What matters?

                                                                                

Which of these stories matters the most to you?
* Hope Hicks, Communication Director leaves Trump's White House
* Jared Kushner loses Top Secret security status
* Barbra Streisand cloned her dog
* Arctic temperatures surge-- in the dead of winter

You can probably guess which one got my attention. Read these three paragraphs from The Guardian:

Arctic warming: scientists alarmed by ‘crazy’ temperature rise

by: Jonathan Watts Global environment editor

Tue 27 Feb 2018 10.15 EST

An alarming heatwave in the sunless winter Arctic is causing blizzards in Europe and forcing scientists to reconsider even their most pessimistic forecasts of climate change.

Although it could yet prove to be a freak event, the primary concern is that global warming is eroding the polar vortex, the powerful winds that once insulated the frozen north.

The north pole gets no sunlight until March, but an influx of warm air has pushed temperatures in Siberia up by as much as 35C above historical averages this month. Greenland has already experienced 61 hours above freezing in 2018 - more than three times as many hours as in any previous year.

Back to the blog…

You have got to admit there is cause for concern. Each of the three paragraphs tells an amazing story—more interesting, alarming and cause-for-concern than all the Jared Kushners… Hope Hicks and Barbra Streisand puppies combined.

We gravitate to the mundane, the minutiae, the Trumpian drama, the politics and gossip of the moment while our world crumbles, or melts, around us.

There is a psychological condition to explain this behavior, no doubt Call it “denial” or call it “rationalization” … but don’t call it late for dinner. That’s a little humor.

The Parkland, Florida horror deserved our attention. Even if nothing changes.

Or maybe the young people can make a dent in reality—and will influence the debate. Their protests will have to match Vietnam-era revolutionary action to have a chance to budge the corrupt congressmen and senators. I’m not sure the AR-15, scary as it is, threatens young people the way Vietnam threatened the health and well being of that generation.

Trump is an attention-grabber, maybe the best in the biz. But this Arctic story posed no threat to Trump. Because nobody cared. Nobody asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders about Arctic temperatures. She would tell us something along the lines about some days are hotter than others. Maybe add “Just like in Arkansas.”

We’re not in Arkansas anymore.

Mueller Investigation: Good Guys vs. Bad Guys

Mueller investigation. Everything moves at the speed of light these day. News at 186,000 miles per second… News stories cannot be connected at the speed of light.

So explains Marshall McLuhan, media prophet. I believe McLuhan and so should you.

Donald Trump is the perfect president for communications at the speed of light. His tweeting habit keeps pace with the new electronic environment.

Stories disappear. Tax changes benefit the wealthy… Mass shootings…Trump pays off Stormy Daniels ($130,000 hush money)… Trump pays off ex-Playmate Karen McDougal ($150,000 hush money). Eric Trump promotes Trump businesses in India… Stories won’t linger… won’t stick. Not at the speed of light.

Good guys. Robert Mueller has achieved American hero status. The Mueller investigation provides more entertainment than Celebrity Apprentice. We don’t know Mueller’s allies. The other good guys, the hard working investigators, have remained anonymous.

Mueller's investigation had been the one news story with a plot. Mueller manages the flow of information like a good screenwriter. The plot is building. We wait for denouement, a climax.

Bad guys help the narrative.  

Bad guy parade roll call.

Paul Manafort: campaign consultant and friend of all things Russian…busted.

Rick Gates… Manafort’s sidekick, possibly turning on Manafort…busted.

George Papadopoulos… wanted a place at the table, goofed up and spoke about Hillary’s pilfered emails… busted.

Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer was the bad guy for today. Looks like a European model for Luxxotica with those snappy European frames. Wasn’t seeing clearly when he lied to the FBI.

Feels like Celebrity Apprentice is still going strong in today’s White House. Rob Parker… Wife beater with a security clearance…Omarosa… Leaves kicking and screaming. Won’t stick…

Today’s winner… Sarah Huckabee Sanders… scores big as Press Secretary with enough attitude to hold the mainstream media at arm’s length.

Sarah Sanders does her best to squelch the accusations against Trump. Her denials may not really matter? Stories will last more a few days and disappear.

The huge open wound separating Left and Right is the chasm that threatens the American nation. It’s the real story that won’t go away.

Slippery Slope: Olympics and Gun Violence

Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold medal in the women's Giant Slalom on Thursday. I couldn't help but notice the amazing speed of the downhill slope. Looked like a sheet of ice. She got down the hill in a hurry, faster than everybody else. But let's go back to the ski slope.

Erik Schopy, an ex-Olympic skier, described the race as follows: “The World Cup runs are pure ice,” Schlopy said. “It’s basically a slab of marble that’s a mile long.”
(Wall Street Journal, Feb. 12)

Mikaela practiced on the icy slopes in Vermont. The conditions in Vermont differ from the powdery snow in Vail, Colorado. Mikaela's workouts in icy Vermont prepared her perfectly for Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the slab of marble.

Using the metaphor of an icy hill downwards got me to thinking about Parkland, Florida and the loss of 17 young lives. America has a problem it cannot solve. We pride ourselves on solving problems efficiently. This is a nation of problem-solvers. 

The gun issue is so vexing because we cannot solve it. Left-wingers and liberals like the notion of gun control The Right wing, the conservatives, the Trump voters, love the 2nd Amendment and the right to bear firearms. The roadblock in viewpoints has become impassable-- on guns and so many other partisan issues.

Guns either symbolize something important, or actually are important. Gun owners delight in the physical properties of guns and the energy they derive from them -- the way you  love an automobile or a favorite sports team. 

Guns inspires a deep love for many. I'm from Texas. I don't have a gun. Some of my conservative  friends have the AR-15. They truly love their guns. The love buying them. They love selling to each other.  They love talking guns. 

Guns have a tactile quality. The gun folks have always repeated that rifles and pistols will not be taken away from them. They would have to be pried from their "cold, dead hands..." as Charlton Heston said in his famous NRA speech, 

The slippery slope of American society is the anxiety between Left and Right, liberal and conservative, a deep divide with no hope for change. There is nary a sign of flexibility. 

America finds itself going down a slippery slope. Guns, like automobiles and typewriters, are an invention from the past. The firearms debate harkens to the past. You can picture a Civil War era gun owner getting excited by a more efficient rifle. 

The "disruptive" breakthroughs caused by technology is what our present day world is really about yet we are mired in guns. 

Our partisan divide is as dangerous as a skiing down a slab of marble. Mikaela Shiffrin learned to handle icy conditions but politics is trickier and more perilous than a downhill race . 

We have become handcuffed. A great divide has opened up between Left and Right. There is no sign of a solution. We are going downhill with hands locked behind our backs in a psychological straitjacket.

Could mean a bumpy ride for all of us. 

We need an exit from our constant state of internecine warfare.

We need an unexpected lift. A way to Higher Ground.

Winter Olympics: must-see TV

NBC paid $963 million for the rights to air the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, a 24 percent jump over the $775 million it paid for the last Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Still, NBC has already made much of that back, selling more than $900 million in ad sales for the recent Winter games, a record according to the network.

The Winter Olympic Games got started in 1924. The Winter Olympics now alternates every two years with the Summer Olympics.

In 1896 Baron Pierre de Coubertin created the Modern Olympic Games. Coubertin, a French aristocrat with lofty, idealistic goals introduced the Olympic motto: "Citius, Altius, Fortius," Swifter, Higher, Stronger. Coubertin created the Olympics in three acts. The Opening Ceremony provides a festive Act I, Act II is the sports competition, and Act III concludes the show with the marathon race and  Closing Ceremony. 

Miguel de Moragas Spa, Nancy K. Rivenburgh and James K. Larson directed a research project on the role of television in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Television in the Olympics. Their work provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Olympics as a television show for the global audience.

The 1992 Olympic visuals emanated from state-of-the-art studios, four control rooms located within the stadium in the case of Barcelona, coordinating the output of dozens of cameras. The rich visual output got matched with a pre-produced musical soundtrack and the richly nuanced broadcasters commentary.

The Barcelona hosts compiled an extensive reference manual to assist broadcasters, supplying pertinent information Olympics and the host city. Broadcasters have great leeway on whether to use the official data or to meet the expectations of their particular viewing audience.

The Moragas Spa group noticed broadcasters adopt different personas move deftly from formal to informal tones of reportage. Olympic commentators present themselves as both insiders with valuable knowledge to share and alternately as “the humble observer of history, awed and lucky to be present.” (Moragas Spa 106).

The Moragas Spa group offered the example of the NBC reporters adopting an informal, playful style as the French team entered the stadium during the athletes’ parade at the Opening Ceremony. The American announcers waxed eloquent on the French record of success in the sport of fencing and added a lighthearted literary reference to Alexander Dumas, the creator of The Three Musketeers” … The broadcasters added  “and we’re told that the French, while they may not win the most medals, will, as always, live well. They brought their own wine to Barcelona.” (Moragas Spa 110)

The Moragas Spa team observed the broadcasters’ ability to adapt four distinct voices or perspetives:

1)    They used a mixed narrative model, the primary interpretive style was that of the ‘televised show’ with a supposedly knowledgeable, often well known host presenting him or herself as integral to experiencing the ceremony.

2)    NBC adopted an extremely colloquial tone for references to North American athletes.

3)    NBC announcers adopted a style more in line with news bulletins than with sports programs for commentaries on the athletes’ parade.

4)    The narrative voice adopted a mix between a historical report and the chronicle of events for describing the culture and political identity of the host city (Barcelona). (Moragas Spa 111)

The 1972 Munich games resulted in a remarkable exception to clichéd Olympic reporting. Palestinian terrorists entered the Olympic Village and took Israeli athletes hostage, the beginning of the terrible tragedy that unfolded over the next day. Jim McKay’s powerful moment-by-moment commentary form the broadcast booth of the 1972 Munich games. McKay, the ABC broadcaster, worked with exceptional skill and sensitivity. He covered the horrifying events like a seasoned newsman asked to function under the most difficult circumstances. McKay’s calm, dignified and intelligent work underlined the Olympic broadcaster as both news reporter and sports analyst.

Camera shots enhance the Olympic television narrative. Shots vary.  The CU, close-up shot offers detail and emotional expression The MS, medium shot, is a appropriate shot when viewing the dignitaries. The 1992 Barcelona Olympics employed personality shots of the entourage of Olympic insiders. A view of King Juan Carlos as a symbol of Spain proved popular: “the image of the King of Spain (Juan Carlos I) was interpreted on nearly every television station around the world as a popular and accessible image.” (Moragas Spa 119)

I was traveling in Spain during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Crowds gathered around television sets whenever Spain’s basketball team faced an international opponent. Spaniards celebrated with Rafael Nadal’s gold medal in tennis, a first for Spain, and cheered mightily for their participants in cycling and canoe/kayak where they had several medal winners.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin established an Olympics paradigm, motivated by lofty principles of health, education and world peace. Coubertin made sound entertainment choices as well. Coubertin's Olympic themes will resonate across the television airwaves for the next 17 days in South Korea.

Somewhere in the Olympics saga stands the increasing commercialization of the Games, dispiriting episodes of International Olympic Committee officials taking bribes, and the persistent use of illegal, performance enhancing drugs. Asian countries have indicated enthusiasm for hosting the Games despite the immense cost for any country taking on that role. Those are all discussions for another day. 

Meanwhile.... enjoy the 2018 Winter Olympic Games!

LeBron the Leader: muscles past Minnesota

Just a few days ago I wrote how LeBron James' spirit seemed to have disappointed. Based on a terrible loss to the Houston Rockets, the Cavaliers looked to be done for the season. I wondered... is LeBron tired of taking on the role of civic leader for Ohio while training to win NBA games and championships?

In last night's game, LeBron willed himself to lead his team to victory. And this was a game he won with his muscle and brute athletic power. The game went into overtime. LeBron's massive shot block of a Minnesota shot kept the score close. He took defender Andrew Wiggins to school, blowing past him on a drive to the basket. Announcer Hubie Brown noted that LeBron did not opt for the lazy man's route and attempt to throw up a difficult 3 point shot. LeBron took Wiggins to the hoop with muscle, speed and dexterity and drove hard to the basket to put in a lay-up. You sense LeBron is having to dig a little deeper to make these moves at age 33.

The capper was LeBron receiving a cross-court inbounds pass and hitting a fade away jumper with 1 second remaining in the game. They call it a buzzer beater for a reason. The pass-and-shot looked very reminiscent of the famous Christian Laettner shot for Duke University in the final second of the 1992 NCAA championship game versus Kentucky.

The Cavaliers victory came after a roller coaster ride of a game. The lead changed hands 34 times and was tied 16 times. Three point shots rained down with incredible accuracy. The could easily have quit with the Timberwolves. LeBron wouldn't let it happen. That's the definition of a leader.

LeBron James meets his Darkest Hour

In 1940 England met its darkest hour. Winston Churchill rallied the British people to fight the Nazis with the sacrifice of "blood, toil, tears and sweat."

LeBron James faces something similar. Okay, it’s not life and death. This is the NBA not World War II. But LeBron James, superstar leader of the Cleveland Cavaliers, has been called upon to lead his team from the depths of depression, The Cavs have experienced a spiritual meltdown—and its under LeBron’s watch.

I learned about the Cleveland Cavaliers meltdown in their game with the Houston Rockets. The Cavs got whipped by an embarrassing score of 120-88 a few nights ago.

The Cavs massive loss to Houston Rockets revealed the dispirited Cleveland team has serious problems. The fans feel immense respect for LeBron James He brought the city a NBA championship in 2016. This put an end to a 52-year professional sports title drought.

LeBron won back Cleveland fans and the entire city when he returned to Cleveland after winning back-to-back championships with the Miami Heat. Lebron was praised as a societal leader. He wanted to return to Ohio, his home state, to help lift the morale of the citizenry.

LeBron showed selfless devotion to a cause beyond himself with his decision to return home. And the he led the team to a NBA championship in 2016. That achievement elevated King James to near Saint status. But being King is not bad.

LeBron’s past glories add greater angst to the struggle happening now Cleveland. The Houston game felt like a blowout from the opening minutes and stayed that way the entire game. The Rockets superstars, James Harden and Chris Paul, put on an offensive show. The Rockets looked like the Harlem Globetrotters with the game almost won from the opening tap.

LeBron James experienced naked humiliation in front of the home crowd. Cleveland had no defense. They had no defense. They looked out of sync and over-matched in every aspect of the game. But the secret was in the team’s body language—and that included LeBron.

LeBron's nonverbal cues showed a auperstar looking disoriented at the very place he usually dominates the competition. LeBron is the one who takes over games. Against the Rockets he seemed vanquished. His troubled expression showed a frustrated man with a sense of desperation. One of the announcers, Jalen Rose, wondered if the Cavaliers team have become toxic.

And maybe the most troubling... as the Cleveland team broke from a huddle LeBron spoke a few inspirational words to his teammates but concluded with strange advice: “Be in the moment… Enjoy the moment.”

The breaking of the huddle to New Age self-help phrases shocked me. If a NBA guy playing in an ESPN televised game for a national audience is not already “in the moment” you have to wonder where they are…

If LeBron is going to have his Winston Churchill moment he will transform toxicity into team play.

Makes you wonder about LeBron himself. He may be thinking beyond Cleveland. LeBron’s mojo for Cleveland may be gone. He took on a lot to become a societal leader, maybe too much even for a bionic superhero, a star like no other.

Lebron playing for another team! In another city! Another state! A change could bring welcome relief. LeBron... 33 years old. Late career. Lebron has to find a way to make basketball fun again. Not like that Rockets game.