The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.
Tuesday February 24, 2015
The dumbest obsession, late night shtick, Alex Rodriguez on the road to redemption
Enough about the weather…
I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. It’s one of the only outlets I have to say goofy stuff to all my friends so that’s a plus. I can (very limitedly) expose people to my blogs on there, too. But more and more Facebook is becoming as boring as any forced elevator conversation. Do we seriously have nothing better to do than complain about the weather? Or talk about how nice the weather is? Read something, say something, do something. Just stop talking about the weather. It’s just the weather. GAH!
Note: talking about the weather and talking about people talking about the weather are two different things, so trying to put me in that box doesn’t work.
Late night TV, for better or for worse
Every day I see a story about late night talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel or Fallon doing some ridiculous, random thing with celebrities and I’m not sure what to think of it. For example, today it’s Christina Aguilera impersonating Britney Spears and saxophonist Kenny G and rapper Warren G performing together. I suppose it’s funny, but the novelty of this sort of thing will wear off and late night hosts will eventually have to return to actual comedy.
My all-time favorite bit in this vein, though, is when Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and Ewan McGregor teamed up against Fallon and Charles Barkley in charades. Tweedy and Barkley are two of my favorite people in such different ways, and seeing a huge movie star like McGregor involved made it even better. Check it out.
Redemption for A-Rod?
Giving people a chance to redeem themselves is just the best. Alex Rodriguez has been one of the most (rightly) vilified people in baseball over the last several years. He’s arrogant (in a bad way, not a fun way), he lied about taking steroids and then kept taking them, and then seemed to blame everybody but himself for his actions.
Rodriguez has made large strides to dig himself out of that hole, though. It began with a handwritten apology to fans for all the stuff he’s done. Even more recently he publicly apologized and said he is “embarrassed” about his behavior in the last two years. Perhaps these are damage control measures, but that he can swallow his pride and do it still says something. After all, he could take the Lance Armstrong low road and continue being awful.
Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He is also a contributor for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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