At the NFL level it’s all about tactics and strategy, as much as about athletic prowess. That’s why it’s so popular in the US where ability to squeeze the rules as far as possible to win a game is more important than physically beating the pants off the other team.
I’m not into either of them, but college football is more about the players.
I’m generally sports agnostic - love getting into a match if I have time, but otherwise there are other things I’d rather be doing.
That said…there is nothing like seeing an American football game in a packed stadium. It’s the Coliseum in ancient Rome. Sheer spectacle. The crowd noise focused on the field (this is the “12th Man” that can make a difference for a team), a well-executed drive, breakaway runs, it can be quite thrilling. We have friends with season tix and get to go a couple times a year. However, watching on television has the paradox of being easier to understand thanks to replays and also dreadful as the frequent stoppage results in more adverts.
i’m not a fan either. i don’t like the culture, and i don’t like that it’s basically a pipeline that over a lifetime turns abnormally large kids into CTE vegetables.
but i will say this: there’s something about the flow of the game that i find interesting - it’s a series of small battles within the context of one big battle. in that way it’s a little more like actual human war than most other sports. i can’t think of too many other sports that do that. it’s not a game of two halves - it’s the strategizing and execution of about 120 tiny battles a game, most of which end up in a stalemate.
still, not a fan. even with all the armor, it’s a meat grinder.
edit: adding this quote from the great george carlin, it illustrates the football-as-war thing pretty well: "what is football- our national pastime game now, it is. and what is it except eleven people line up, beat the shit out of the other guys and take their land. it’s a ground acquisition game. 'cept we only take it ten yards at a time. that’s what we did to the Indians- work 'em a little bit at a time. “first down in pennsylvania… midwest to go”
Interesting comment about war/football. Games like this are characterised as invasion games where you effectively have to storm the opponents territory to score. The playbook to do so is probably not too dissimilar to an infantry field manual with specific manoeuvres which can be deployed depending on the circumstances. Football (actual proper soccer football) is becoming similar with more focus on set piece plays and tactical movements to outwit the opponent. I’m definitely more interested in this side of it than I used to be. Maybe because I’m usually sober now when I’m watching!
Jordan North.
Annoying tit!
I don’t get how I hosted a radio show for 15 years and developed a very strong following only to have a new station manager and music director come along and deem the show “too cerebral”. It covered a massive spectrum of music and sure some of it had ambient elements but on any given week you’d hear bluegrass, drum and bass, footstep, indie, punk, acid house, latin jazz…etc etc etc.
The shows the station adores play old funk and re-edits which, like mixing only house records, is like shooting fish in a barrel as far as basic bitch behaviour goes. It’s left me really heartbroken and bitter at the way my legacy there was disrespected.
Has anybody got any NTS contacts? ie - somewhere that appreciates real music?
Sorry to hear that.
This is shocking to read
if you post some vague details about how the station can be contacted, we can write and express our displeasure at the cancellation of your show.
Thanks for the kind offer. It’s ok though - i’ll let my next success do the talking and show them what they’re missing.
Yes, it’s a shame where the station seems to be headed. There are still some interesting shows, but lot’s in that time slot are completely interchangeable due to their very pedestrian edits/disco/house playlists. I always viewed you (and referred to you as) Australia’s contemporary John Peel. Always lots of new and interesting stuff from a very broad spectrum.
I don’t get why anyone would go to an “electronic music festival” in Saudi Arabia.
Usual suspects in David Guetta, Solomun and RV playing. Must be some serious, tax free, petro dollars on offer. (See also Saudi football leagues, LIV golf and heavyweight boxing).
Money over morals.
Always the ones you least suspect, eh?
All funded by the regime. It’s a calculated trade off by MBS. Give his subjects some of what they want and they’ll continue to support the Saudi royal family without question. And those that do question don’t come out of it very well.
It’s all for the benefit of his subjects, rather than foreigners although it also projects an image of modernisation to the rest of the world
Huge choreographed spectactacles have always appealed to tyrants around the world, pretty much from Nuremberg onwards. And the nature and bombast of stadium electronic music means it fits hand in glove with those messianic pretensions. I don’t think it is a coincidence that a lot of the ex-Soviet republics love this stuff and the Gulf states too.
Too right - I always read RV as Harvey!!
I did have to do a double-take on that one too for the same reason! 
RV = Ray Vaughn no ?
I don’t get reaction videos. Why would anybody be the slightest bit interested in watching you pretend to hear something for the first time? Fuck off…
HarriBest is quite entertaining because he has a certain charisma but most of them are pure clickbait and just feign interest