Starting Five (Seven)
1. From Smart Minds…
…come smart products. Texas hires VCU’s Shaka Smart, 37, to become its basketball coach. Smart is aptly named: He graduated magna cum laude from Kenyon College in Ohio, where he is the school’s all-time assists leader. Smart also married an alumna of Harvard.
Meanwhile, Texas loves to associate itself with monosyllabic adjectives: Smart. Strong. Brown. And Young.
2. “Argo *%$# Yourself”
I see a laughing clown. What do you see?
In the most newsworthy collaboration involving the U.S.A. and Iran since Ben Affleck accepted his Best Picture Oscar (deserved), the two nations have come to terms on a nuclear energy “framework.” Meanwhile, no kidding, John Boehner is in Israel.
Can’t we all just not get along peacefully?
Next week: Iran and Israel meet in an attempt to broker a peace deal between the White House and Boehner.
3. SEALs of Approval
That’s Kokomo camp founder and retired SEAL Peter Divine
What’s more intense than CrossFit or a Fitness Boot Camp? How about Kokoro (which is also the title of a popular song by an Asian Beach Boys cover band; I know, I’m already sorry), a three-day BUDS-style crucible run by former Navy SEALs run out of Encinitas, Calif? Cost: $1,595. Here’s the story from Outside magazine.
p.s. It’s worth reading the first-person account just to see how the author, former 2:38 marathoner T.J. Murphy, age 50, fares.
p.p.s. “Kokoro” is a Japanese term that means “the merging of heart and mind into spirit.”
4. Flagrant 1 or Flagrant 2, Jay?
This is not Chris Jans and that’s not a bar in Bowling Green, Ohio
First-year Bowling Green basketball coach Chris Jans is canned after cell phone video evidence of Jans patting a woman on her can in a Bowling Green bar emerges (don’t you just love living in an Orwellian dystopia?). I’m not excusing Jans’ sexist gesture completely (out of hand), but have you spent a winter in Bowling Green, Ohio (I spent one night there that felt like winter)? And this was the first full day of spring!
Oh, well. The Falcons won 21 games in Jans’ only season. I’m sure Jerry Jones would hire him if he could. Someone else certainly will. I think we all need a dose of “Simmer Down Now!”
5. Shepherd Quaked at the Sight
The words below here are just me being insensitive and having no appreciation for the loss of life. My bad.
Amusing isn’t the proper word, given the tragedy. Curious is the correct word, maybe, for this CNN interview with French shepherd (as opposed to German shepherd) Jean Varrieras, who witnessed the horrific crash of Germanwings 9525. I just thought it was odd for Varrieras, who looks to be in his 70s, to note that he’ll “never fly again.” I guess I was wondering how often septuagenarian Alpine shepherds fly. But I may be behind the times when it comes to jet-setting shepherd lifestyles.
6. While You Were Sleeping…
The lead changed hands four times in the final :26 in Oakland last night, but in the end it was Golden State 107, Phoenix 106. The Warriors won their 11th straight while the game Suns lost their 5th straight to drop to 38-38. Tough loss to swallow for the giant orange orbs of fire, who have now lost an NBA-high five games this season on a shot made in the final five seconds.
I have yet to spot it on social media, but when someone finds a Vine of the little girl in a Warriors jersey going bonkers (on what was not even the game-winning shot), they should send it our way.
Between this finish and Curry’s mangling of Chris Paul’s ankles earlier this week in L.A., it’s been a good week for the Warriors. Hell, it’s been a good year.
7. Ripa Job
Pippa!
Kelly “Lee” Ripa made what was likely her final appearance on Late Show last night, and she made the most of it. Ripa spent at least half the interview mimicking her 13 year-old daughter’s nasal Valley Girl intonations, clearly tickling Dave. Later, Dave squeezed in next to her in her seat and, yes, it began to get a little bit awkward.
Noticeable: Never once in the interview did the name Regis Philbin come up.
Music 101
Over The Hills and Far Away
The best Led Zeppelin tune and your favorite Led Zeppelin tune need not be one and the same. Certainly, Stairway To Heaven is the unassailable classic in terms of “Who is Led Zep?” but this song, off 1973’s Houses of the Holy, is my No. 1. I’ve posted the video below that has Jimmy Page’s lyrical intro riff from a ’73 show at Madison Square Garden, but also here’s the studio version that features a Robert Plant who is still able to shriek ethereally.
The best Led Zeppelin tune? Spin happens to agree with me (and does a better job of explaining why it belongs there), while Rolling Stone puts Whole Lotta Love atop the heap (and has this at No. 16).
Remote Patrol
Mad Men
Sunday
10 p.m. AMC
Sure, we’re all a little chapped that they divided the final season in two to be played out over two vernal seasons. But if they hadn’t, we’d have that much less to look forward to at the moment. It’s the summer of ’69, non-Bryan Adams version, and Don Draper has his mojo back. It’s early August, so gird yourselves for a Woodstock and/or Manson Family-heavy episode.
Oh, wait. That’s Donald Driver….
Whether or not Mad Men is the best drama in the history of television, it’s definitely in the conversation. For me, it is. And I can’t think of another show that has kept its fastball humming as consistently throughout the life of the series. Here’s Grantland’s Andy Greenwald, the resident poet laureate of all reviews Mad Men.
Now both you and Arnold are throwing down the gauntlet of Mad Men as the GOAT? Its like I’m going to be forced to reevaluate my intersection of television criticism and Notre Dame football commentary.