So I flipped on the tv tonight to check if the Celtics game was still on, only to see that they’d just lost 109-104 to the Oklahoma City Thunder. I took a shower, checked a couple other channels, and was just surfing the web with the Celtics post-game show on in the background. That was, until I heard Kevin Garnett say something to the effect of, “I thought we were playing against Michael fucking Jordan with the way he (Kevin Durant) was getting calls tonight. He takes more free throws than our entire team … that’s the game right there.”
At that moment I realized, wow, I need to appreciate this while I still can:
a professional athlete who pours every ounce of himself into every game he plays in, and who genuinely cares about the outcome, almost to a point that’s unhealthy. Paul Pierce was appropriately somber, doling out typical post-loss clichés, and it was clear that he was pissed too. But KG was devastated. He wouldn’t look up and make eye contact with the reporters in front of him. He spoke only in short, mumbled sentences, and he got up and left as fast as he could.
And the thing is, he’s like this after every loss.
It’s not like they just lost a Finals game or even a playoff game. This was game number 74 of the regular season, against a team that’s not in their conference, and that they would most likely not meet in the NBA finals if they made it there. Garnett was just legitimately upset that the team he plays for lost to another team. He was upset enough that he didn’t bother censoring himself on live tv. In the era of exploding salaries and egos, we see fewer and fewer professional athletes that care about winning and losing just for the sake of winning and losing.
Which is why I stopped what I was doing and watched the rest of the post-game show. Appreciate the Kevin Garnett’s of the sports world while you still can.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
KG = The Man
Monday, March 29, 2010
Science Fiction: We Run Shit Now
I like Dashboard Confessional and lots of other soft music. And karaoke. And computers. And xkcd. And video games. And math. And history. And blogs about technology and software and all other kinds of stuff. And I absolutely love science fiction.
I am quite definitely a science fiction guy. But I haven't always waved that banner with pride. I started out as a Star Wars guy. I read the entire Young Jedi Knights series between 4th grade and probably 8th. I went on to read The New Jedi Order Series, the X-Wing Series, and The Legacy of the Force series. I tell people I have read 100 Star Wars books, and I don't think that's an exaggeration. Really. And now that I feel *almost* grown up, I've graduated to all sorts of television shows, movies, and books that are the lifeblood of science fiction, whether classic or cutting edge. And I'm probably a dork for it all. But lately, it feels like it's something I can be proud of. Why? Let me show you.
So you all probably know of my complete obsession with Scrubs (at least the first 8 seasons). I think that obsession says a lot about me. You see, the main character is a certain John Dorian (Zach Braff)
, and at times he is the most typical guy, but at other times (the times that make him the character that all fans of the show love and adore) he is absolutely atypical. He is sensitive and girly and soft and so... un-macho. And people love it. For example (and there are a million), in one episode that I can't remember too much about, JD goes to a bar with Turk and Dr. Cox and they drink beer. It's a guys night out. And at some point JD refers to it as his night to pretend he likes beer. And after saying that, you watch him choke some beer down like it was his first time; he totally hates it. He'd much rather have a delicious appletini! And I think people love him, especially this atypical guy side, because of some larger shift in what is "cool" that has been going on in our culture. Maybe not from top to bottom, but it feels like the "edgy" groups in our society have stamped out trails that, in one way or another, show the rest of us that it's OK and even trendy to just own up to being un-macho, un-cool, un-popular, and just un- in general. Don't be the typical guy. Don't have the typical interests. Be yourself.
And I think me, and apparently lots of other people in the country, are getting that message. We're just being ourselves and owning up to our interests. We're reading dork comics and writing dork blogs and wearing dork tee-shirts. We're OK with that. And some girls seem to like that. I swear to God, I have told girls I have courted on first dates that I am a huge sci-fi fan and they have gone on to make out with me. Certainly not BECAUSE of that, but maybe IN SPITE of it? Either way, we made out, and they knew I was a dork.
But this isn't an article about bucking trends and being yourself. And it certainly is NOT an article about the Doctor getting with chicks. Let's save that for another time (like when you bring that sexy mother of yours around ;) ). It's about science fiction! Of all the dork things that people can buy into and obsess over, I think it's suffered a great deal in terms of general acceptance. It's a label that's been worn by the forerunners of the genre, a banner they've carried, that probably hasn't won them any popularity contests in times and decades when jocks and rock-and-roll and drugs ruled the scene. When high school was a death sentence for people that quoted Star Wars and had fake lightsaber battles (think the Geeks of Freaks and Geeks).
But it isn't that way anymore. Read this list before we go on:
Time travel
Super powers
Aliens
Space travel
Hoverboards
Holograms
Seeing the future
Radiological mutants
Mythology
Ghosts
Robots
Seen any movies or television shows with anything like that in them? Read any books, comics, cereal boxes? Science fiction is EVERYWHERE! Let's start with TV. Lost, V, Flash Forward, Heroes and Fringe are primetime TV shows on major networks! Dig a little deeper and you find Doctor Who, Dollhouse, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Star Trek, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Smallville, and Torchwood, all quality programs that have been on TV recently or are on now.
How about movies? I Am Legend, Hancock, Avatar, Spiderman, Iron Man
, Push, Monsters vs. Aliens, The Road, Watchmen, District 9, Cloverfield, Wall-E, Transformers, and Jumper have all come out in the past 3 years! I'm sure we could list a hundred more that you've seen or want to see. And a hundred more you will see.
Books? Try Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter. Twilight. And many, many others that are just soaring with popularity.
The fact of the matter is that Science Fiction is enjoying a golden age right now, and I'm so psyched to be experiencing it. Not only is it awesome to see pop culture accessing these really awesome stories and universes and ideas, but it's also made it so much easier to find the classics. I've had no trouble whatsoever finding lists of Top X Classic Sci Fi authors I need to read. And I've read them. And Bradbury and Vonnegut and Wells and Verne and Asimov and Le Guin and Orwell and Dick and Huxley have started fires on my lap and made crinks in my neck as I've read almost constantly. And new and amazing science fiction keeps getting churned out! Cory Doctorow, Neal Stephenson, Ted Chiang to name a few. All beyond amazing.
Not to mention the films I've gotten a hold of. Akira. Being John Malkovich. Primer. Blade Runner. Logan's Run. Alien. The Abyss. Planet of the Apes. 2001: A Space Odyssey. A diverse list with many spots left to fill. And I still have classics to look forward to delving into, which is a treasure I cherish. But I also have cutting edge material to expect and enjoy, and I have no doubt that I will. And I think a lot of people will. I also hope they get to enjoy some of the classics at some point. Books and movies and television shows. There's such amazing work out there. And it's even more amazing in a time where it's not only acceptable, but it's cool. It's trendy. It's wanted. So let go of your preconceived notions and just dive in.
I guess I should leave off by wondering aloud the real question I've skirted: why? Why is science fiction catching on? Why is the population at large seemingly grabbing hold of it and loving it like a child? First of all, I think that as much as different entertainment media offer people escape, nothing gets us as far from ourselves as something that is entirely imagined but very believable. Second, as science digs so much deeper into the truths of the universe, the hypothesized futures laid out before us in the realm of science fiction become more palatable. We can see these things happening, and it's fun to imagine them before they are realized. It's also super interesting to imagine the problems that our advancements may cause, and it's useful to try to predict the hard questions and difficult problems that might arise. Third, there are some classics that paved the way. 
Star Wars. Back to the Future. Ghost Busters. The people liked it, and they got more of it. Fourth and final, it's just damn cool. Super powers. The force. Light sabers. Space travel. Time machines. It's so cool! We all wish for these breakthroughs in science to occur as quickly as possible. But until they do, we'll just have to imagine them. And we will. And we are. And it's amazing.
Science Fiction runs shit now. Get used to it.
Yours,
Doctor Dozer