“ And even now, I’m writing things I want to write, for money. Which isn’t the worst way in the world to make a living”
Figured I’d comment on this as a young guy who quit his job at the end of 2020 to write for himself for a living. I’m certainly not making the kind of living that I was or that you are, Matt. Yes, I left a job I hated to do what I loved. But I had zero debt, some money saved up, and no dependents. If I had a family, I would never have taken that kind of leap. So your answer to Lucky Guy is pretty spot on.
You too??!! I enjoy the Winter Olympics, not for the spectacle but for my inner sport geek. Curling is an awesome example. Doesn't spending a lifetime just trying to determine the temperature of ice as you rub a broom across seem a little like worrying about which fly is going to attract a fish? In the final analysis, they mean little but a certain satisfaction in doing an obscure thing well. Plus, you can easily drink a beer while doing both. Is that really something you're going to diss? If not that, then how about my new hero: Nick Baumgartner. A 40 year old snowboarder who lives in the UP of Michigan and built his own racing track in his front, side, and back yards. Tell me that is not cool!! Jeez!! ''Better to burn out than fade away.'' ;-)
Well, you said the magic words: 40 year old who is still competing. (I hated Tom Brady until he passed 40, then I couldn't stop rooting for him.) And racing track in his backyard. Who of us wouldn't want that? So here's hoping he brings home gold. (Maybe he's already washed out - I'm just not watching it.) But here's hoping all our guys (and girls) bring home gold. I'm pro USA athlete. And respect what they do, even as the Chinese are tapping their phones in the Olympic village. Bastards that they are. I'm just not a big Winter Olympics fan. Nor am I fan of the corrupt Olympic committee that steered this crap-show to the country of the most corrupt human-rights violators in the world. So there's more to this for me than snowboarding. Even though there's nothing wrong with snowboarding. And I would love for us to humiliate our hosts, medal-count-wise. But doesn't look like that's happening as of yet.
There was a time not long ago that we as a family gathered around the tv to watch everything Olympics. It seems today it is barely even a story. What happened to "USA! USA!" What happened to the pride in wearing something Red White and Blue during the Olympics? Getting you morning beverage at work or water cooler and talking about the previous nights events? I must include myself in this group of non-followers.
I also think that streaming and a thousand channels is a big part of it. As a cord cutter, it is hard to find what is showing up where. Plus, the too detailed ''personalizing'' became a little too much for me. These days I want a expert telling me what is going on: techniques, strategy etc. I don't care that they are competing for the memory of their grandmother's dead cat.
I guess you are right. That being the case IMO I can point to 2 specific things that started or ramped up the Big Money. 1980 US Men's Hockey and 1992 Dream Team. Both allowed big business to capitalize on amazing National Pride moments in history.
OK, Matt, that's it! Now you're crabbing about the Olympics??? I would never say that it's pointless - except for curling, since the "competitors" actually HAVE to be baked just to "play". Nor would I ever say that watching figure skating is a waste of time. No, it's a waste of electricity, actually. As far as clouds are concerned, I like looking at them trying to reckon shapes. I ignore verses especially stupid ones except when playing my ukulele. "Unpleasant work" is not noble; it's unpleasant and it's work. I think Trump said something about the Noble Prize, though.
So, I guess I'll have to join you in boycotting the Olympics. How will I survive? Guess I should check with Boris.
I love this column, even the grouchiness, bitching and whining! Keep on keepin’ on! I didn’t watch one second of the Olympics and I’m happy as can be! But don’t get me started on the 20 degree temperatures here in Texas.
Thanks again for a thoughtful, incredibly well done read. There is a Canadian sports reporter in Beijing named Cathal Kelly, who is almost as entertaining to read as you are, and I thought you might appreciate his take on the opening ceremony. I read this (on paper, that I paid for, because I’m either a rube, at an idealist kicking at the darkness), and thought “this guy is trying to get kicked out of China) Good for him. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-watching-the-olympic-opening-ceremonies-has-become-a-force-of-habit/
Wow, When I read the responses to the first two questions I was thinking "Pull up! Pull up!" cause I felt you were nose diving with cynicism iced wings. (Not that I disagree but seemed odd for you.) But, alas, Mr. Positive Spin came through in the end. Absolutely loved your comments on the heroism of doing what needs to be done. There is a higher calling than doing solely for yourself and I like to believe that doing what needs to be done for others eventually reaps just rewards. Not necessarily what you imagine you want cause "You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes well you just might find, You get what you need." Thanks for the reminder.
So winter athletes aren’t athletes. I invite you to race the men’s downhill - or the women’s. Or launch off the large hill ski jump - or the small hill.
Where we agree. It is manifest hypocrisy that the International Olympic Committee awarded the games to China. I’m sure we could live for decades and pass a nice inheritance to our children on just a small slice of the kickbacks.
Of course this is old hat for the IOC who awarded the Olympics twice to Hitler - summer and winter games. I’d argue Hitler is a tough act for Zhi to follow. Prior to both Hitler’s Olympics and Zhi’s there was pious chest pounding by the US and others amounting to …. Nothing!
These Olympics should have been pulled from China and awarded to venues that currently have all the infrastructure to host on short notice: Calgary, Vancouver, Salt Lake, etc.
Thanks, River Rouge. I was just being a cranky jerk. (All the Olympic athletes work very hard, even the ones in the "sliding" competitions, which sound more like accidents than actual athletic events). Don't take it too seriously, River Rouge. My main objective was just to rag on China! That part, I was serious about.
China has richly earned all the ragging we can throw at them. But the IOC has once again shown their true colors: how many will recall that these idealists of sportsmanship awarded the Olympic Games to Hitler, not once, but twice. Winter and summer Olympics in 1936. So Xi is in Bad Company. The IOC should have repositioned the games on short notice to a venue that could host without having to build anything new: Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Grenoble and probably more. Shame on them! A tithe of the bakish paid by China to get the games could support half of Afghanistan.
Regarding sliding sports - especially skiing - this is up my alley. I skied for a Canadian University where we carried 9 skiers: the top 5 where Canadian National Team - not me down at 8th. Alpine ski racing requires incredible strength, balance, agility and courage - the risk of serious injury, and worse, lurks just below the next gate. These athletes deserve our respect.
No argument there. Skiing is hard work. And I think someone should write the contrarian piece: "Hitler Reconsidered - He Put On a Great Olympic Games." You go first! No, I hear you on the IOC. They're a group of shady little punks who are getting exactly what they deserve: record low ratings. That's what they get for climbing into bed with modern Hitler.
Given the insanity and sociopathy of America's so-called leaders, how will I know when to expatriate from what once was, "...the greatest country in the world?"
Thank you Matt. Your illuminating comment (also mentioned by Christopher Dombek) inspires me to take a more positive approach to my criticism of my homeland. America the Beautiful, at least when compared to likes of Communist China.
Matt..Re: China & the Olympics...covered that one quite nicely, thank you.
The Metaverse is indeed a load of horse apples (and you know I know horse apples). A glitzy tech gimmick being ballyhooed because Big Tech and FB or Meta or whatever they call themselves now have pretty much hit a wall and are running out of large shiny gadgets to sell. F**k Zuck and his Bajillions. More $$$ than brain cells. Gamers and hobbyists should have an interest. The rest of humankind shouldn't waste any of their brain cells thinking about it.
And true passions seldom do pay the bills, at least for the working, blue-collar class. The most noble men and women I've known are the ones who came to work on time every day, worked hard at a job they didn't particularly like for one reason or another (not always just the work itself), did it well and never complained about their lot. Because it was what they could do to best provide for their families, be it food on the table, medical insurance or tuition money for a college education for their kids. And because their families were, in the end, their truest passion.
Probably should be a Winter Olympics event. They chuck a lot better frozen than otherwise. Gonna' be any kind of age limit on this thing? If not, might be a Gold Medal in my future. Except that I really don't care much for cold weather anymore.
Interesting about Elvis Costello's pop. Had no idea. But it gave me reason to play big band music! For instance, the Helsinki Quarantine Big Band playing "Birdland" by Canadian trumpeter and big-band leader Maynard Ferguson. A lot of funn with a lot of Finns!
Nice! Don't know that this is international enough for your taste lately, but you'd love the United House of Prayer trombone bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1QnzTnhcw0
Merci, mon ami! That was fun. As were the Finns. Wish I had something to send back your way. All I've got at the moment is this...my memory as a 16-year-old kid sitting with his mom 3rd row, center, in an auditorium in a small central Ky. town watching and listening to Duke Ellington & His Orchestra perform Take The A Train, Satin Doll, etc. And at the end, with the whole joint on its feet, Ellington taking a bow and intoning "Remember...we love you madly!" That was...priceless.
It was the US Army jazz band that came to our small so. WV town in the 1980s to play big band music. Not quite comparable to your recollection--but our mil. bands are quite good!
These rural backwaters just don't get that caliber of traveling bands anymore. Not sure whether that's what caused us to go all hard-core Trumpy, or that we went so proto-Trumpy that it scared everyone off...
I hear ya'. I think "culture" has been receding from a lot of places for a while now. I live in a rural area near Flint, MI, but always made my living in the city. Flint has always been a bit of a gritty little manufacturing city, same as most its size in the Rust Belt. But when I came here 5 decades ago, it was still quite a going concern. The local economy was still flush with GM $$$, and there were a lot of different "cultural" offerings to choose from at most any given time. Of course, this all started tailing off as GM packed up and went on its merry way south of the border and elsewhere. But even into the late ninety's and early 2000's, I could see the likes of Itzhak Pearlman performing live on stage at an auditorium in the Flint Cultural Center. (That was absolutely an awesome experience.) Yo Yo Ma stopped by on his Silk Road Tour. Dizzy Gillispie puffed out those famous cheeks in River Bank Park, and John Mayall & The Blues Breakers dropped in once. I got to see and hear Sonny Rollins go two hours straight without taking a breath (or so it appeared), and the DSO once came to town and did a couple of Big Band and jazz numbers along with the 1812 Overture. Go figure on that one. Smaller venues offered smaller names but highly talented bands and performers on a regular basis. That's no longer the case, but things have improved a bit over the past few years. The cultural desert that followed GM's near abandonment of the place has shown some signs of life of late. May never get back to what it once was, but at least it seems on the mend a bit.
So much is lost when music and other varied cultural things go on the retreat in places like your neck of the woods and mine, whether it's for economic or other reasons. Part of the glue that should bind us together as a people is weakened, and we are all the worse off for it.
BTW...seeing and hearing the Duke was quite special for me. That was my parent's music, along with Glenn Miller et. al. And I grew up listening to a lot of it. After that experience I was always a little sad that there had never been an opportunity for me to see and hear more such things; would have particularly liked to have heard Miller do Moonlight Serenade, one of my folks' sentimental favorites. Little did I know that many years later I would get to experience the next best thing. And under rather unusual circumstances. Long story short: there wasn't a DJ at my oldest daughter's wedding reception. There was live music, a professional band. The Glenn Miller Band in its then current form. I danced with the bride to...well, the only thing that would have made it better would have been if her grandparents could have been around to see it.
damn -- I love your thinking/writing. So pleased I'm part of Matt's Mob.........
“ Zuckerdorks” - Ha, I like it!
“ And even now, I’m writing things I want to write, for money. Which isn’t the worst way in the world to make a living”
Figured I’d comment on this as a young guy who quit his job at the end of 2020 to write for himself for a living. I’m certainly not making the kind of living that I was or that you are, Matt. Yes, I left a job I hated to do what I loved. But I had zero debt, some money saved up, and no dependents. If I had a family, I would never have taken that kind of leap. So your answer to Lucky Guy is pretty spot on.
Good for you, Ben! And may you never have to write listicles for Buzzfeed.
Haha, thank you. I hope not!
Good luck to you!
Thanks!
Matt,
You too??!! I enjoy the Winter Olympics, not for the spectacle but for my inner sport geek. Curling is an awesome example. Doesn't spending a lifetime just trying to determine the temperature of ice as you rub a broom across seem a little like worrying about which fly is going to attract a fish? In the final analysis, they mean little but a certain satisfaction in doing an obscure thing well. Plus, you can easily drink a beer while doing both. Is that really something you're going to diss? If not that, then how about my new hero: Nick Baumgartner. A 40 year old snowboarder who lives in the UP of Michigan and built his own racing track in his front, side, and back yards. Tell me that is not cool!! Jeez!! ''Better to burn out than fade away.'' ;-)
Well, you said the magic words: 40 year old who is still competing. (I hated Tom Brady until he passed 40, then I couldn't stop rooting for him.) And racing track in his backyard. Who of us wouldn't want that? So here's hoping he brings home gold. (Maybe he's already washed out - I'm just not watching it.) But here's hoping all our guys (and girls) bring home gold. I'm pro USA athlete. And respect what they do, even as the Chinese are tapping their phones in the Olympic village. Bastards that they are. I'm just not a big Winter Olympics fan. Nor am I fan of the corrupt Olympic committee that steered this crap-show to the country of the most corrupt human-rights violators in the world. So there's more to this for me than snowboarding. Even though there's nothing wrong with snowboarding. And I would love for us to humiliate our hosts, medal-count-wise. But doesn't look like that's happening as of yet.
There was a time not long ago that we as a family gathered around the tv to watch everything Olympics. It seems today it is barely even a story. What happened to "USA! USA!" What happened to the pride in wearing something Red White and Blue during the Olympics? Getting you morning beverage at work or water cooler and talking about the previous nights events? I must include myself in this group of non-followers.
I also think that streaming and a thousand channels is a big part of it. As a cord cutter, it is hard to find what is showing up where. Plus, the too detailed ''personalizing'' became a little too much for me. These days I want a expert telling me what is going on: techniques, strategy etc. I don't care that they are competing for the memory of their grandmother's dead cat.
What happened? Big Money happened. The O's lost me when the NBA players showed up.
I guess you are right. That being the case IMO I can point to 2 specific things that started or ramped up the Big Money. 1980 US Men's Hockey and 1992 Dream Team. Both allowed big business to capitalize on amazing National Pride moments in history.
Bingo! Been all downhill ever since.
OK, Matt, that's it! Now you're crabbing about the Olympics??? I would never say that it's pointless - except for curling, since the "competitors" actually HAVE to be baked just to "play". Nor would I ever say that watching figure skating is a waste of time. No, it's a waste of electricity, actually. As far as clouds are concerned, I like looking at them trying to reckon shapes. I ignore verses especially stupid ones except when playing my ukulele. "Unpleasant work" is not noble; it's unpleasant and it's work. I think Trump said something about the Noble Prize, though.
So, I guess I'll have to join you in boycotting the Olympics. How will I survive? Guess I should check with Boris.
I learned a new word today - anhedonia. Thank you, and it's always a pleasure reading your well-versed discourse.
The luge bit had me laughing out loud.
I love this column, even the grouchiness, bitching and whining! Keep on keepin’ on! I didn’t watch one second of the Olympics and I’m happy as can be! But don’t get me started on the 20 degree temperatures here in Texas.
I’d say you’ve fully recovered from Covid. Excellent mailbaggery.
Except for the lingering resentment. (A long COVID symptom).
Thanks again for a thoughtful, incredibly well done read. There is a Canadian sports reporter in Beijing named Cathal Kelly, who is almost as entertaining to read as you are, and I thought you might appreciate his take on the opening ceremony. I read this (on paper, that I paid for, because I’m either a rube, at an idealist kicking at the darkness), and thought “this guy is trying to get kicked out of China) Good for him. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-watching-the-olympic-opening-ceremonies-has-become-a-force-of-habit/
Nice, thanks Jamie. Am sure that column was a lot more entertaining than the opening ceremonies were. (Which I did not watch.)
Wow, When I read the responses to the first two questions I was thinking "Pull up! Pull up!" cause I felt you were nose diving with cynicism iced wings. (Not that I disagree but seemed odd for you.) But, alas, Mr. Positive Spin came through in the end. Absolutely loved your comments on the heroism of doing what needs to be done. There is a higher calling than doing solely for yourself and I like to believe that doing what needs to be done for others eventually reaps just rewards. Not necessarily what you imagine you want cause "You can't always get what you want, But if you try sometimes well you just might find, You get what you need." Thanks for the reminder.
Matt,
So winter athletes aren’t athletes. I invite you to race the men’s downhill - or the women’s. Or launch off the large hill ski jump - or the small hill.
Where we agree. It is manifest hypocrisy that the International Olympic Committee awarded the games to China. I’m sure we could live for decades and pass a nice inheritance to our children on just a small slice of the kickbacks.
Of course this is old hat for the IOC who awarded the Olympics twice to Hitler - summer and winter games. I’d argue Hitler is a tough act for Zhi to follow. Prior to both Hitler’s Olympics and Zhi’s there was pious chest pounding by the US and others amounting to …. Nothing!
These Olympics should have been pulled from China and awarded to venues that currently have all the infrastructure to host on short notice: Calgary, Vancouver, Salt Lake, etc.
I applaud your writing and blog.
All the best!
Thanks, River Rouge. I was just being a cranky jerk. (All the Olympic athletes work very hard, even the ones in the "sliding" competitions, which sound more like accidents than actual athletic events). Don't take it too seriously, River Rouge. My main objective was just to rag on China! That part, I was serious about.
Matt,
China has richly earned all the ragging we can throw at them. But the IOC has once again shown their true colors: how many will recall that these idealists of sportsmanship awarded the Olympic Games to Hitler, not once, but twice. Winter and summer Olympics in 1936. So Xi is in Bad Company. The IOC should have repositioned the games on short notice to a venue that could host without having to build anything new: Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Grenoble and probably more. Shame on them! A tithe of the bakish paid by China to get the games could support half of Afghanistan.
Regarding sliding sports - especially skiing - this is up my alley. I skied for a Canadian University where we carried 9 skiers: the top 5 where Canadian National Team - not me down at 8th. Alpine ski racing requires incredible strength, balance, agility and courage - the risk of serious injury, and worse, lurks just below the next gate. These athletes deserve our respect.
All the best and keep the great blog comen!
No argument there. Skiing is hard work. And I think someone should write the contrarian piece: "Hitler Reconsidered - He Put On a Great Olympic Games." You go first! No, I hear you on the IOC. They're a group of shady little punks who are getting exactly what they deserve: record low ratings. That's what they get for climbing into bed with modern Hitler.
Given the insanity and sociopathy of America's so-called leaders, how will I know when to expatriate from what once was, "...the greatest country in the world?"
-M. Otto Heer
Thank you Matt. Your illuminating comment (also mentioned by Christopher Dombek) inspires me to take a more positive approach to my criticism of my homeland. America the Beautiful, at least when compared to likes of Communist China.
Exactly, Daniel. We take consolation where we can.
Matt..Re: China & the Olympics...covered that one quite nicely, thank you.
The Metaverse is indeed a load of horse apples (and you know I know horse apples). A glitzy tech gimmick being ballyhooed because Big Tech and FB or Meta or whatever they call themselves now have pretty much hit a wall and are running out of large shiny gadgets to sell. F**k Zuck and his Bajillions. More $$$ than brain cells. Gamers and hobbyists should have an interest. The rest of humankind shouldn't waste any of their brain cells thinking about it.
And true passions seldom do pay the bills, at least for the working, blue-collar class. The most noble men and women I've known are the ones who came to work on time every day, worked hard at a job they didn't particularly like for one reason or another (not always just the work itself), did it well and never complained about their lot. Because it was what they could do to best provide for their families, be it food on the table, medical insurance or tuition money for a college education for their kids. And because their families were, in the end, their truest passion.
Hear, hear! Also, we should start a horse apples chucking competition in the Olympics. Which would make it more interesting.
Probably should be a Winter Olympics event. They chuck a lot better frozen than otherwise. Gonna' be any kind of age limit on this thing? If not, might be a Gold Medal in my future. Except that I really don't care much for cold weather anymore.
We'll get you one of those heated Snuggies. You just have too much horse-apple experience for us to leave you on the bench.....
Interesting about Elvis Costello's pop. Had no idea. But it gave me reason to play big band music! For instance, the Helsinki Quarantine Big Band playing "Birdland" by Canadian trumpeter and big-band leader Maynard Ferguson. A lot of funn with a lot of Finns!
https://youtu.be/dL-PzWjc7qk
Nice! Don't know that this is international enough for your taste lately, but you'd love the United House of Prayer trombone bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1QnzTnhcw0
That's a fabulous jam session. Spiritually inspired music is really great.
Big Band and Swing music rocks!! (Yes, I said it that way on purpose.)
Pour Monsieur:
https://youtu.be/MReOG3RyXWg
Merci, mon ami! That was fun. As were the Finns. Wish I had something to send back your way. All I've got at the moment is this...my memory as a 16-year-old kid sitting with his mom 3rd row, center, in an auditorium in a small central Ky. town watching and listening to Duke Ellington & His Orchestra perform Take The A Train, Satin Doll, etc. And at the end, with the whole joint on its feet, Ellington taking a bow and intoning "Remember...we love you madly!" That was...priceless.
It was the US Army jazz band that came to our small so. WV town in the 1980s to play big band music. Not quite comparable to your recollection--but our mil. bands are quite good!
These rural backwaters just don't get that caliber of traveling bands anymore. Not sure whether that's what caused us to go all hard-core Trumpy, or that we went so proto-Trumpy that it scared everyone off...
I hear ya'. I think "culture" has been receding from a lot of places for a while now. I live in a rural area near Flint, MI, but always made my living in the city. Flint has always been a bit of a gritty little manufacturing city, same as most its size in the Rust Belt. But when I came here 5 decades ago, it was still quite a going concern. The local economy was still flush with GM $$$, and there were a lot of different "cultural" offerings to choose from at most any given time. Of course, this all started tailing off as GM packed up and went on its merry way south of the border and elsewhere. But even into the late ninety's and early 2000's, I could see the likes of Itzhak Pearlman performing live on stage at an auditorium in the Flint Cultural Center. (That was absolutely an awesome experience.) Yo Yo Ma stopped by on his Silk Road Tour. Dizzy Gillispie puffed out those famous cheeks in River Bank Park, and John Mayall & The Blues Breakers dropped in once. I got to see and hear Sonny Rollins go two hours straight without taking a breath (or so it appeared), and the DSO once came to town and did a couple of Big Band and jazz numbers along with the 1812 Overture. Go figure on that one. Smaller venues offered smaller names but highly talented bands and performers on a regular basis. That's no longer the case, but things have improved a bit over the past few years. The cultural desert that followed GM's near abandonment of the place has shown some signs of life of late. May never get back to what it once was, but at least it seems on the mend a bit.
So much is lost when music and other varied cultural things go on the retreat in places like your neck of the woods and mine, whether it's for economic or other reasons. Part of the glue that should bind us together as a people is weakened, and we are all the worse off for it.
BTW...seeing and hearing the Duke was quite special for me. That was my parent's music, along with Glenn Miller et. al. And I grew up listening to a lot of it. After that experience I was always a little sad that there had never been an opportunity for me to see and hear more such things; would have particularly liked to have heard Miller do Moonlight Serenade, one of my folks' sentimental favorites. Little did I know that many years later I would get to experience the next best thing. And under rather unusual circumstances. Long story short: there wasn't a DJ at my oldest daughter's wedding reception. There was live music, a professional band. The Glenn Miller Band in its then current form. I danced with the bride to...well, the only thing that would have made it better would have been if her grandparents could have been around to see it.