Hobart Mini-Reviews: Grantland
Again, we’ve been meaning, for some time, to give the Ho’ blog something of a reboot, and doing more reviews (of chapbooks, poetry, whatever other stuff we like round these parts but don’t actually focus on too much with Hobart proper) has been one of our priorities. Again, we’ll see if we can’t stay more consistent and regular than we’ve been in the past.
First up, I thought I’d look at Grantland. It’s a week old and maybe you’re reading it and maybe you aren’t. Thoughts?
Design
I like it. Its clean and simple, aspects I’ve especially been trying to think a lot about lately with websites. Also: I like reading it on my new iPad. That said, the “archived” stuff is kinda wonky and hard to find/navigate, no? Which made finding all this stuff a little tricky, but whatever.
Simmons’ Introduction
Solid start. Reading an anecdote or two about the beginnings of Jimmy Kimmel’s show was fun. This: “a quarterly publication we’re doing with McSweeney’s” caught me by surprise, and though I’m not 100% sure, I think I’m excited about it. I’d be more excited if they asked me to write for it. (This goes for Grantland in general. Ignore the fact that I can’t actually write very interestingly about sports. I can compile stuff good though!)
Klosterman’s 3-man basketball team story
This is awesome. I loved it. Also, this site is in general reminding me how much I love well-done mixing of sports and pop culture and life, and I think Simmons and Klosterman are two of the guys that do this the best. Am I wrong?
Grantland’s Reality TV Fantasy League
This seems kinda rad, though would probably be much moreso if I watched TV.
The HBO Recycling Program
I love watching HBO shows, and reading about them, and thinking about them, and this also includes one of the coolest graphics I’ve seen in a while.
Space, Time, and DVR Mechanics
More Klosterman. It got a little trying-to-overthink-and-overapply-madeup-theories-in-an-almost-too-much-pot-seemingly-smoked-kind-of-way for me and I ended up skimming.
Dave Eggers writing about Wrigley
I didn’t read this. Should I?
Something about Super 8 and director mentoring
I somehow completely missed this until just now looking back and trying to compile links. I’ll probably check it out at some point. I saw Super 8 and liked it just fine but it isn’t going to withstand the tests of time or anything.
Tom Bissell reviews L.A. Noire
The last time I played video games with any regularity was probably the N64, and the last time I played one at all was probably years ago, too, but I kinda love reading Bissell write about them. Some cool stuff about narrative here (specifically re: their limitations in video games, but just in general its interesting, I think).
Something about self-awareness in today’s NBA
This was maybe the only thing I’ve read yet that I just didn’t like. Maybe I didn’t get it. A presumption that would seem to be enforced by checking out the author’s blog.
Another Simmons piece about basketball
This is his wheelhouse, this is the stuff that’s generally the best.
Simmons’ retro diary of the NBA Finals game 6
1) See above. 2) I kinda love his running diaries. 2a) Esp. when they are about LeBron losing in the Finals.
Klosterman writing about the NBA’s half-court rule
I really, really dug this, and kept finding myself surprised I’d never really thought about the seemingly absurd-/arbitrariness of this rule before.
The importance of Ichiro
I think this was trying too hard at that “importance” for me, with it often seeming just barely out of its grasp, but it was still an interesting piece and, you know, I <3 Ichiro.
Moneyball 2.0
Likewise, this veered a little too sabermetric-y for me at times, but when it was keeping more plainspoken about it all, I was with it.
Are spoilers changing what screenwriters write?
More Klosterman, another of my favorite pieces. I love pieces that kind of reach at an interesting but maybe overargued theory while aknowledging, “I’m not suggesting that my hypothesis should be unilaterally accepted…” but not shying away to follow-up with, “But I do know this…”
The death of online poker
Posits that, while making it illegal was stupid, it has brought poker back to the diehards, instead of all the post Internet poker book bandwagon jumpers, which is cool. Plus this is written by one of the writers of Rounders, which I love maybe more than is cool to admit. I really, really liked this piece, and mostly just wish that id had gone longer/more in-depth. I could have read this at 3x as long, easily.
OK. I apparently have read much more of this site in the last week than I thought. I’ve read a few other things too (like the Kanye piece, which I just don’t really find it necessary to mention, unfort.), and have generally skipped anything hockey-related. I was going to try to write more, and better, about each of these, but then they quickly piled up and I found myself repeating “I liked it” over and over again, like the longform version of going down a Grantland facebook feed, but ah well.
Leave Note / Reblog
grantland BillSimmons ChuckKlosterman Mini-Reviews
