Bobby Orr's Knee and 25% OAC

Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr stars in this new commercial from Mastercard. He was a hell of a player, a defenseman who could play intense offense, usually taking the puck the entire length of the ice before scoring. Whatever highlight reels existed in the 70s, he dominated them.



Watching this commercial, I think of all the other players they could have easily done the same idea with. Joe Namath comes to mind but who had more scars than Evel Knievel? Anyhow, much respect to Bobby Orr and happy hockey season to all!



Thanks to the Globe and Mail who ran an excellent Bobby Orr interview alongside the vid.

End of the Year/Beginning of the Year

As previously mentioned, people like lists, so I'm in the process of formulating my best of 2007, picks to click in 2008, the earbender Sports Personality of the Year award and in early 2008, the Rosenfelder Index. I also have to get some kind of Year in Review or highlight reel going.



Winter has finally come climate-wise although I can still see some leaves that hardly turned still on a tree outside my window. What would it take for Bush and Cheney to stop fighting the scientists? I wonder what kind of evidence they would need to see. If you have an opinion, type it in below.

It looks like the Vermont weather has gotten ski season off with a bang and I heard from our friend Chad Reich of KBUT the other day that Crested Butte was "badass." Someday.

A few other ski/snowboard related links you may want to checkout include Okemo's blog where they mention a great event on January 9 to help raise money for various local organizations, Reverb and Ross Powers Foundation with help from members of The Barenaked Ladies, Guster and The Dave Matthews Band.

Earbender has helped with Reverb's Campus Consciousness tour in the past and this sounds like a great event too. January 9 in Vermont is ok w/me as long as there is snow.

I am pleased to announce that "Truly" from earbender client thenewno2's recent ep, was featured in the new Warren Miller film Playground.

"Two musical giants helped revive music at Vail" this past weekend when SnowDaze took over the area. I wonder if President Ford would have loved Ludacris' song "Slap" as much as I do. It really has a John Edwards vibe to it though. It's about economic hardship, in the tradition, and here is the censored version on video.

Following up on a story below, I checked out some of the footage and info about Evel Knievel's funeral from The Montana Standard. I'm very happy he didn't go out out on Wide World of Sports. Thanks for the memories Evel!

On the 70s tip, btw, I hear Led Zep. reunited last night! Being sort of intellectual/analytical about it, I have to say, "who cares"? I think it's exciting for two reasons: one, we get to see new pictures of them, see if they can still play the old music, etc. -- like when the Stones go on tour, it's mostly about nostalgia and repeating an old experience. Today, rock is not the most important genre of music as it was at Zeppelin's peak. The genre is an underdog but a big media event like last night's show can help give some people including the band, hope.

Evel Knievel

A little bit of the great Evel Knievel, one of my heroes (and so many other people too). Like many of my generation, I did jumps on my bicycle and had the action figures. I saw him on ABC's Wide World of Sports many times and besides being a term for doing something risky ("what am I, Evel Knievel?" or "Ok, Evel Knievel, have it your way."), I think he also represents a circus/carnival part of show business as well as anyone ever, PT Barnum and Col. Parker included. It's not like their artists didn't put their bodies in the mix right? I bet there are books about Evel's great career.

When I visited Las Vegas, I checked out the fountains at Caesar's to see where Evel did his tumble down the landing ramp and the ramp going down into the garage.

Once on a tour of the Astrodome, I asked the guide about the Evel Knievel jump they had there. He wasn't familiar with it much to his embarrassment, but thankfully, we can see it right here.

The bottom line was everyone was into him in the 60s and 70s. With all his injuries I'm sure none of us thought he was going to last forever, but I am glad we can at least still see him on the net the genius he had as a showman guaranteed that people will love what they see too.