A good sports story? Ridiculous!

I'm not a huge fan of sports journalism.

Unless the reporter is talking or writing about an athlete I've heard of and care about (of which there are few), I tend not to pay much attention to sports stories.

But one story I heard on NPR last weekend definitely caught my ear.

It was a great take on sports, although I thought at first it was just a piece of ridiculous fluff.

The story is about the Tampa Bay Rays, who've just changed their name from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The columnist starts out by telling the reader the Rays are one of the worst teams in baseball, and that suddenly they've been winning--playing great games.

The story evolves. Rather than going into the ways the team has pulled the rug out from under their competitors, the columnist interviews a Lutheran minister and the head of the Church of Satan to talk about the implications of removing the word "Devil" from the team's name.

Sure, mixing religion and sports in this way can be seen as no-news cotton candy airtime filler. But the more I think about it, the better my outlook on this story becomes.

Not only did it catch my attention, but it kept my attention--and I probably would have switched to another radio station if the story had been a more traditional take on baseball. I've been thinking about the story for a few days--so it was memorable. Plus I've been telling people about the story and sending them the link.

If you're looking to grab listeners/readers, this is a great way to do it.

Give the story a listen if you get a chance.

Change is in the air

NPR did a story on "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" on Friday. It's a musical comedy made specially for the Internet.

The show is pretty funny. I'm not big on musicals, but the humor was great and Ian and I watched all three acts.

It was available free on Hulu until last night, but starting today you have to pay $1.99 to download the acts from iTunes.

I think this is a great idea, a step in the right direction for mainstream entertainment. The show went into production around the time of the Hollywood writers' strike. Dr. Horrible is proof the writers don't need Hollywood, along the same vein as Radiohead's latest album and the slew of musicians who are showing the recording industry it's not necessary for success.

I love the smell of media convergence in the morning. Don't you?

An interesting concept

If you haven't heard yet, fashion designers are lobbying Congress to make a law saying they can copyright their fashions--down to the cut of a bag or skirt, the very minute details.

They want to do this because the designers claim the people who make cheap knock-offs are raping the fashion industry of millions of dollars, though I find that hard to believe when you can make a purse and charge $1,198 for it (like the Coach purse below), and plenty of people will buy it.

I heard a story on NPR's Marketplace about this last night, and one interesting thing one of the sources said was that trends fuel the fashion industry, and knock-offs create trends. Therefore, allowing knock-offs to go on the market makes it easier for the big-time designers to be creative and come out with something ever newer and more fabulous.

This struck me as interesting, and it struck one of the industry's lawyers, Alain Coblence, as preposterous. He said "...it's like saying that robbery is a wonderful thing in the economy because by way of replacing the stolen goods, it encourages industrial production."

Personally, I think trends are stupid--or rather, people who try to be trendy are stupid. My philosophy is to buy basic pieces that aren't going out of style for a while, build a wardrobe with those things, and occasionally buy something that's "in" at the moment. But why would you want to spend tons of money on trendy things that will be "out" next month (in this case, just because it looks like a Louis Vuitton purse or Chanel sunglasses).

Such is the consumeristic money wasting that Americans adore engaging in, I guess.