Greatest Song Evah - 1/27/23

The Doomsday Clock has moved closer to midnight, so no time to waste. Let’s get right to it.

Spill the Wine

This selection is pure musical onomatopoeia. The vibe of the track perfectly duplicates the leisurely atmosphere in the lyrics. That extends to Eric Burdon’s performance; the way he speaks the verses and then kicks it in for the choruses is simply perfect. And those flute lines from Charles Miller are such a wonderful touch.

This is one that holds a special place in my heart. Its run on the charts coincided with some of my earliest remembrances of listening to music. War truly was a kickass band, knocking out banger after banger during their 1970s heyday, and the majority of those hits continue to stand the test of time. This is the one that stood out best.

WNBA Free Agency Begins

Next week the WNBA free agency frenzy officially commences. The first day for a league with a salary cap is truly something to behold. It almost feels like the Oklahoma land rush, as the gun goes off and teams scramble to spend the money that they’re required to and players make sure they’ve found a team before the game of musical chairs stops. This time of year is particularly significant for this league, as the level of talent continues to grow exponentially and each season it‘s increasingly apparent that there are more noteworthy players than there are available slots, which greatly increases the pressure to find the ideal landing spot.

The league has been around for more than 25 years, but it’s still in a tricky position. There is clearly enough talent in the women’s game to support a minimum of 2 new expansion franchises, perhaps even 4. Whether the finances can justify that is another issue. The league has a good TV contract in the sense that a healthy number of games are televised, but with the data demonstrating that it’s one of the few sports leagues with increasing ratings, that the league is still undervalued by its TV partners. More TV money would not only help finance additional teams, but more importantly could pay for chartered flights, which is an entitlement that players in other leagues take for granted. It’s far from ideal to force a tall professional athlete to squeeze into a middle seat on a commercial flight. This also raises an additional serious issue that I’ll get to shortly.

The most recent CBA significantly increased players’ ability to pursue free agency, which is always a positive thing. Player movement increases interest in a league during the offseason. Also, because there is so much exceptional talent, the number of potential super teams increases. “Wow! Team A now has players B, C & D! But look at team E! They have players F, G, & H!” Unfortunately the league’s financial realities hinder the ability to capitalize on that interest. Because many of the players need to supplement their incomes by playing overseas in the offseason, they are largely unavailable for the promotional work that players in the male team sports do. Out of sight, out of mind. It’s tough to conduct events with season ticket holders or sponsors when much of your roster is over in Turkey or Israel. Players do have an increasing ability to pursue coaching or broadcasting opportunities, and there are several that make personal appearances for the league, but the majority still spend crucial months in Europe or Asia.

Which brings us to Brittney Griner. Had her financial realities been different, she would not have needed to be in Russia in the first place. And people have recently brought up an important point. It’s not as if she is able to travel incognito. For security reasons she cannot fly commercial, so the league will need to make special accommodations for her. Does that mean she travels separately from her teammates? Or does her team get charters, thereby giving them a competitive advantage?

Bottom line, there is clearly increasing interest in women’s sports, and the WNBA is the most visible women’s professional sports league. Ratings are good enough to merit more TV money, which could finance additional franchises, higher salaries, and better travel. The NBA surely has enough cash to infuse some crucial funding to the league until it’s time to negotiate the next set of TV deals. It’s the right thing to do.

Razzies

When I was younger I used to get a mild kick out of the Razzie Awards. As I got older the only time I would pay any attention would be if any honoree reacted, positively or negatively. You could see who has a good sense of humor and who doesn’t. Ultimately it’s a little too snarky for my taste, so nowadays I have the classic “they’re still doing this?” reaction.

I happened to catch this year’s list of nominees and noticed that an actress from the remake of Firestarter got a nod for worst actress. I didn’t recognize her name, but I couldn’t figure out what character the unknown actress could possibly be playing. The mother‘s role is too small to qualify as a lead, and it couldn’t be the titular character. There’s no way they would take a cheap shot at a 12 year old girl, right? Right?

Nope, they did indeed think it was hilarious to mock a pre-teen girl. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and following a backlash the nomination was pulled and going forward they will no longer include performers younger than 18. It should have never come to that; was there no adult in the room to say what a bad idea that was to begin with? Not their finest moment, perhaps this is what will send the Razzies into the same dustbin of history where Mr. Blackwell’s 10 worst dressed list resides.

SNL Preview

Michael B. Jordan makes his hosting debut this weekend, and he promises to bring movie star charisma to the Studio 8H stage. Dramatic actors have a hit or miss history as show hosts. Sometimes you get a Jessica Chastain or Adam Driver who really nail it. Sometimes you get a Russell Crowe about whose hosting stint the less said the better. Jordan doesn’t have much comedy experience in the past, so it’s a legitimate question to ask if it will be a memorable night. He’s an exceptionally talented guy, so I’m hoping for the best.

Corrections

When I took a look at the Oscar nominees, as I saw the name Jon Landau listed as one of the producers on Avatar: The Way Of Water I immediately assumed (insert Odd Couple reference) it was THAT Jon Landau. As it turned out it’s a different guy with the same name. I swiftly fired my entire fact checking staff. Please move along, nothing to see here.

In Closing

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