Thursday’s With Raider: Episode Twelve- This Train Will Be Delayed…
Editors Note: For anyone new to the blog. Each week my brother from another mother Raider Ute and I email each other on some topic and then we see where it goes and publish it here. We hope you enjoy. For those of you who are regulars, the 4th of July and some life stuff got in the way so we bring you a short version this week. And it is on Sunday, not Thursday.
MAC starts this week
First let me apologize. To let our readers in behind the curtain, Raider and I spend an entire week crafting this comedy and journalistic gold and I started a day late this week. I blame the mind searing heat here in the greater Tucson area. But between my late start and the Celebration of the Birth of Our Nation, I’m not sure how long of a Thursday’s w/ Raider you kids will get this week. But you’ll get something damnit, the show must go on.
Now on to the show. And I must start with something, I have a new show, Falling Skies. It features that guy from ER and the assistant coach from Remember the Titans fighting aliens. Have you seen this? I find it wildly entertaining.
Second, the previous season of Dexter comes to Itunes. I’m a season behind on Dexter because I won’t pay $60 for the right to pay $15 for the right to watch Dexter. That show rocks
Third, the final season of Breaking Bad begins in two weeks. Another fantastic show.
Now as many of our readers may or may not know you work in television for one of the network stations. The theme of the shows that I mention above are that they are not on network television. You it would seem are somewhat forced to watch the crap that is on those stations. Does it ever give you a headache? Are you on the Two and a Half Men or the Tim Allen station? Do you ever want to kill yourself?
The basketball schedule came out late last week and I’m not sure we gave it the true long form treatment it deserves? Before I continue my rant, do you have any more reaction?
Harvey Langi goes on a mission, does he return to the U when he comes back? If so does he return at running back? Think he has the size for an NFL linebacker?
What else is happening in the world of Raider? Have you found a woman? Since we’re in a dead week I thought I’d ask.
I await your replies.
Raider says something back
I suppose it was going to be a matter of time before I sort of spill the beans and say that, yes, I do work in the TV version of the broadcast business. Anyone that knows who I am and has known me for a while is fully aware of the fact that I’ve been in the showbiz game since I was 19 years old, but now is as good of a time as any to get all that out of the way.But I must mention that I’m to the point–and I’ve been at this point for a lot of years–where I don’t watch a lot of television outside of work. Outside of sporting events (and I love the hell out of MLB.tv and NHL Gamecenter) I just have the mindset that watching conventional television is tantamount to bringing my work home with me. Any woman I’ve dated over the years just can not stand watching a movie or a TV show with me. It could be due to one of the following things:
1. I always watch the credits. My ex-girlfriend would stop whatever movie or show we were watching as the actual content ended and I’d get a little annoyed? The conversation went something like this:
Me: “Hey, I wasn’t done watching yet!”
Ex: “You wanted to watch the credits?!?!?”
Me: “Yeah, if you don’t watch the credits, it’s like you just went to the homes of everyone in the cast and lit a bag of dog manure on their front porch!”
Ex: “God, you’re insane.”
(I may or may not have been drinking at the time I said that, but I probably was.)
2. There’s this bad habit I have of cracking jokes during a show, and I think all of the years of watching old “Mystery Science Theater 3000” movies have changed how I look at anything that comes out of Hollywood. But once a MSTie, always a MSTie I suppose.
3. When I’m on vacation, I just can’t help but watch the local newscasts in that particular market. Many years ago during my Giants/Mariners roadie in Seattle, I was watching one of the local newscats (I think it might have been KOMO, don’t really remember). But they did all of their newscats not from a newsdesk in a studio, but right in the middle of their own news room. I thought it looked contrived and cheap, and it bothered me for the remainder of my trip. Hi, my name’s Raider and I’m a workaholic.
However, you did mention the one show I have enjoyed in the past several years and that is “Dexter” (by my own admission, one Julie Benz is the primary reason for me watching this series and she makes me want to join whatever religious faith she may be a practicing member of. Well, except Scientology). Now, bear in mind here that I haven’t seen anything past the middle of season three so if any of you out there in the interwebs spoil every episode for me after that I’m going to slice you up into small pieces. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
You asked me on Twitter Thursday night about what my impressions of the Warriors draft pick(s) were. Harrison Barnes will likely be the typical Warrior: good shooter, kind of undersized for his position, defense may leave something to be desired. So basically the new Warrior whipping boy, GM Bob Myers just drafted Dorell Wright 2.0. Fine, whatever. We’ll just trade Dorell for some other mid-level junk that doesn’t fit with what we have. Still, I have to look at who the Pistons drafted at #10 (Andre Drummond) and think to myself “man, I really hope Warrior fans aren’t sitting here five years from now wishing we had taken him”. Welcome to hell, son.
As for Langi, you don’t think…nah, there’s no way that he’d transfer to…you know, that one school we used to play at the end of November every year. I’ve written my thoughts on this fascination this program seems to have with converting QBs into weak side linebackers and such, but I would love to see you or someone else entertain a scenario where Langi leaves the program–or more accurately–doesn’t return to the program after his mission. Maybe he goes to Weber and leads them to an FCS national title or something?
I will conclude with this article I read this afternoon referencing what may be the greatest example of trolling on the internet since we found out that Tom Amstutz will be the next Utah football head coach. Since All-Star voting in baseball doesn’t matter to me all that much and I’m sure it matters less to you, Pablo Sandoval was voted in as a starter for the NL over the darling of Flushing Queens paisanos David Wright. But it was this quote that really struck me:
“I’ve joked and needled about the Giants becoming Red Sox West — a previously cursed, suddenly omnipresent fan base that is both legion and obnoxious — but I didn’t expect it to actually happen.”
To defend my fellow Giants fans, I’ve probably been legion and obnoxious since the 2nd grade, but did it really come to this? Am I really part of this type of fandom, even though unlike the Red Sox our games aren’t on ESPN or FOX every single day and the vast majority of our home games start when 2/3rds of the country is asleep? I mean, I could tell you and your readers that I used to wait until the sun set as a kid so I could listen to Giants games on the radio at night, but I don’t know if you’d believe it.
Now if you all will excuse me, I’m going to find out who the Best Boy Grip was in the movie “Step Brothers”.
And MAC
As for Mr. Langi, I believe the Riley Nelson rule means he’ll have to get a release from Utah and Utah to allow him to play for BYU in order for that to happen and I’m guessing it won’t.
The rule is named for Riley because BYU under Bronco decided to go back on an age old agreement not to poach missionaries. Since more and more schools are recruiting kids who go on missions, I wonder if BYU really thought major schools would just sit by and allow BYU to pressure their athletes. Those guys amaze me.
As for Dexter and Ms. Benz, you really should catch up.
I’m becoming less and less of a TV junkie the older I get. I almost never invest myself in a new series as it’s likely to get cancelled. If something turns out to be good and is a hit, I’ll catch up on Netflix or something.
As for baseball, I have literally lost my patience to watch a game on TV if it isn’t a big game or a playoff game. I don’t know what happened but a game in late July featuring the Angels and a guy they just called up from the Bees against the Royals and whatever scrub they’re throwing out there, I just can’t find myself to care. I think its one of the great appeals of soccer, over in two hours, almost guaranteed.
Giants fans, now I can just never see them being as douchy as Red Sox fans. First of all, even after the World Series, how many people became bandwagon Red Sox fans. I’m guessing fewer than pretend they were BIGTIME Angels fans prior to 2002. I hate the Red Sox more than the Yankees now, much more, and its because of all these bandwagon. All these people who have pretended to suffer with a curse who don’t know Clemens pitched for the Red Sox let alone that a true Sox fan would know Bucky Dent’s middle name to them is Effing (well not Effing by I’ve been asked to limit the swearing)
And to conclude, how about this Ms. Katie Holmes/Mr. Tom Cruise divorce. They’re saying its because he’s a batshit crazy Scientologist, but then again, he was a batshit crazy Scientologist six years ago. So I wonder what happened.
BTW is Chris Peterson the coach of Boise St. a Scientologist? I’ve heard that and I think that is just odd.
Raider concludes
As we have been sidetracked by things like the eating of hot dogs and watching thousands of fireworks all explode at the same time (fitting of course that something like this would would happen in San Diego), I do recall something from Rick Majerus’s book……Rick mentioned in “My Life on a Napkin” that he believed that Britton Jonhnsen’s development as a basketball player was curtailed by the fact that he went on a mission. Could this happen to Langhi? I’d love to see a study done on athletes who go on missions at some point. If not college athletes, just people in general who go on missions.
(Yes, I’m sure that many will take offense to being considered mere science experiments, but I believe this would be tailor made for the U of U. Do research, son!)
Its a shame that you don’t have much patience for baseball, because the Giants did play a game that was what you love about futbol. The Phillies were in town and it was Matt Cain v. Cliff Lee taking the mound. I’m keeping tabs on the game at work and getting into it and I notice its not even 10:00 yet and its already in the bottom of the 8th. Both pitchers graced the scoreboard with a whole bunch of zeros and both of them threw about 80 pitches each and into the 10th, it was still scoreless. To make a long story short, Melky Cabrera drove in the game’s only run in the bottom of the 10th and the Giants would win the game 1-0. Here’s the amazing part of that contest though: the time of the game was 2 hours, 15 minutes. Had it ended in nine innings, it would have been completed in less than 2 hours. So for those of you asking “hey, how do you speed up the game”? Well, as with most things in life, Matt Cain has provided you with an answer.
See, I just figured that, like most people, it wasnt Scientology so much as the fact that Katie Holmes is a woman that was the problem in that marriage. I’m not married, so I’m not as willing to be wrong as a lot of others.
Not to seem like I’m defending Petersen or BSU in general, but I think Pete may be a Scientologist in the sense that I am a literary scholar because I read one of the articles in an issue of Playboy. Of all the insane “trying just a little too hard” things Boise State tends to do, Chris Petersen is probably the most sane and well adjusted person associated with that program. So maybe he isn’t a Scientologist but he read “Dianetics” once?