I got to watch Lakers vs. Pistons over dinner.
Los Angeles: Smug and silent Phil Jackson with his godawful faustian facial hair, Karl Malone still built like a damn horse, O'Neal's untoned gigantism, Gary Payton--who, to me at least, seems to be giving off palpable point-guard brain waves when he's on the court--and Kobe always stepping low and long. It's them vs. The Pistons: big n' veiny Ben Wallace and the Non-Entities.
(Added plus: the Lakers' insufferable Rick Fox was injured)
The Lakers were consistently down by 7, but the announcers cast every missed basket by Detroit as a failure of character on the Pistons' part. Despite the collective will of the sportscasters' table, the Pistons held on pretty easily. Hoo-ah.
Next on ESPN was some reality show called Totally Hooked, the reality show where Nik [sic] and Danan [sic] get to fish all over the world with girls who look like this:
http://www.fhmus.com/images/girls/totallyhooked/4med.jpg
Whether it was awful or genius, I couldn't decide. Certainly these women may be to the non-ironic truckerhat demographic what Tina Fey is to the ironic truckerhat demographic.
But I decided that, while sitting in Africa watching crappy American reality TV is arguable stupid, to sit and participate in ESPN's attempted shift toward reality/dramatic programming is to passively accept the deadening of the world. Another proud creative force brought low by the rat:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38370000/jpg/_38370263_mickey_150.jpg
Come along and sing a song and join our jamboree? When it snows in Accra, you sick little rodent.
