give it to Blankfein instead of Obama. According to Lloyd, he is just continuing the work of Mother Teresa, the hand of God.

It's scary, they have lost touch with reality. The culture that they live in surrounded by like-minded people and their money has made them believe they really are adding something to society. Sheesh.

MWD

Be a Renaissance Man

I'm not a huge believer of some of the nit-picky "don'ts" aimed towards the fashion of everyday people. I realize in the high-end fashion world there are spoken and unspoken rules and they're going to be followed, but I'm talking about things that influence normal people when they look into their closet each morning. The biggest one, and I think this happens subconsciously, is that everyone feels like they have to be ONE demographic. There are unspoken rules for each type of person. Athlete's wear sweats and hoodies with some Air 1's, or anything supporting their favorite squad. Hipsters rock skinny jeans and a shirt they've had since 6th grade with chucks or combat boots. Thugs take the Athlete look to the extreme, making things baggier, adding hints of colors like neon green and electric blue, and have a collection of New Era 59/50 fitted caps. Rich kids wear some kind of Ralph Lauren oxford with normal jeans or khakis and loafers or some kind of classy boot. The list goes on and on. I could include a few female ones but that list could literally take me all night, but everyone knows these stereotypes. The thing is, the people I see everyday and am impressed with, are the people that don't give in to these things.

I read an interview on The Sartorialist a few days ago where Scott asked a woman a fill in the blank question. It said, "I build my everyday look on:". This woman's answer was exactly what everyone else's should be. She simply said, "An emotion". I love this because I feel like when you wake up in the morning, and walk to your closet, your thought shouldn't be, "What can I wear today that is similar to what I always wear, and not too different that people will think I'm trying too hard, but still represents my image?" That's too many things to think about! Build your daily look on an emotion. Be a Renaissance Man (or woman), a Jack (or Jill) of all trades! In a similar sense, don't just try to blend in with what you think other people are doing. Eliminate the mentality of, "Well I think other people would do this too so that's okay". I realize what I am saying may not apply completely at the collegiate level. We all have seen people on College, Beaver, Pollock, and Curtin wearing something out of the ordinary, and a majority of the people they pass give them some sort of look. I get it, college kids are judgmental. But there are ways to be innovative, and still be simple. I guess my goal with writing this would be to motivate people not to give in to the zombie population of day after day of Penn State Hoodies, Sweats, Uggs, etc. Do something different more often than not, and bum it when you're bummed. Dress on your daily emotion, not on others expectations.

BWB

"The Book the NBA Doesn't Want You to Read"

As Ben mentioned in a previous article, the NBA is becoming a little ridiculous. In the summer of 2007, allegations came out about a referee, Tim Donaghy, betting on games. It was shown that Donaghy had placed thousands of dollars on games and eventually became involved in a low-level mob gambling ring. He was eventually sentenced to 30 months in jail and proceeded to write a book. (I feel like I'm the only one not writing a book these days! I guess that's why I have a blog). Well, this book, titled Blowing the Whistle by Tim Donaghy, has been released and there is a great set of excerpts available at Deadspin.com. I will leave the reading up to you guys, but I have a few things on my mind about the National Basketball Association related to the exceprts, or as my favorite writer Bill Simmons calls it, the "No Balls Association."

The first problem I have is with star treatment and how it affects the way the game is played. Something I'm glad Donaghy mentioned in his section on star treatment was the specific "relationship" between Kobe Bryant and Raja Bell. Donaghy says Bell was penalized by the league and referees for being too good! Too good! Are you kidding me? Raja Bell has the ability to shut down Kobe Bryant, who he met often and "shut down" in the Western Conference playoffs. Shut down is a relative term because there's really no shutting down the Black Mamba. But see, Kobe had some help. The league doesn't like to see Raja Bell shut down a superstar who can score 40 a game, it's "not good for business." People don't pay to watch a defensive stud like Bell, they pay to watch Kobe and Tim Duncan and most superstars for that matter, get calls and put up inflated numbers. More times than not, those who pay to watch Kobe wouldn't know a good basketball player if Bill Russell punched them in the face with a fist full of rings. For those who remember watching Jordan, there was nothing I'd rather pay for than to see him get mauled by Detroit's Bad Boys or the 90's Knicks and still put up 30. It may not be 40 or 50, but it's a magical performance seeing him earn his points. The problem with today's NBA is that these refs are directed by David Stern to make sure the game is a good show his paycheck suppliers. Sure it's fun to watch today's stars put up insane numbers, but it's not good basketball. The hand-check era is over and there is nothing to help a defender against a scorer other than pure talent; and even when that comes along, the refs are there to make sure the offense has the advantage.

Donaghy also writes about other referees he worked with and all of their evils. For example, Dick Bavetta loved the spot light more than he loved refereeing. See any problems? For one, when the referee thinks the game is less important than his face-time, he starts controlling the game instead of making sure the game stays under control. Bavetta even speaks of specific games he was assigned to work to make sure one team had a favorable advantage. Another ref, Tommy Nunez, loved the Hispanic community in San Antonio so decided that they would win a 2007 playoff series against the Suns so he could go back to San Antonio to ref. Yup! That's fair! There are also a couple accounts of player-referee feuds (and friendships) that affected games.

It's very disturbing that many of these refs have been in the league for a decade or so, and that David Stern has been the commish for even longer. This only says one thing. Sure "the NBA cares" but about dollar signs, not basketball. The reason NCAA basketball is so much fun to watch, is because those guys go out there and play hard. Not always does the most talented team win, but the team that plays good basketball and works harder normally wins. The quality of basketball has undoubtedly declined over the past few years, and something needs to change.

Don't get me wrong, there are some SERIOUS basketball players in the NBA. Chris Paul's court sense is awesome to watch. Watching Kobe slice and dice a defense (and not get a call) is spectacular. The physical dominance of LeBron. The run and gun Phoenix Suns. And Shane Battier and Raja Bell's defense that makes real basketball fans smile no matter your loyalties. I guess I'm saying that once the players are allowed to play basketball, and it's talent vs. talent, we'll re-run the glory days of Bird, McHale, Magic and MJ.

With a fade away J,

Mike Donchez

Da Na Na-Da Na Na

One of my ultimate childhood memories was being so excited that it was summer vacation, because I could stay up and watch the 11 p.m. SportsCenter, rather than just catching 15 minutes of it in the morning before I caught the bus. I remember the classic set up, 2 anchors in a red, black, and silver room with a picture next to their head as the talked about the sports news at hand. It was cut and dry, and literally could recap everything that happened that day in sports. Sure, it wasn't live, there weren't a lot of breaking news updates, and virtual re-enactments, not to mention the only time you saw an anchor standing up was for the Sunday Conversation. Maybe it's just me being (kinda) old fashioned, but I miss the old ways of my favorite T.V. show.

The show is so feature-ish now that I seem to watch it way less. I'm 20 years-old now, and can stay up as late as I want, but not as often as when I was 11 do I live for the 11 p.m. SportsCenter.( I loved the ESPN ads where they showed which athlete watched which airing of the show, ex: Randy Moss watches the 6 p.m. SportsCenter, which do you watch?) Is it just me or does the PTI-inspired bar one the left of the screen seem to consist of the same 4 things, usually containing at least one of either Brett Favre, T.O., A coaching issue, or expert's opinions of the same topic over and over again. I know it's college football season but why does every third topic have to be, "What Todd McShay and Mel Kiper think of this". I don't understand why a sports news show has now been somewhat transformed into a sports feature show.

That's only one thing that bothers me though. In the words of Mike, SportsCenter has become too "Hippity Hoppity" and I know things have to change with the times, but it bothers me that it's not the show I worshiped as a kid. Also, it seems like highlights of games are cut short. If it's not the biggest game of the week in any sport, the highlights don't get past one or two hits, dunks, or TD passes. BTW as I watch right now they have had 3 segments on the Yankees, and will come back after the break with more on the World Series. Just like they have been doing recently, their going to overanalyze the game and all the random statistics that only The Schwab knows about. I feel like I get more efficient information recently from the ESPN bottom line. As far as the side bar goes, I hate it. Don't get me wrong, I love PTI and have actually grown to prefer it to SportsCenter, but I don't like knowing what's coming next. That was part of the fun when I was a kid. Me and my best friend Jeff would watch SportsCenter as if it were some kind of movie, anxious about what John Anderson or Linda Cohn were about to tell us.

That brings me to another point. The Anchors. My favorite anchors of all time are Scott Van Pelt, Linda Cohn, John Anderson, and Kenny Mayne. They all are so much better than the ones I've seen recently. I know people move on to different things, but I feel like I've seem Mike Greenberg anchoring SC more often than actual anchors. SC anchor used to be the coolest job in the world, what's happening that they can't find people to do it anymore? P.S. another current update. They just did their recap of last night's MNF matchup of the Redskins and Eagles. They showed 4 plays, and have been talking about the retraction of play calling privileges from Jim Zorn for 5 minutes. My point is they spent more time talking about sideline issues than what happened in the actual game! The Eagles played really well and they cover the game as if the 'Skins just lost the game and the Eagles didn't win.

Really, there are still a lot of good aspects to SC. I love some of the things they've added like showing little picture-in-picure interviews of players and coaches while they show the play that they're talking about. I Like that the anchors chat with viewers during commercial breaks. The fact that it's live is cool because you see the mess ups, but also I've watched a show where the anchor didn't recover from a mess up and it threw of the whole broadcast. I like that they have huge big screens in the studio now, but I hate that the anchors get up and act like their touching it like a weatherman. P.S., another update, breaking news, Andre Agassi used crystal meth while he played tennis, prepare to hear about this way more than you want to in the next few days.

I'll leave you with my Top-5 list of my favorite SC Anchor duos.

1. Linda Cohn and John Anderson

2. Stuart Scott(late 90s early 2000s, not now) and Kenny Mayne

3. John Anderson and Scott Van Pelt

4. Robert Flores without Chris McKendry

5. Steve Levy and John Anderson

Peace and Much Love, Happy Valley,

Ben