think when i started watching soccer in earnest after the 2010 world cup i paid about $110 for my cable package which included and added sports package and hbo. that configuration would be approximately $145 now.
back then, fox aired two english games in the morning on saturday and sunday and two german games in the afternoon. goltv aired italian games in the morning and spanish games in the afternoon. espn had a game of the week (usually) on a monday afternoon. fox (with an assist from directv) aired every champions league game and europa league game and someone picked up the slack for the two english cup tournaments.
now espn has the italian league rights and the english cups. they aired one free italian league game this morning at 630. all the other games are only available streaming at $5 or so extra dollars per month on espn+.
turner bought the rights this year to the champions league. instead of airing all 146 matches as had fox/directv they are airing 47. the rest are only available via steaming at an additonal cost. too lazy to look it up.
nbc has had the rights to the english premier league and they do a good job and air usually 5 matches each weekend and the occasional midweek match but for the first few years on directv they aired all 18 games each week.
espn aired every match for the 2014 world cup. fox bought the rights and aired on 38 of the 64. surely the rest were available to stream at an additional cost.
this is all way too much to watch. i had cancelled the extra sports pack and lost access to spain & italy (at the time) & france though mostly because i didnt want to pay the extra $15 a month. lost the last five years of messi & barcelona in the process outside of the champions league. kind of a bummer but was overkill.
now today there was an english cup final which i wasnt even aware of but espn only streamed it. theyre more interested in forcing viewers to pay for a service, steaming no less, than bring you a game of pretty high interest. kind of gross that increased interest in the game made it less accessible. and, of course, the leagues themselves are only interested in the highest bidder, not necessarily the best exposure.
/rant
poor dude hung himself yesterday. would hear him now and again on podcasts. this is a snippet of his sort of anti-comedy. beloved by his fellow comedians. his name was brody stevens.
hells angels leaving, sidewalk cafe closing and a marshalls opened up next to katz's. tough week for the east village.
You know you're getting old when find yourself thinking about this:
got 121. had only one majorish early show i did not recall. you just have to name a show and it will fill in the multiple time slots it appeared in.
Why did I not check the frozen section at the top Japanese grocery here till Feb 2019?
RIP R RYMAN
Anywhere in NYC have this quality grab and go?
watched russian doll over the weekend among lesser fair. giving it a solid rec although it is kind of repetitive. this is a truism but also the central feature of the show. is kind of weird they set it on ave a though i guess the neighborhood landmarks and the park were important to the plotting.
if you had the over on the length of the national anthem, you won. you are also a degenerate gambler. (my neighbor as i was typing this knocked on my door and had his 2 year old ask if they could watch the superbowl. hard to say no to that. also, free dinner.) oy.
RIP filmmaker Jonas Mekas @ 96
he came to my HS in 1974 and screened Circus for seminar day. Then continued to be an important figure as director of The Anthology Film Archive.
its gotta rock.....we have so many tasty littles ones in pdx......fish i could afford one a week:>)
RIP Carol Channing
I saw the Hilma af Klint show, and it is really something, though I’m not entirely sure what.
There are some stunning works, as well as moments when I felt like I was looking at a gifted student trying on a range of modernist modes and techniques, but then had to contend with the fact that she had come to these without precedent, years and even decades before they appeared in their now familiar forms.
Since the work was mystically channeled in relative isolation it presents all sorts of conundrums; does it force a reconsideration of modern art history, or does it even have much of anything to do with art as such?
The fact that the work is not on the market also complicates its status. The family-run foundation that controls it seems to be looking at possibilities, and increased exposure like the current show may become a factor. The ideal would be to actually build the “temple” she envisioned for the main body of work. I don’t think the foundation has that kind of money, but maybe they could do a crowdfunding type of thing. Perhaps her spirit guides would contribute.
This Guardian article is one of the more interesting things on her first page of Google results.
There was a harbor seal loafing on the old submarine today at Calvert Vaux Park. First time I've seen one out of the water in Brooklyn.
al fornos inspired restaurant on avenue a
