Chuck Klosterman and Simmons

[e0y2e3]

Latest BS Report, listened to the first half on my walk home. Abso-freaking-lutely outstanding. Klosterman is, as always just a great person to listen to as he can rattle on in the intellectual yet somewhat esoteric way of his about anything.

Highlights from the first half include:

Klosterman's new book which I already planned on reading (it hits on the 90s for you loser gen xers and fake gen xers like JB)

Shaq and Kobe

The Beattles as followup to this very good piece by Klosterman: http://www.avclub.com/articles/chuck-kl ... les,32560/

Shaq and Nash

The Cavs

LBJ

Jordan's induction speech

Gretzky

How Simmons feels about C-town not getting much mention in the 30 for 30 doc

The history channel and 3 shots heard round the world

etc....

Fantastic 45 minutes, really jacked up to listen to part 2 tomorrow. Turn off that steaming pile of sound coming from KNR for an hour and a half and give it a listen.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/pod ... id=2864045

[Cerebral_DownTime]

I'm not familiar with Simmons, is there a link where I can hear some of this stuff?

[e0y2e3]

Just edited it in.

As I said before some of his interviews (this one, the Trey Parker one and the Jeff Ross one, etc) are outstanding.

Some are Sox Yankees talk.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

Awesome. Thanks.

Jeff Ross and Trey Parker, that's enough to make me listen.

[e0y2e3]

For the record I am retarded, it was Matt not Trey.

Something wrong w/ me today, I am just missing on names left and right.

Stone one is still on the last 30 page, here is the Ross one

http://search.espn.go.com/bs-report-jeff-ross/

[DrPoove]

Simmons is must listen for me. College buddy from Beantown introduced me to his old AOL page in the late 90's. Great stuff with Chucky K indeed.

[motherscratcher]

I listened to both of Chuck's yesterday to and from work. Outstanding as usual. I never miss a podcast, but when it's Klosterman of Matt Stone I'm more excited. I even like the Yankees/Red Sox ones with Jack-O. I think they intereact well and I always get a few laughs. It doesn't matter the teams. They could be talking about the Royals and Pirates for all I can and I'd probably still get a kick out of them.

I don't get the Simmons backlash (it seems a lot less than it was a year or so ago). The arguement usually boiled down to someone not liking one of his opinions or the old "he always talks about Boston sports" Well, yeah...he's a Boston fan. We all know this. And, if you haven't noticed, they've been pretty good there lately. So of course he's going to talk about Boston.

I've heard others say he really knows his stuff about basketball. I couldn't say one way or another. I like basketball but I have a chick's understanding. I know when we put the ball in the circle with the net attached it's good for us and we should try to stop the other team from doing that. People say Lebron is good. He makes a lot of points. What the hell am I blathering on about?...

Oh yeah, listen to Simmon's podcast. It's funny.

[e0y2e3]

Yeah well, I get accused of being a Simmons shrill 'round here because I live in Boston mother.

I dropped my 3K word Simmons manifesto in the NFL forum somewhere last Thursday defending him, needless to say I am a fan.

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

I'm halfway through Klosterman's Eating the Dinosaur, and I must say, I've been very disappointed. Not on par with his previous works.

He peaked with Killing Yourself To Live and its been downhill since. He's at the point where the writer almost seems like he has a persona and style that he needs to live up to, and it's just not coming off well.

[Triple-S]

http://deadspin.com/5401300/bill-simmons-establishment

good piece praising Simmons in deadspin. A must read, a few highlights

Other sportswriters hated Simmons immediately, ostensibly because of those tired Doesn't Sit In The Press Box arguments, but mostly because he was connecting with people, he was proving that the empty Verse Chorus Verse of the inverted pyramid and Fire The Manager! wasn't going to cut it anymore.

After all, everyone still read Simmons: No matter how many Karate Kid and Teen Wolf references there were, you still always read him. You still took him seriously, even if it were to trash him. Nobody does that with Jay Mariotti, or Bayless, or Reilly. (Honestly, when's the last time you seriously read anything by those guys?) They're easily dismissed. They've been mailing in their work for a decade. No one has ever accused Simmons of that.

[noles1]

Another one cued up today.

Discuss Tiger, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, MTV and college vs. pro.

[Doc]

I'm not much of a reader, but I've been trying to round up a bunch of audiobooks for all the time staring at a computer screen at work. Listened to Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs a few weeks back and it was awesome. I'll be seeking out some other works of his soon.

On the topic of podcasts, I've been listening to some Simmons BS Report, but the obvious Boston bias is tough to always get through. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier on SModcast (taken from a months-old podcast thread) is still pretty awesome, as is Carolla's podcast. My favorite current podcast is Doug Benson's I Love Movies. It's pretty much Benson with a guest or 2 in front of a live crowd BS'ing about movies and what-not. There's some funny stuff on there.

Anyone want to recommend any good Klosterman stuff outside of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs?

[motherscratcher]

The new podcast is great. Highly recommended.

I can listen to Klosterman wax philosophic on Van Halen and Husker Du for hours.

And Doc...Sex Drugs and CoCo Puffs is the only book I've ever listened to on audiotape. I got it for a long drive last summer. It was great. Been meaning to get his other stuff (not audio) for some time but haven't gotten around to it.

I listen to all of the other podcasts that you mention. They're all good but I think Smodcast has gone a little downhill since Smith started doing all of them stoned.

Haven't listened to Benson's. I'll have to check that out.