It's been a few years since I posted this, as a lot has happened since I first wrote my little missive. A relocation across the country nearly six years ago, combined with many personal and family changes, relatives passing, marriages, and most importantly, My little Minion hitting her adolescence a couple years early. Also, now instead of the main character of this poem being a seasonal visitor to the river side family home my family lives in, the geese in this area live year-round. Many a day, my drives have been delayed as a couple of big honkers will troll nonchalantly across a couple lanes of traffic, literally owning the road for a few minutes, it's akin to cows in India, you can't really do much more than just wait patiently while they strut like the bedasses they are to us mere humans...
I wrote this poem in December of 2007 on the spur of the moment, and had originally decided that it would be an annual event to post, much like Seth Davis' live tweeting of NBC's showing of "It's a Wonderful Life."
I send this out to everyone of my friends and family, as well as those relatives who are scattered across this country, especially My cousins Maya Cameron-Houston and Rima Cameron-Shemick, their spouses George Houston and Laura Shemick, their kids, Celia, Paulie and Sabina (Beanie) Houston, and Cameron and Charlie Bowser.
Let's Hope for a better 2019...
Christmas In Montebello, or A Visit from the Christmas Geese
'Twas the day before Christmas,
And all through the town,
People were shopping and running around.
Last-minute gifts were purchased with haste,
Not wanting a moment to go to waste.
And around our little home, Mom was finishing up,
Wrapping the presents and gifts and stuff.
Dad was busy, getting many things done,
Prepping for their El Paso trip, still yet to come.
And Tommy, My brother, stopped in for a bit,
Taking a break from his work because he saw fit.
And Myself, what did I do, you say?
I waited for sundown to come this way.
For still to be finished were the lights 'round the big tree,
Putting the final touches for all to drive by and see.
The full moon, how it glowed brightly on the river below,
shimmering as the Canadian geese honked and glided along, oh so slow.
The cars slowed down as they drove through the night,
Looking in awe as I made things right.
And Out on the lawn I gave out a shout,
"Mom, Dad, Tommy, You gotta come out!"
My family came running, thinking something's gone wrong,
But what they found was Me dancing and singing a song.
They watched as I danced and placed the last of the lights,
My breath easily seen on this cold winter's night.
"What's wrong?" said Dad "You give us a fright."
Mom just looked and laughed as I continued my flight.
Tommy looked down, embarrassed to see,
How graceful a quarter-ton Hippo like me could be. (I kid, I'm not THAT big)
When, from the spreading grounds, there came an incredible sound,
As gaggles of geese made landings all around.
We listened and watched as they crossed through the moon,
Their wings, opened wide, their calls all in tune.
Below them, their cousins answered their call,
As they glided onto the water, to come together one and all.
We stood there, all quiet, on the bank above,
Watching as Nature played a Winter song of love.
But, before long, it was time to go inside,
After all, none of us really had a winter-proof hide.
So we gathered round a burning Yule Log,
And listened as the Geese scared off the fog.
And so, let Me say, as I crawl under the sheets.
"Merry Christmas to all, but beware of cold feet."
I'm starting something a little different today. I'm in the process of working on the second book in my "Anton Solo Mysteries" series, and I needed to clear my head. Ironically, I was watching the TV show, "NASA's Unexplained Files" and something on there got my mind spinning. It had to do with a mysterious storm cloud that appeared in Jupiter's atmosphere. One of the theories offered up was that the cloud was the result of the NASA Probe, Galileo, being plunged into the Atmosphere. The probe, which had a Plutonium-based nuclear propulsion system, was destroyed in this manner to prevent it from potentially contaminating the Jovian Moon of Europa, which shows signs of potential life under it's methane ice caps. My brain, as usual, heard this theory and thought something off the wall, "Hmmm, what if that propulsion system actually hit something under the clouds, like an alien city?" Before I knew it,t he pasta salad was put aside an about 90 minutes later, the short story below is what resulted from it...
The Bombing of Homeworld
By Tony Solorzano
Alarms sounded across the planet as the government went into crisis mode trying to ascertain the extent of the damage done by the unprovoked attack. People outside of the attack area wondered what happened and why. Who would attack their homeworld with such a devastating weapon? What had they done to deserve such an attack? And how would they respond in kind?
The Video screens across the planet blared on as the news media continued their reporting. “We're continuing our coverage of the unprovoked attack by alien forces from another planet in our System. Government agencies have been mobilized to help mitigate the damage from the alien weapon that has devastated a swath of our peaceful society. We're going live to one of our reporters near the blast area,”
The video cut to another figure speaking off camera, as the feed now showed a devastated landscape with nothing but smoking ruins and towers of black smoke rose into the skies. “We're coming to you live from just outside the remains of the City of Arvenos, which was first settled nearly 200,000 years ago and held the ancient remnants of our civilization's origin. It's now all a smoking ruin as a city of 15 million inhabitants has been turned into an irradiated wasteland. We're still not sure how the weapon penetrated the cloud shield, but the results as you can see, has wiped out the birthplace of our race from our arrival on our sanctuary.”
The person speaking paused a moment, “I'm being told that the authorities are moving us to a more secure location, out of any potential fall out from the aliens' terrorist act. We'll return you to our main studios now and will update you at the top of the hour.”
The next few days would be more of the same, the media recounting the attack from the skies upon this civilization's oldest city, the massive loss of life and the response to the unprovoked attack. Pundits debated the cause of the attack, pointing out that despite their efforts, the strange little planet's inhabitants never seemed to answer their attempts at dialogue. Over and over, the strange transmissions received from the backwards little rock only convinced society that their attackers were war mongers, nothing more.
Cries for revenge echoed through the legislative chambers of the planet, calling on their leaders to teach the attackers a lesson. All over, able bodied adults volunteered to enlist in the planet's defense forces, intent on protecting their planet and the surrounding moons, where their industrial capacity lay. Before the end of the second week after the attack, over 30 million of the planet's 4 Billion survivors were in training, preparing to become the planet's response to the attack by the interlopers from the inner system.
A month after the attack, the planet was ready to launch its new fleet of ships. Ships capable of reaching the inner system and the seemingly psychotic inhabitants of the third planet from the sun. The Leader of the Society addressed the planet, as their ships of war readied to leave the atmosphere and send their own message to the murderers.
“My people, Today we send a message to the ones who would attack us without provocation, to the ones who think that they are alone in this planetary system, alone in the Universe. Today, we show them what happens to those who seek to destroy who we are. Millennia ago, our people came to this sanctuary to escape an insatiable enemy who wished to destroy all who opposed them. The irony is that they were once our brothers and sisters, our ancient ancestors suffered from a devastating Civil War and fled to start over in peace. We now know that enemy established a base on the 3rd planet in the inner system and launched the attack on our civilization. We now know the truth, in their lust for destruction, they in fact, destroyed themselves. And their descendants are now on the precipice of following in their ancestral blood lust. But Now, Now we will strike. Now we will end their terror forever!!!”
A cheer went up over the planet as the ships lifted off and launched towards the cloud shield, intent on reducing the planet of their ancient enemy to cinders. Meanwhile, on that planet, life continued on as the inhabitants went about their normal days. All knew that the planetary probe that was destroyed in the gas giant was done to protect the potential life signs seen on one of that planets moons. As night fell on the Western portion of one continent, a scientist picked up a phone and contacted one of his colleagues.
“Dr. Seely, it's Quinten Carmody over at Cal Tech, Can you get the Array at Mauna Kea turned to Jupiter? I've been picking up some strange anomalies on my 21-inch coming out of the atmosphere. I don't know what to make of it.” The astronomer waited on the phone as the “anomalies” suddenly winked out as they made a jump into orbit over the planet they called Earth.
It's been a few years since I posted this, as a lot has happened since I first wrote my little missive. A relocation across the country nearly six years ago, combined with many personal and family changes, relatives passing, marriages, and most importantly, My little Minion hitting her adolescence a couple years early. Also, now instead of the main character of this poem being a seasonal visitor to the river side family home my family lives in, the geese in this area live year-round. Many a day, my drives have been delayed as a couple of big honkers will troll nonchalantly across a couple lanes of traffic, literally owning the road for a few minutes, it's akin to cows in India, you can't really do much more than just wait patiently while they strut like the bedasses they are to us mere humans...
I wrote this poem in December of 2007 on the spur of the moment, and had originally decided that it would be an annual event to post, much like Seth Davis' live tweeting of NBC's showing of "It's a Wonderful Life."
I send this out to everyone of my friends and family, as well as those relatives who are scattered across this country, especially My cousins Maya Cameron-Houston and Rima Cameron-Shemick, their spouses George Houston and Laura Shemick, their kids, Celia, Paulie and Sabina (Beanie) Houston, and Cameron and Charlie Bowser.
Let's Hope for a better 2019...
Christmas In Montebello, or A Visit from the Christmas Geese
'Twas the day before Christmas,
And all through the town,
People were shopping and running around.
Last-minute gifts were purchased with haste,
Not wanting a moment to go to waste.
And around our little home, Mom was finishing up,
Wrapping the presents and gifts and stuff.
Dad was busy, getting many things done,
Prepping for their El Paso trip, still yet to come.
And Tommy, My brother, stopped in for a bit,
Taking a break from his work because he saw fit.
And Myself, what did I do, you say?
I waited for sundown to come this way.
For still to be finished were the lights 'round the big tree,
Putting the final touches for all to drive by and see.
The full moon, how it glowed brightly on the river below,
shimmering as the Canadian geese honked and glided along, oh so slow.
The cars slowed down as they drove through the night,
Looking in awe as I made things right.
And Out on the lawn I gave out a shout,
"Mom, Dad, Tommy, You gotta come out!"
My family came running, thinking something's gone wrong,
But what they found was Me dancing and singing a song.
They watched as I danced and placed the last of the lights,
My breath easily seen on this cold winter's night.
"What's wrong?" said Dad "You give us a fright."
Mom just looked and laughed as I continued my flight.
Tommy looked down, embarrassed to see,
How graceful a quarter-ton Hippo like me could be. (I kid, I'm not THAT big)
When, from the spreading grounds, there came an incredible sound,
As gaggles of geese made landings all around.
We listened and watched as they crossed through the moon,
Their wings, opened wide, their calls all in tune.
Below them, their cousins answered their call,
As they glided onto the water, to come together one and all.
We stood there, all quiet, on the bank above,
Watching as Nature played a Winter song of love.
But, before long, it was time to go inside,
After all, none of us really had a winter-proof hide.
So we gathered round a burning Yule Log,
And listened as the Geese scared off the fog.
And so, let Me say, as I crawl under the sheets.
"Merry Christmas to all, but beware of cold feet."
*NOTE: This article was originally supposed to post on Feb. 3, but I fell asleep before i could post it, but it's still worth reading*
So, as this is the conclusion of Groundhog Day, the day when this country takes seriously the weather prognostications of a rodent seriously, while still denying scientific proof of global climate change, it is of course also the annual review of yesterday's marketing equivalent to the Oscars, this year's crop of Super Bowl ads. One thing that ringed with many of them, this year, Dad finally got a lot of positivity in these ads, including one that brought tears to the eyes of many in the motorsports racing community.
I'm not going to go into the game recap itself, I had no rooting interest in either team, ave for the UCLA Alumni on both sides who were participating, nor will I even try to give you my thought on Katy Perry's halftime show, I'm still trying to figure out EXACTLY What the Frak that was. Instead, I'm singling out my favorites of this year. I will embed a few of them because of they were THAT Good or so horrible they need to be mocked mercilessly (looking at you Mr. West).
So let's start with the Cream of the Crop, My pick for the top ads of this year:
Budweiser - "Lost Dog"
So, obviously, Budweiser has not fallen out of the top spots on these reviews in some time. Be it the Clydesdale running to see his former owner to the one that was shown at the Super Bowl that followed the events of September 11th, 2001, The ad folks at Bud have been conistent in not only tugging at emotions but just coming up with some great commercials, this year's is no different, and ironically, parallelled to controversial Go Daddy ad that was pulled before the game. Like that one, this year's Bud ad features a lost Golden Lab pup who, after stowing away in one of the Clydesdales' trailers, finds himself lost in the big city, but somehow manages to find his way home. However, just before he reaches safety, a wolf appears, with eyes on our young scamp as dinner. However, his big horey buds see him in trouble and break out of their stall to ride to his rescue. When you have great bloody Clydesdale as your posse, ain't no wolf gonna mess with you, well played, Anheiser Busch, Well played...
NISSAN - "Cat's in the Cradle"
This one, personally, was the one that hit home. As I've said countless times, I spent about a decade covering motorsports on the West Coast. From Dirt Track to Super Speedways, I know the racing life is hard and asks for many sacrifices. This one, featuring Nissan's new rally car that will make its debut t the 24 Hours of LeMans, is especially poignant. For some reason, many people didn't like it, complaining it was too long and wondering how he could be playing Race Car driver while his son grows up without his Dad there. It was a different story in the Racing community, where everyone from drivers to broadcasters all loved this, myself included. The consensus among us was that unless you've been in racing, you don't know the real price those drivers pay to chase what some think is jut a hobby. And using Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" for the music, pretty much made all of us lose it at some point. I was this close to calling my own father over the ad, but I managed to recover thanks to a really dumb Doritos ad that got me back on keel. But this was My pick for best one, even over the Clydesdales. Welcome back, Nissan, 18 years was far too long, but this more than makes up for it.
FIAT - "Little Blue Pill"
Now where Nissan went for the Emotional angle, and succeeded greatly, Fiat went the other way and got a bit randy, Italian style. This one, featured their new 500X Four-door was the funniest of the ads I saw. Opening on a quiet Italian village, an elderly gentleman finds his wife feeling rather amorous in the morning and he quickly runs to the medicine cabinet for a "Little blue Boost." However, he misses his mouth and hilarity ensues as the pill goes ricocheting through the town before landing in the open gas tank of a little two-door Fiat. Suddenly, the body panels begin to bulge and when the owner turns around, he find himself face-to-face with a big burly four-door Fiat, one that all of the signoritas find oh so attractive. Another Well Played move on Fiat, after last year's "lucky boy" commercial, where the young wedding guest gets an eyeful of two bridesmaids as they change clothes without noticing him sitting between them. Who else but the Italians could make losing a little blue pill so funny?
SNICKERS - "Marcia gets Cranky"
Let's face it, if Marcia Brady had lost it a few times, it would be quite understandable. I mean you live with three adopted brothers who think the house is one giant playground, the middle one smacks you in the face with a football just before the dance, of course you're gonna want to split his skull with an axe. But leave it to good ol' Mrs. Brady to get her eldest to come down off her channelling Machete and get back to normal. Of course, that just leaves Jan feeling a bit like Nucky Taylor when it comes to "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia." Snickers continued a rather brilliant series this year with not only the inclusion of Danny Trejo into the commercial series, where we've already seen the likes of Richard Lewis, Roseanne and the late great Robin Williams prove how mixed up someone can be when they're hungry, but to bring it into the realm of classic TV and not only referencing one but two classics of the "Brady Bunch" just shows how much Snickers satisfies.
DORITOS - "Crash the Super Bowl: Middle Seat"
It the last few years, Doritos came up with a killer concept, instead of some big ad firm doing their commercials, they left it up to us to do it for them. Aside from not having to pay the costs of a big firm's expenses, it showcases some talents out there with some original ideas. As full disclosure, a close college friend of mine actually appeared in one of these commercials five years ago, so the series has run strong. But out of all of the ones this year, including one where a little kid makes a pig fly and a Caveman finds his muse in bags of just-hatched Doritos (Don't ask, you have to see it) I thought this one of a guy doing everything he can to keep the rest of the rabble from sitting next to him on a plane until he spots a gorgeous woman and lures her in with Doritos to be the funniest, especially what you see she's carrying, and it's not just a carry-on bag.
Always Tampons - "Like a Girl"
For a tampon commercial to not mention their own product seems like something counter-intuitive. However, this one focused on how girls feel when someone uses the epithet, "like a girl" as an insult, you know, "you run like a girl, throw like a girl" etc. But ask a girl who can fire a softball over 100 MPH or can knock down a three-pointer with nary a touch of iron, and you'll find it means something else. I'm now the father of a seven-year old girl who is getting into basketball. I intend to make sure she never feels insulted when someone says she shoots like a girl, because I'm going to pass along the lessons I learned from Coach, lessons not jut for the basketball court but for life.
HONORABLE MENTIONS(No videos posted due to length):
Avocados From Mexico - "The First Draft"
Kudos to the Mexican Avocado ad for their "First Draft" commercial, where the countries of the world select their icons. The trade by Mauritius for the dodo just gives you an idea where the Raiders find their General Managers, but poor polar bear, he SO wanted to be on those beaches, but now he has to put up with ol' Caribou Barbie, don't cha know.
Dove Men+Care - "Dads Care"
I'm including this one in here instead of it's own top pick because I decided to represent the entire "Dad cares about his family" theme with teh Nissan ad, however this one is still a great emotional ad that reminds us all that even though we often overlook or look down on poor old Dad, he's always there when we need him, and he's proud of us.
Wix.com - "It's That Easy/ Favre & Carve"
Usually, I shy away from the website commercials, since they're either all Go Daddy ads or something else I can't even think of, since it's been over a decade since the dot com bubble went Kaboom! Add to that my disdain for the Man who won't Go Away and this one really wouldn't have even gotten a mention... However... The businesses that other former NFL Stars had promoted (TO hosting a cooking show wearing only an apron! Emmitt Smith Line Dancing!!) and the commercial earned the mention.
THE WORST OF THE WORST:
T-Mobile - "Kim Kardashian's Ego"
I have my Blackberry on T-Mobile, that makes me enough of a non-conformist, thank you very much. So having to see this waste of space promoting the carrier' new DAta Stash plan just makes me want to switch to Credo Mobile. Seriously, T-Mobile, what the frak were you thinking putting this trainwreck on?
Nationwide - "Make Safe Happen AKA Because I Died"
No, Just.. No.
Nationwide completely threw the public into frenzy over this one, gut-punching the viewers with this little boy saying how he'll never do anything, then dropping the reason why, "Because I died..."
Okay, we're almost to the end of July which means two things, first, the Back-to-School sales have already begun and second, Football Camps will be starting up soon. And as become the case since 1995, the annual talk about the lack of a team in Los Angeles is once again making the rounds. As teams begin to loo for more revenue, L.A. is usually used as a token threat to bully the local municipality that hosts the NFL team looking for a new Stadium to build them one, else they pack up the plantation and head for the bright lights of Hollywood.
Now being a former die-hard Rams fan, and I won't rehash my history with the team, I would love to have the Rams back where they belong, here in Los Angeles, where they brought the city's first world championship eight years before the Dodgers did it. Few people remember that the Rams were once a force to be reckoned with in the old NFL, not the broken-down and tattered shell it was when "Madame Ram" ran the team into the ground like McBankrupt did with the Dodgers.
Obviously, there are ground rules that would have to be respected. First and foremost, whatever team LA gets has to change its' name. With the exception of both the Rams and the Chargers, who started their existence in L.A. in 1960, any team that wants to move here has to leave their team name, colors, records and traditions behind in their former city. I know what you're saying, Raider fans, "Hey man, the Raiders ARE L.A.'s team."
"Could I have a glass of water?"
To quote former Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid, "Uh, No..."
They started in Oakland, The great John Facenda's reading of "The Autumn Wind" brings to mind images of the Black Hole in the Oakland Coliseum, and even though they left and returned to Oakland, and thanks to former Seattle Seahawk owner Ken Behring attempt to move the Seahawks to Los Angeles and Art Modell's move of the former Cleveland Browns to Baltimore to become the Ravens, the precedent for leaving behind said colors, traditions and records has been established. In fact, former commissioner Paul Tagliabue stated as such under his administration of the League, when the majority of these relocations occurred. So, if, for example, Jacksonville or Buffalo decide they are going to move, they will be obligated to abandon their identity in order to come to Los Angeles, which brings me to my proposal.
Now everyone has tried to come up with a possible name for a relocated franchise should one come to LA. I'm not going to get into which stadium I think they will play in, but for the record, I do NOT favor the Farmers Field concept that AEG is pushing in downtown LA., there's just no way that would work logistically, and you'll eliminate any opportunity to tailgate before a game with the parking set up.
I prefer the Grand Crossing project out in the Eastern San Gabriel Valley. So, names like the Gladiators, Earthquakes and even the "Mighty Bucks" has been suggested as a name. (Yes, yes, I know, that was from the TV Show, "Coach," but I'm making a point here.)
Now rather than try to come up with a new name, a recently-concluded TV show came up with the perfect name for a relocated football team here. And the name not only would work well, but it also invokes nostalgia amongst those long-time sports fans in Los Angeles.
(ScreenCap Courtesy USA Networks)
Yes, the good folks over at the USA Network show "psych" had an episode set at a fictional domed stadium in LA, called the "Thunderdome" (with apologies to the UCSB students and alumni fans of their basketball team) and the team was named the Thunderbirds. As a sports fan, it works perfectly.
For those of you not familiar with the sport of roller derby, and I mean the classic version, not the revamped and revitalized version skated today by your average hot chick these days, The L.A. T-Birds were the undisputed champions of good-living and virtue, as opposed to their main rivals, usually the Chicago Bombers or whatever the team in San Francisco called themselves each week.
(The T-Birds at their peak in 1980. Photo courtesy the great Scott Stephens, second row, center)
As for the Team colors, the classic Thunderbirds Green, Gold and Satin White colors would probably invoke images of Notre Dame, which would probably piss off the Trojan fans, which is an added benefit for this Bruin. But if you're going to go with the look of the T-Birds, you can also go with their classic 1970's color scheme of white uniforms with the Red and Blue striped accents, which would make a nice compliment to the already popular growing look of the Los Angeles Clippers, sans their hopefully soon to be gone racist owner, (Get to Steppin' Donald Stering!)
If the NFL is going to stop the ridiculousness of leveraging the possibility of moving to LA by either calling someone's bluff and let them move or just taking a team that's cratering uncontrollably and running it itself or even building a league-owned stadium which will make the costs back by hosting the Super Bowl every five years in Los Angeles, just get it done and either let Stan Kroenke bring the Rams home or they let a team move here and let the Thunder roll all over SoCal...
Editor's Note: This story was begun on February 9 2014, but completed a month later due to a month of Winter Misery suffered by the author, the Management apologize for the lateness of the posting...
It's early Sunday morning, the first full weekend of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and more than a few things come to mind. First and foremost, why do we have to put up with the horrible tape delayed coverage of the Games by NBC?
Since 1988, and continuously since 1996, we've been forced to put up with the Peacock Network's horrible "Tape-Delayed" coverage of the events because they want the "Prime time" eyeballs. Never mind that since 2000, they've essentially butchered what once was a glorious exercise in covering the World's most prestigious athletic endeavor when ABC carried the Olympics. The most powerful images of the Games until 1984 came from ABC. The "Black Power" protests on the medal ceremony, the Late Jim McKay recounted the tragic conclusion to the Munich Hostage crisis, the "Miracle on Ice" of Lake Placid and the emergence of "America's Sweetheart" Mary Lou Retton on the floor of UCLA's Pauley Pavillion.
And what do we have images of from NBC's coverage? Not once but twice, NBC decided to cut away from the closing ceremonies in both Vancouver and London to show the pilot episode of a bad "game show" type show with Jerry Seinfeld and Kelly Ripa and a sitcom that featured a money in a Lab coat instead of showing the Who's performance. , tape delaying events in Atlanta to show them in Prime time. leaving the competition every six or seven minutes to show a 10-minute "Athlete spotlight" puff piece that did nothing but frustrate fans of the sport who want to watch the competition in its entirety. Of course, in the last couple of Summer events, we learned a new drinking game during the Track and Field events, the "Down to Bob Neumeyer" drinking game, which put many people into rehab after Beijing alone.
So, when and IF NBC ever gets outbid for the US broadcast, I would hope that it would be by ESPN. Granted, the "Four-Letter" Network has the resources of the ABC Archives to look back at how the Olympics were covered, but this is the "World Wide Leader," as their tagline is so fond of mentioning. How would the games be covered by ESPN as opposed to the way they are now on NBC?
Simply put, Live event coverage. Already, ESPN disregards time zones for international events like the recently concluded Australian Open. The matches were shown live from Australia starting late in the evening on the East Coast. If the 2022 Winter Olympics occur in say, Norway or even Iceland, broadcasting the Games live by the ESPN Networks would make it next to impossible to use the excuse of "We want to preserve the excitement of the contests," especially when an app like the one for the Sochi Games updates those results live to any smartphone.
The Summer Olympics in 2024, on the other hand, would really shine with the World Wide Leader running the coverage. SportsCenter could be used in a manner similar to what CBS does for the NCAA Tournament, acting as the anchor desk for the coverage of the Games. I'll give you an example that would highlight how well this might be pulled off.
As a hypothetical, we'll say that Los Angeles is awarded the 2024 Summer Games. the Los Angeles Studios of ESPN at the LA LIVE complex across from STAPLES Center would be their "International Broadcast Center," putting their ESPNEWS anchors in the studios to do hourly updates, throw the coverage to the various channels, and when not running an event on the Mothership, could do analysis on the various events with the Olympic athletes they would naturally hire as commentators.
The venues would have pre- and postgame panels like what's done on "College Gameday," but with a more international flavor to it. The Soccer events would make the College crowds look feeble by comparison. It would be a bit different at UCLA and USC, which would not only be hosting multiple events on campus (Tennis and an Indoor Sport at UCLA, Swimming and Diving, Track and Field and another Indoor Sport at USC) but also be the athlete villages once more. A centralized outside broadcast could be set up on front of the respective campuses' iconic statues before throwing to the event coverage as well as doing interviews with competitors before and after events.
One thing to also consider in ESPN covering a Los Angeles Summer Games would be the relative ease of accessing venues. In 1984, predictions of snarling traffic jams and choking smog alerts fell apart like so many Rube Goldberg contraptions as the city experienced one of the most spectacular 16 days of competition with nary a SIG nor Stage One Alert called for nearly the entire Games. Forty Years later, Los Angeles' Metro Rail system would rival that of its long-past ancestor, the Pacific Electric Cars, in the ease of transportation around the city and region.
Consider this: By 2024, the Metro Rail Lines, will stretch from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach, East to Ontario Airport and West to Santa Monica Bay. There are more venues available for staging Olympic events, including STAPLES Center, The Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario, USC's Galen Center, The Honda Center in Anaheim, the StubHub Center in Carson, which incidentally was the site of the Olympic Velodrome for the '84 Games, Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, as well as potential venues like Farmers Field and/or The Stadium at Grand Crossing in the City of Walnut.
Every one of those venues already possesses or will possess the latest in broadcast technology by the time the Games arrive, and like 1984, could end up becoming just the second Olympic Games to turn a profit, one that is STILL paying off 30 years later as this is written. Also in terms of parking ease, with Baseball no longer an Olympic sport, both Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium in Anaheim can be used as central parking venues with shuttle transportation to the nearby venues moving spectators efficiently.
One last advantage ESPN has in covering the Olympics is that Sports is in the network's name, that's what the "S" in ESPN stands for. They don't have to wrap their programming around over shows like NBC did on their "sister networks" for their coverage. Every ESPN channel from the "Mothership" to ESPN Classics could be utilized for the broadcast. Each day of the competition, Sports Center kicks off coverage by simulcasting on all ESPN channels before sending the viewers off to the various events of the day. Then after the start of the day's events, ESPNEWS becomes a "Headline News" like update show, with updates, athlete features and recaps as the day goes through, including the their famous "live look-ins" of events in progress, a la Red Zone, although the ESPN Goal Line/Buzzer Beater channel could take that function.
UPDATE: Sadly, this potential new broadcast dynamic will NOT be happening any time in the foreseeable future. As of May 7, 2014, NBCUniversal Comcast, etc.etc., obtained the rights to broadcast the Olympics through the Summer Olympics of 2032. The network paid over $7 Billion for the right to torment the American public with more crappy coverage and tape delayed nonsense for another two decades. No word yet, though, on whether Bob Costas' Pinkeye will be retained, but sources predict it will return in 2016 for the Summer Games in Rio Di Jainiero, provided Costas is dumb enough to take a dip in the sewer-contaminated oceans around Rio.
So this is Christmas... And what have I done... I've made some new changes... To the name of this here blog...
Yes, it's true, after six years, I decided to retire the original name of the Blog the "Diablos" Sports Page, since my move to New Jersey earlier this year. To be fair, I let the blog slip away from me for a while there, going so far as to even forget to post my annual "Visit From the Christmas Geese," which is all the more prevalent now that I'm literally surrounded by Canadian Geese everywhere I drive lately.
So in keeping with the new name, we're going to call it, Bruin In Exile:or West Coast Guy, East Coast Life. it'll still be the same kind of nonsense I used to write about, except with a little less emphasis on sports for the moment as I get used to life along the Delaware River.
It's revolutionary, I know (pardon the pun) but it'll be good, change is good...
People were shopping and running around.
