MEDIA NOTES: END OF GENRAL SPORTS COLUMNISTS GOOD FOR HOCKY

When journalist-turned-ESPN-celebrity Michael Wilson would write about hockey in the Washington Post, it wasn't so much about hockey as it was about what it all means.
The big picture. The bullet points. The cosmic truths mined from the minutia of line parings, penalty kills and the little plays that determine failure or success; hey, leave all that crap to the beat writer or the box score, right?
Such is the task of the general sports newspaper columnist. Take Wilson’s column before the Sidney Crosby (notes)/Alexander Vouching showdown last postseason: Set the scene, state the history, explain the context in relatable terms (i.e. compare the NHL to the NBA) and never stray too far away from the Big Themes to approach those pesky mechanics of the game.
Wilson has a famous byline that still commands attention when it appears in the sports section, no matter the subject, just like Tony Cornhusker before him. But would a column by Washington Capitals beat writer Tarkio El-Basher on the same subject have crystallized the rivalry, while also providing insight into hockey that a general columnist doesn't possess?
As you'll see in the news roundup later in this post, sports journalism is rapidly changing thanks to the economics of the industry and the unstoppable rise of social and alternative media. But one of the most significant changes is to the iconic roles that writers like Cornhusker and Wilson played for decades: That of the general interest sports columnist, a form of journalism that appears to be headed to extinction.
Is that something for hockey fans to celebrate?
John Goblin of the New York Observer had a piece earlier in the week detailing the New York Time’s plans for its general sports columnists, and it was a stunner: Sports editor Tom Jolly said the general-interest sports columnist was part of a bygone era. From the Observer:
He explained that The Times' sports page will use fewer general-interest writers to generate columns, and will instead rely more on beat writers to provide expertise. He wants them to bog, he wants them to use Twitter and he wants them to write analysis pieces.
"In a world filled with bogs and opinion on talk radio and on cable television, there does seem to be a pretty good craving for expert analysis-the real insight of someone who is there," he said.
Two very prominent loggers weighed in on this later in the week. Spencer Hall, now of SB Nation, danced on the grave of the general sports columnist during one of his last pieces for The Sporting Bog:
Good ingredient work no matter the action, something that may not be true of generalist columnists who learned that single sentence paragraph and easy moralizing about athletics and their put in society were a great way to stuff article space for paychecks.
The problem for him or her is that the spectator is no longer captive. They can roam the Internet looking for what they like, and if they're under 40, they're not waiting for it to come to them on their doorstep. They are still prisoner to one constant, however: the hunger for quality. If the general columnist dies out, it's not because the audience lost the taste for something necessary. It is because they were making do all along with what they had, and left the immediate they have a better offer.
Dan Shan off goes one step additional, saying that the 800-word column as a form is deceased, as evidenced by the general columnists who have attempt to continue the form online after send-off print media at the back:
Writers who have been competing online in the bog era -- or even further than -- are already, for the most part, instinctively constructing new forms and formats to try to engage and enlighten readers. If you don't do the same -- and what a wonderful freedom that should sound like to you! -- Your happy won't ever be as powerful as it could be, since fans will find it easy to tune it out.
Generations of fans have already tuned out, of route, which led to the booming photosphere and the niche journalism we've seen grow on sites like Yahoo! Sports and ESPN. Once new media damaged the monolithic model of the newspaper, consumers were able to seek out the content they desired; not only whenever they wanted it, but in the proper dosages and structures (and from time to time with scantily clad women).
For hockey fans, that meant no longer having to wait awaiting the general columnist was assigned (or decided) to offer an opinion about the local hockey team or the NHL; fans could find more knowledgeable analysis (if less flowery prose) on their computers every day. For many U.S. hockey fans, finding reporting on the game in the local paper was hard enough; why twiddle the thumbs to come for analysis when 20 loggers are prepared to provide it hours after the game?
But since we're chatting about general columnist, let's hit The Big Picture of it all, shall we?
Hockey fan in the U.S. should be thrilled with the death of this form of sports reporting

FRIENDS TO CELEBRATE LATE MUSICAN

Kathy in addition to Pete Jacques could expect a phone call from their son on Sundays letting them know where he was and where the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey festival was leading him next. The circus's Red unit wrapped up its Phoenix stop on June 28 and 32-year-old Cary Jacques, a bass player with the troupe's band, called home twice before send-off on his Harley-Davidson bound for California.
He never made it.
"Wish he was still here. It seems like it's way too damn early," Pete Jacques said. "The guy was doing everything that most sit around saying, 'I wish I could do that,' and we get up every day and we go do our job and we come home and we mow the grassland and we go to bed, and we get up and go do it again. And we go, 'I desire I could be on the road. I wish I were a musician. I wish I was out hiking this or that.' Cary did those things."
The 1994 measure off of Scott High School died from injury suffered in a crash just after dark on westbound Interstate 10 outside of Phoenix. A stray tire tread is believed to have triggered the accident.
On Saturday, family and friends will gather at the John R. Little Post 3186 VFW Hall in Southgate to celebrate the ambitious musician who enjoyed his motorcycles and explore the outdoors.
"I get the emotion that it's not going to be a customary service with a somber organ live," said Ryan Harrell, a friend from high school. "I think it will be more in the spirit that he lived and more about populace being happy for the experience they've had with him."
A capable and safety-conscious motorcycle rider - he was wearing a full-face helmet and protective gear at the time of the accident - Cary Jacques owned four bikes, including a 1968 Triumph, and forged friendships through his interest in British bikes. He also hiked segment of the Appalachian Trail with the goal of covering the entire route as his schedule allowed.
Before the circus hired him in 2004, Cary Jacques worked at Buddy Roger's Music and refined his bass-playing skills with bands like Chrome and O-6, gaining a reputation as one of the better bass players around the area. He studied with the noted bass actor Jeff Berlin and arranged education with musicians in towns the circus visited.
"He was very dedicated to his music, always had been for years and years," said Josh Minton, a friend since high school. "He worked real hard at it. He was very gifted."
Harrell played trombone in the Scott group with Cary Jacques and plans to attend Saturday's memorial. The two had stayed in touch through years and Cary Jacques would call Harrell, who now lives in Cleveland, when the spectacle came to town.
"What kind of strike me the most was how self-motivated he was," Harrell said. "He took upon himself to learn a lot about not just music but beyond that he was a very avid backpacker He was a very self-educated person, very well read.... If he was interested in amazing he'd take it upon himself to search out books about it, search out material about that. The drive intended for self-improvement was always there and continued to be there."

CRICKET: LESS A GAME, MORE A METAPHOR A WAY OF LIFE

From JM Barrie to Harold Pinter, cricket has for eternity had a close connection with literature, but it was Dickens who without knowing sponsored the Ashes…Samuel Beckett, the only Nobel laureate featured in Wisden. take pictures of: AFP everybody knows that cricket is a civilising game. Even Robert Mugabe recognised this, on one occasion. In the first flush of his country's independence, he is reported to have said, "I want everyone to play cricket in Zimbabwe. I want ours to be a nation of gentlemen." further than fiction? Cricket brings a lot of strange alliances, chiefly in literature. Quiz addicts may know that Samuel Beckett is the only Nobel laureate to appear in the cricketer's bible, Wisden. I'm willing to bet, however, that not numerous cricket quizzers know that it was Dickens who inadvertently sponsored the Ashes. In the annals of the pastime, there are few stranger penalty of the novelist's strange celebrity. In 1861, a Melbourne catering company, Spiers & Pond, scared by the huge achievement of Dickens's public readings in Britain and the USA, invite the writer to do in Australia. But Dickens was tired and unwell, and declined. In quest of sponsorship, Spiers & Pond moved easily from literature to cricket, and asked an English team on tour. Some senior players accepted an offer of £150 apiece to travel to Australia and play a statewide series of matches. The Spiers & Pond contest was a great success. In 1863 the Melbourne Cricket Club invite more players. Eventually, the English cricketing organization reciprocated, with ultimately embarrassing penalty for the home team. But it is somehow appropriate that the Ashes series should begin with Dickens, the creator of that highest proto-Australian, Magwitch, the sombre offstage attendance who broods over Great Expectations. By the turn of the century, the wedding of ink and willow was complete. JM Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle, AA Milne, and HG Wells were all keen players. The author of Peter Pan even fielded his own team, the Allahakbarries, a name derived, according to its captain, from the Arabic for "paradise help us" ("God is great"would be more accurate). In Edwardian times, it was as common for fictional London to meet at the batting fold as in the reading room. Conan Doyle, who used to hold a cricket week at home in Hindhead, was an talented batsman, and his protege, PG Wodehouse a useful medium-fast right arm bowler. By now, cricket had become less a game, more a metaphor for a way of life. English writers ranged from the fervently idolatrous to the merely obsessed. Some were rash enough to attempt capturing the mysteries of the game in the pages of their books. AG Macdonnell, in England, Their England, was famously winning, but misleading. His account is thrilling, and very funny but it's the intermittent tedium of the game that make it true to experience. A unforgettable Observer account of the batsman Chris Tavare noted that surveillance him bat was "a bit like waiting to die". Macdonnell wrote about village cricket, but the apotheosis of the game is the test match, especially an Ashes test. Tom Stoppard once said, of this supreme contest, "I don't think I could take seriously any game which takes less than three days to reach its end". Stoppard's play, The Real Thing contains perhaps the best cricket speech in English literature: "What we're trying to do", says Henry , "is to mark cricket bats, so that when we throw up an idea and give it a little knock, it might travel..." Baseball, I be sorry to say, does not come close. Americans have baseball novels (Malamud's The Natural, for instance) and "Casey at the Bat". Some Americans associate baseball and text, with names like Angell, Auster, Roth and Halberstam. We, who have cricket, an much richer game, can invoke fiction, drama, and, without breaking a sweat, the cricket poems of Byron, Blake, Betjeman, Tennyson and Pinter. Someone once said that Pinter's plays were analagous to a game of cricket: players rank around, apparently unrelated, in situations of excruciating tedium, occasionally uttering gnomic remarks before making mysterious exits. The measure of cricket's literary heft is the range of its appeal. James Joyce, intended for instance, has a tour de force passage in which he smuggles the slightly altered names of thirty one cricketing stars into the text of Finnegans Wake. More recently, Joseph O'Neill's outstanding novel Netherland contains many fine passages on cricket, and uses the game as a way to explore the life of New York after 9/11. Not all writers find such depths in the game. In Life, The cosmos and Everything, Douglas Adams has a satirical passage in which an "Ashes trophy" is stolen from the planet Krikkit. A magnificent man, but clearly not a player, or even a man.

KRATE STUDENTS MEET MARTIAL ARTS LEGEND BILL ‘’SUPERFOOT’’ WALLACE

On a muggy Monday nightfall in July, a handful of karate students gathered at Paul Acklin's karate school to rub shoulders with a fairy tale.
Bill "Superfoot" Wallace may not be a household name like Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris, but in martial arts circles, the 63-year-old Indianan is a superstar.
After suffering a incapacitating knee injury during a judo match, the previous high school and college wrestler took up Shorin-ryu karate while serving in the Air Force in Okinawa.
"I didn't think I could do it because I had a bad knee," Wallace recalled. "My coach said 'No problem, just use your left leg.' "
Wallace practiced, practiced and practiced. "When other guys would train they would throw 300 kicks," he said. "I would throw 30,000."
The hard work paid off. At one match, Wallace's devastating left kick was clocked at 60 mph.
After a successful professional career, Wallace turned pro. One day, after leaving a fight, his executive noticed a vendor selling "super foot-long" hot dogs on the street.
"His manager decided he needed a catchy name," explained Acklin, a Wallace protégé. "So that is where Superfoot came from. And it stuck."
Wallace walked around the school shuddering hands and exchanging smiles. His calm demeanor put the students at ease.
"I am a disciplinarian," he said. "But you have got to keep it fun."
Acklin, who founded his school Superkicks based on Wallace's teaching philosophy, first met the former world title holder when he was 8-years-old.
"I saw him fight and was literally blown away," said Acklin, now 40. "He threw kicks as fast as a professional boxer would bowl punches."
The two struck up a friendship that has endured for decades. When Acklin eventually fashioned his school, Wallace, who has a bachelor's degree in physical education from Ball State University and a master's degree in kinesiology from Memphis State institution of higher education, agreed to come by two or three times a year and help test black belt candidates.
On this particular night, a mother and son who have qualified together for years stood sooner than the legend and showed their skills.
"Are you nervous?" he asked before the session started. "Don't be. You have trained for this moment. You can do it."
Wallace retired from the ring in 1980 after 23 undefeated fights. His notoriety helped land roles in a variety of movies, including the Norris classic, A Force of One.
While living in Memphis, he suffered what some might consider a career-ending injury. Fortunately, his friend Elvis Presley flew in a noted acupuncturist from Los Angeles, who then treated the martial artist at Graceland manor.
Years later, Wallace would work as a bodyguard and trainer for another entertainment icon, John Belushi. It was Wallace who found the former Saturday Night Live star's body after he died from an accidental drug overdose.
But despite Wallace's brushes with celebrity, he still maintains a mild-mannered Midwestern charm.
"And how old are you?" he asked a starry eyed 8-year-old who had come to watch the black belt exhibition. "Have you been practicing?"
Wallace's philosophy toward the martial arts can be summed up simply: "Speed over power," he explained.
"Anybody can practice the martial arts," he said. "It doesn't matter if you are young or old, big or small, male or female. But unlike golf or tennis, it is something that someday, some time, might just save your life."
The 5-foot 10-inch, 160-pound martial arts master, is in top shape and can still do a full split on the floor, despite one knee and three hip replacements.
Despite his ring record, he admits he has never been in a street fight.
"People get in fights because they want to see what they can do. There is no question in my mind. I know what I am capable of.
"That is what the martial arts will do for you. They will give you the confidence and self mastery it takes to walk away when that is the right thing to do," he said.

JAKIE CHAN PRAISES KUNG FU OF WILL SMITH’S SON

HONG KONG : Jackie Chan says "Kung Fu Kid" co-star Jaden Smith's allegiance to argumentative arts puts his own son to shame. The 11-year-old son of Hollywood stars Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith has been training under Chan's stunt co-ordinator for his role in the China Film Group-Columbia Pictures remake of the 1984 hit "The Karate Kid," which kicked off filming in Beijing on July 11.
In a diary entry on his official Web site, Chan said he was deeply intimidated by the younger Smith's progress when he visited Los Angeles last month.
The veteran Hong Kong action star said Jaden Smith learned the Chinese phrases for different kung fu moves, responded to orders in Mandarin, and treated his teacher, Wu Gang, according to traditional Chinese convention.
"When he was thirsting, he gave the traditional hand gesture, putting one fist into the palm of the other, bowed and asked authorization to drink some water," Chan said.
Chan said Smith even learned the drunken fighter routine he made famous in his 1978 film "Drunken Master."
"He put my son to shame! I provided my son with the best belligerent artists in the world, and he could not be convinced to try it. In just two months, Jaden had learned so much. He is truly a talented boy," he said, adding he felt Smith was ready to perform his own stunts in "Kung Fu Kid."
Chan's son, Jaycee, is a singer and actor but has not followed in his father's way as an action star.
Chan posted several photos with the journal entry presentation him with Jaden Smith and his father.
He said he was skeptical at first of Jaden Smith's work ethic because he was born into a privileged family.
"Training in martial arts is hard work. It takes years to just the thing even one punch or kick. Jaden's father is a famous famous person, and Jaden probably knows he could get away without having to work very hard. If I couldn't get my own son to train in martial arts, how could anybody else succeed?" Chan said.
Chan said he suggested to Will Smith that he send his son to China for a few years of kung fu training, predicting "when he returns, his martial arts will be truly implausible."
Jaden Smith costarred with his member of the clergy in the 2006 movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" and appeared in the 2008 Keanu Reeves sci-fi movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

BOXERS RIGONDEAUX,LARA SCORE EASY WINS

Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara took improvement of an extra high-profile setting in their young professional boxing careers.
The Cuba community and Miami residents scored believable victories Friday night. Rigondeaux's and Lara's bouts were part of ESPN2's Friday Night Fights telecasts from Planet Hollywood Hotel in Las Vegas.
Six weeks after he made a successful qualified debut at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami, Rigondeaux knocked out Robert Guillen in the first round.
Keeping his distance, Rigondeaux aggravated Guillen with lead lefts to the head and right-left combinations to the head. Late in the round, Rigondeaux dropped Guillen with a left to the ribs. Referee Kenny Bayless counted Guillen out, ending the super-bantamweight bout at 2:57 of the round.
A 2000 and 2004 Olympic gold medalist, Rigondeaux has won his first two proficient fights by knockout.
Rigondeaux's first short time also was televised by ESPN2.
Lara, who also fought on the Fontainebleau card, won a lopsided decision over a game but outclassed Darnell Boone.
Lara controlled the pace of the six-round junior-middleweight session and nearly over and done with Boone (16-12) in the final round when he landed heavy combinations to the head near the ropes.
even though Boone survived Lara's attack, the outcome already was determined.
Lara, 7-0 since his defection from Cuba last year, won the fight on two panel of adjudicators scorecards 60-54 and 59-55 on the third.

UPDATE ON THE LATEST NEWS,SPORTS BUSINESS AND ENTER TAIN MENT:

Indonesia says two suicide bombers carried out attacksJAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — There have been no claims of responsibility for deadly bombings at two American luxury hotels in Indonesia's capital, but analysts say it's likely the suicide attackers came from Jemaah Islamiyah (jeh-MAH' is-lah-MEE'-uh), which has links to al-Qaida.Investigators say the bombings killed eight people and wounded more than 50. At least 18 foreigners are believed to be among the dead and injured.Indonesia's president is blaming a "terrorist group" and is vowing to arrest those responsible. He also suggested the bombings, the first terror attacks in Indonesia in four years, are related to next week's national election.Police say the attackers acted as guests at the hotels before detonating their explosives. They say the attack on the J.W. Marriott was carried out on the 18th floor. That blast went off first, followed moments later by a bombing at the Ritz-Carlton.US-INDONESIAUS official: At least 8 from US wounded in JakartaWASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official says at least eight Americans were wounded in a pair of suicide attacks on luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital.The official said the count was still preliminary and could not say how many Americans were injured at each of the targeted hotels — the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because information from the scene was still incomplete.HEALTH CARE OVERHAULBudget umpire: Health-care bills would raise costs; House committee passes measure with taxesWASHINGTON (AP) — There have been late nights and early mornings for some House members working on President Barack Obama's legislation to remake the health care system. They're trying to complete the package before lawmakers take off on their August break.Early this morning, the Ways and Means Committee approved a provision that would impose $544 billion in new taxes over the next decade on families making more than $350,000 a year.In the Senate, a small group of lawmakers continue to seek a deal that could win support from both political parties.But Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf says the Democrats' health-care bills won't meet the goal of slowing the ruinous rise of medical costs.White House officials call the budget director's assessment premature.WALL STREETUPDATE: Stocks open lower after latest earnings reportsNEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are slipping in early trading as investors receive more mixed signals on the economy from earnings reports.Bank of America and Citigroup became the latest banks to report big second-quarter profits, but both are showing weakness in their loan portfolios. General Electric beat earnings forecasts but revenue came up short.Investors have been keenly focused on earnings reports this week, hoping to find more concrete signs of life in the economy. Going in to Friday's session, major market indicators are up about 7 percent for the week.ECONOMYJune housing construction rises more than expectedWASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new U.S. homes rose in June to the highest level in seven months, a sign builders are starting to regain confidence as they emerge from the housing bust.The Commerce Department says construction of new homes and apartments jumped 3.6 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 582,000 units, from an upwardly revised rate of 562,000 in May.That was better than the 530,000 unit pace economists expected, and was the second straight increase after April's record low of 479,000 units.In another encouraging sign, applications for building permits, seen as a good indicator of future activity, rose 8.7 percent in June to an annual rate of 563,000 units. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected an annual rate of 520,000 units.PAKISTANAlleged US missiles kill 5 in Pakistan's northwestDERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) — Intelligence officials and a local resident say a suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region has killed five alleged militants.Two officials and the witness say the strike Friday occurred in Gariwam village.Resident Ahmad Raza says he heard a loud bang and that Taliban in the area are saying five of their colleagues are dead.The two intelligence officials say the missile hit a house in the village. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media on the record.Over the past year the U.S. has launched dozens of missile strikes in North and South Waziristan. Both are considered strongholds for the Taliban and al-Qaida.ITALY-POPEUPDATE: Pope leaves hospital after breaking wristAOSTA, Italy (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has left the hospital where he underwent surgery after breaking his right wrist in a fall in his Alpine vacation chalet.Benedict, 82, smiled broadly and waved to the crowd with his left hand as he climbed into his car outside the hospital in this northwestern Italian town. His right arm hung by his side, the cast hidden by his white vestments.Surgeons performed a 20-minute operation Friday to reduce the fracture, a procedure to realign the broken bone fragments. The surgery was performed under local anesthesia.A Vatican statement said the pope fell in his room in a nearby chalet overnight and despite the accident, celebrated Mass and had breakfast before going to the hospital.SPACE SHUTTLESolving the falling foam mysteryCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Space shuttle Endeavour will be docking with the international space station in a few hours. But first, the shuttle will have to perform a few maneuvers so the space station crew can take a series of photos.It's part of a routine effort to see if the shuttle suffered any damage from flying debris during Wednesday's launch.NASA is also trying to understand why a normally benign section of the fuel tank lost so much foam during liftoff.Shuttle program manager John Shannon says NASA needs "to understand what was going on for the next flight."Astronauts have already used the 100-foot robot boom to inspect the vehicle, but it doesn't reach everywhere.FLORIDA COUPLE SLAINFuneral today as investigation winds downPENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A slain Florida couple will be buried today, more than a week after they were shot during a home-invasion robbery.Byrd and Melanie Billings were the parents of four children and had adopted 13 others with special needs.Seven people have been charged in the murders. An eighth person has been charged with being an accessory after the fact.A state attorney says the case is mostly wrapped up, but the local sheriff says there are still people who investigators would like to interview.FLORIDA MANSION FIRENEW: Miami Beach 'castle' on fireMIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A Miami Beach mansion is on fire.TV station CBS 4 is reporting that a home called the "North Bay Road castle" is on fire.Miami-Dade firefighters have been on the scene since about 8:30 a.m. and the home was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. Because the home is on the water boats were assisting in fighting the fire.The home, built in 1925, has 10 bedrooms and more than 11-thousand square feet of living area.