Monday Download

Slate has a good piece on VH1's latest incarnation as obsessed with pop culture and pop culture nostalgia and Flavor Flav. Slate writes that the VH1 leadership see the network's "voice" as "affectionate and highly ironic." Guess I did fit their demographic back in the late 90s, early 00s, when I dug Pop-Up Video, Behind the Music and the first round of "I Love the 80s." But it's all too tiresome for me now.

Why watch a bunch of comedians sit around and riff on pop culture? I can do that myself. As for music on TV...I watch VH1 Classic and MTV Hits these days. It's like MTV - but with music videos.

If I'm down on VH-1, then my buddy Murray is down on ESPN. I've been meaning to link to this post of his before but never got around to it. He does me a favor by not posting anything new since then. He offers up 10 reasons why he hates ESPN - dissing shows like Cold Pizza and Around the Horn. He makes some good points, noting the hypocrisy in coverage of the World Series of Poker, "We don't talk about point spreads because gambling is bad. Poker is good. What exactly is poker? I know it's cheap to film and I can't blame them for it but making Doyle Brunson a household name is wrong on so many levels. Bring back Aussie Football or CFL."