The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy by Bill Simmons. Read an excerpt in which Simmons discusses his theory for why Patrick Ewing is the 39th greatest NBA player ever.
It's Christmas time. Here for your listening/downloading pleasure are a few indie-types playing holiday songs both classic and original.
Tonight I found myself reading a piece by Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker. The article, entitled "How David Beats Goliath: When Underdogs Break the Rules", examines the strategies, both successful and unsuccessful, employed by underdogs when facing heavy favorites. Like most of Gladwell's writing, the article is bent towards the cerebral, jumping from junior-high girls basketball to Lawrence of Arabia to the Traveller Trillion Credit Squadron tournament (a naval war game) and back. Still, I found the lessons for success to be intriguingly practical: effort trumps ability; play to your strengths and away from your weaknesses; don't be afraid to challenge conventional wisdom. You can read the article at the link below. Also, check out Gladwell's blog if you are interested.
Panhandle II © Mark Feiden
While sitting in the doctor's office yesterday, I read an interesting article in Sports Illustrated entitled "The Hoops Whisperer", highlighting NBA trainer Idan Ravine. The article, which is actually an excerpt from Chris Ballard's book The Art of the Beautiful Game, explores Ravine's unorthodox training methods and the intimate attention he pays to his clients' psyche. The article reminded me of something you might find in a Malcolm Gladwell book. Though this article features NBA athletes, the principles of psychology Ravin uses to tailor his approach to each client are useful regardless of industry. The article, which you can access through the link below, is well worth the five minutes it takes to read.
Animal Collective release a new EP today entitled Fall Be Kind. I just bought it on iTunes. I love love love the track "What Would I Want? Sky". Check it out below. In other news, I wish fall would be more kind to me.
My new favorite iPhone application is Words with Friends. Basically it's an asynchronous game of Scrabble. I can't get enough - especially with the epic battle currently underway with Ben Rector. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you need this app. Oh, and my user name is just my first and last name. Find me on there and we'll play!
Beach House drops their new album Teen Dream (cover art above) on January 26. Listen to/download a new track "Norway" below.
I didn't pick up Laura Veirs most recent album, but I loved Year of Meteors when it dropped in 2005. Her upcoming album July Flame is released on January 12. Enjoy two tracks from the album below. She is very smooth.