I believe hockey cards have supernatural powers.

This is why, in the winter of 1975, I starting arranging my Los Angeles Kings cards like players on a hockey rink on the top of my mammoth hand-me-down stereo console. And then challenged the NHL All Stars—or at least the cards I was able to collect—to a game of pickup hockey on top of the console. My “rink” was oblong and the perfect length for a fantasy game. There were even miniature nets I cobbled together from old metal tubing and bakery string from the pink boxes from the store around the corner.

This was my pre-game ritual before road games and it made the post-homework, pre-parent evening arrivals go faster. Just before the games would face-off usually on the radio (there were few televised road games back in the mid-70s), I would set the the cards out. Starters on the hardwood ice and reserves side-by-side in a makeshift bench constructed out of old quart-sized milk cartons. Then I would walk behind the bench and shift out the players as Bob Miller and Rich Marotta let me know who was on the ice and on the bench.

The cards were voodoo to me, every bit as powerful as the Six Million Dollar Man and on par with the Millennium Falcon’s holographic chess players. I knew, laid out on the stereo, with their energy unbridled, and with my calm benchside manner utilizing my Carrie-like telekinetic powers, that all of this would make a difference, make all the difference, in the outcome of the game.

I used to put hexes on Bobby Orr. I (wrongfully) took credit for his bad knees when I read about them in The Hockey News (sorry Bob). I tore up my extra Gerry Cheevers card and tossed it in the freezer before the game six of the 1976 quarter finals went into overtime. Sure enough, Butch Goring solved Cheevers late in overtime forcing a game seven. Maybe if I had a second Cheevers card for game seven things might have turned out different that year.

These days, hockey cards aren’t distributed like they used to be. You could get them at any convenience store or supermarket. You could even buy them at the Fabulous Forum souvenir stands. The full-sized hockey sticks were $7, pucks were $1, and a wax pack of Topps hockey cards were $1.25. Now, the only place I can find them are on eBay or enclosed in authenticated plastic and up for auction.*

When I was first collecting, hockey cards were about memories. You held Gil Perraeult’s card in your hand and you pictured his smooth, effortless skating and the flight of his laser-infused puck spinning towards the back of the net. You saw in the close-up shot of Bobby Clarke the steely eyes you’d gotten a glimpse of on TV weeks before, peeking out from under his shaggy locs as he racked up another 12 minutes in penalties and two more goals. The 1976-77 cards featured cartoons with fun facts. I mean how would I every know that Rogie Vachon was very superstitious and Guy LaFleur’s last name meant “flower.”

Many cards featured bad haircuts and goofy smiles. These players could be your favorite uncle who came to visit only at Thanksgiving. These guys might get you that slice of pie or extra piece of white meat. Those feelings never leave you. It’s about the way a card, for whatever reason, lingers with you, loiters in the imagination, as does some kind of magic.

I was an only child, and my parents were divorced. My dad was an old baseball guy, so the hockey fascination wasn’t something he understood too much. My hockey card addiction wasn’t inherited, nor was it influenced by dad or other family members. The great thing about dad is that he married well. His second wife worked in the Fabulous Forum’s ticket office, so we would get tickets to any Kings game that wasn’t a sellout (meaning lots of home games). When I was eight, I regularly went to games by myself (don’t worry, in 1976 this was good parenting). At the games, I knew every usher, every concessions person, and every ticket seller. I traded cards with some of them. I got a perspective of the adult world that served me well.

I’ll know former Kings winger Bob Nevin’s stats until I die. Nevin scored 64 goals, had 113 assists, and amassed 45 penalty minutes in 235 games in a Kings’ uniform. Why the obsession with a run-of-the-mill winger on his fourth NHL team? Seems he was dating a friend of dad’s second wife whom I had a crush on. It seemed like every pack of cards I opened after that discovery had his face in it. He was clean cut with a perfect jaw and wore the expression of an engineer launching spaceships into outer space. I analyzed those numbers to death wondering how Bob Nevin could land someone like her. Back then, though, all my eight-year-old self knew was that he was a somebody, and I seemed to have a shoe box stuffed to the gills with his nobody cards.

Over time, as we get older, the cards—the collecting, the sorting, the trading, the hours spent in their company and in the company of friends and family who let me think they felt their magic, too—became memories themselves.

So this year where my father passed away at 70, it wasn’t the stories at his funeral, the old photographs or the memories from his friends and colleagues that made it possible to wrap my mind around him being gone. It was a card. Back at dad’s place after the services, I stood in his spare bedroom and looked at the frames and the books on his shelves, and then I saw it, the Gerry Cheevers torn card, fused back together with that cheap, yellowed tape, perched on the shelf in front of his cigar boxes, sitting there like some sacred object on an altar. Like Dad, Cheevers looked like he was the cat who ate the canary, like he was having a last laugh, like he was giving me the business and up to something.

I took the card down off the shelf and carved up a milk carton and placed him on the bench this time. And then I paced around the bedroom listening to the Kings game in somewhat of a trance. Missing dad. Feeling good and bad at once. Knowing everything was different. Feeling somehow, just for a moment, as if it were all the same.

* – Here are some beauties up for auction this month. But please, don’t bid against me!

The post Cardboard Magic appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Okay, so where am I? 

It’s been a light red carpet season. I’ve only done two—the Grammys and now today at the Academy Awards. Nothing is better that than when your feet hit that Oscars burgundy carpet. Your imagination soars and you can’t help by daydream of carrying a thirteen-and-a-half-inch tall, eight-and-a-half pound golden statuette.

In good news for the Academy, the telecast drew a 7.7 rating for the ever-valuable demographic adults 18-49 and 29.6 million overall viewers. That’s up from a 6.8 rating and 26.5 million last year, or an increase of 12%. In bad news, this year was the second smallest audience ever for an Oscars telecast.

I am very unhappy to report that my agent has been M.I.A. once again as hope and pray one of my four scripts or two (yet unpublished) books find a way to be developed into a real movie. Alas, no movie this year, but I did pick up a sweet gig writing NHL and Los Angeles Kings columns this past year (no help from my agent, thank you!).

So for the eighth straight year, here’s my first-hand view of the happenings backstage at the 91st Academy Awards:

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH:
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

Rami Malek: Wait a second. Let’s hold on. Am I one of the last ones here? Well, I just want to say thank you guys for being here. And I will say this: I don’t think critically the decision on this film was unanimous, but I do appreciate everything you guys had to write. As a kid, I read criticism of film, and I learned so much from it. So no matter what, I still do very much appreciate you. Thank you.

Q: I don’t know how I can follow that. Congratulations, first of all, and I know you’ve heard that a lot tonight. But I have to ask, please explain to us and describe for us when you first got this role and what happened exactly at that moment and when did this role become a reality for you? When did it really hit you that you’re playing Freddie Mercury?

Mike Baker / ©A.M.P.A.S.

RM: I really got blessed. Last night Mr. Spielberg, he had his daughter come up to me and say, hey, make sure you say hi to Rami Malek. It would mean a lot to me and it would mean a lot to him. So I had a seminal moment in my life where I knew some auteurs could influence my life. Since then, I’m about to begin Season 4 of Mr. Robot with Sam Esmail. And in the middle of the second, no, the third season, while we were working on that, I got a call from Graham King and Dennis O’Sullivan to meet them in Los Angeles, and they were fans of Mr. Robot. And I don’t know how they thought a young man who felt so alienated, profoundly alienated, with such social anxiety could ever play Freddie Mercury. But the one thing that was beautiful about it was I started to discover that in this audacious, present, communicative, powerful human being there was a sense of loneliness and a sense of anxiety, and I could relate the two together. So I thank them for discovering that in me, but I do have to thank so many great auteurs who have brought me to the point where I felt confident in my work. And Spike Lee is one of them. Alfonso Cuarón is one of them. Paul Thomas Anderson is one of them. Sam Esmail is definitely one of them. The list goes on. But it was the confidence that they all imbued in me to be able to think that I could take on this challenge. Then , well, that’s a long story. And Tom Hanks. Let’s not forget Tom Hanks.

Q: Allow me on behalf of all the Arab world to say congratulations. We’re so happy that you won with the participation of three nominees this year from the Arab world. You have the trophy.I read that you grew up loving Umm Kulthum and Omar Sharif and there’s plenty of Arab young talents growing up now loving Rami Malek. If it’s not too much to ask, can we get your answer? What would you say to these guys or ladies, in Arabic, if possible?

RM: Well, I will begin by saying [speaks Arabic.] I would say that as a young man, my sister was born in Egypt. I think when I grew up as a kid, I wanted part of me felt like I need to shed some of that. I wanted to I didn’t feel like I fit in. I definitely felt like the outsider. And as I got older, I realized just how beautiful my heritage and my tradition is, and the wealth of culture and magic and music and film and just pure art that comes out of the Middle East. And now I’m so privileged to represent it. And to anyone from there, and for that matter the entire world, we all got a shot at this. We really do.

Q: You gave a beautiful speech in which it seems like it talks a lot about what happened tonight. There was a lot of inclusion it seems, a lot of films that have been talking about that aspect, and I wonder how much in that respect that this Oscar of yours now fits into that and reflects that.

RM: It’s a political question, and I appreciate it, but…

Q: No, no. I mean, I’m talking about the inclusion of the films.

RM: Yeah. I will say, look, I mean, I grew up in a world where I never thought I was going to play the lead on Mr. Robot because I never saw anyone in a lead role that looked like me. I never thought that I could possibly play Freddie Mercury until I realized his name was Farrokh Bulsara, and that is the most powerful message that was sent to me from the beginning. That was the motivation that allowed me to say, oh, I can do this. And that man steps on stage and he moves people in a way that no one else does, and he has ability to look everyone in the eye and see them for who they are. And that’s because he was struggling to identify himself. And all of that passion and virtue and everything burning inside of him allowed him to look to everybody else and say, hey, I see you. Not right here in the front; I see you there in the back. I see all of you, I will play to all of you, and together we will transcend. Because it’s not about being from one place or looking like one thing, one race. Any of that. We are all human beings. And forgive me for this, but collectively we are all the champions.

Q: Rami, I just was wondering after you finished shooting the film, how did you feel about your own performance? Did you know that it was special and that it might end up in an Academy Award?

RM: I’ve got to say, being on that stage, I think I may have I don’t know how I looked on that stage, but I never thought this would happen in my life. The one thing I can say about this as an actor, and there are so many of us who only dream of one thing. And perhaps it’s not this; it’s just getting a job. So the fact that I have this in my hand right now is beyond excuse me any expectation that myself or perhaps my family could have ever had. And I’ll just say that. I mean, this has been a tough battle, and I think you all know about it, and the fact that I’m here celebrating with you is proof that a lot of things can be overcome, and that anything is possible. And tonight I’m celebrating with all of you. And anyone who has a dream, it can happen. Thank you.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH:
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Q: Your speech touched me and was hilarious. Frankly, how much of that was prepared?


Olivia Colman: None of it. And I’ve just been told I completely forgot Melissa and Yalitza as well, so but, you know, it’s not an everyday occurrence. So I don’t know how anyone is composed and remembers everything because it’s a very weird situation. But to those two beautiful women I forgot to say thank you to.

Mike Baker / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q: Congratulations. Massive congratulations on the win. Where are you going to put your Oscar statue at? Where is it going to go?


OC: In bed with me, between me and my husband. He doesn’t know yet.

Q: I knew you were one of the great actors as soon as I saw you in TYRANNOSAUR years ago. How do you go about finding the tragic and the absurd and vice versa, because that is what you do so beautifully in this role? It’s hilarious and shattering.


OC: Well, that is lovely of you. No, that is a lovely thing for you to say. Thank you very much. I don’t know.

Q: So, first of all, Broad Church is not coming back; right?


OC: No, we’ve done three. That’s it. Sorry.

Q: That’s it. Okay. Were you expecting this at all, because the reaction


OC: No.

Q: both here at the ceremony was you were completely blind sided.


OC: Yeah.

Q: Blind sided by it. So how does it feel, like, to do this?


OC: I have no idea. I could not tell you what I’m feeling. Next year, I might I’ll be able to put it into words, but I don’t know what to do with myself at the moment.

Q: What prepared you for this role?


OC: The script was amazing, and then you just do what’s written down, I think. Without the writers, without words, we are just bumbling around, miming. So if the script is good, it’s all there. I think.

Q: How old are your kids, and are they watching or not?


OC: They are watching, because they are here.

Q: So they are in a hotel room watching it, or…


OC: No, we borrowed my agent’s house.

Q: And how old are they?


OC: 13, 11, and 3. There was a gap. I had to persuade my husband for a few years.

Q: What would Queen Anne say to you right now?


OC: Have some cake. Blue cake. Eat too much blue cake. If you had seen the film, it makes sense. It wasn’t just a weird things to say.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH:
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Q: How sweet was it to have your mom there in the front row with you? Obviously, you gave much praise to her during your acceptance speech. What did it mean to you to have her there tonight?

Regina King: It’s hard to, like, put it in words really quickly. I feel like kind of like one of those full circle moments because so much of the character Sharon Rivers was mapped or inspired by my mother and my grandmother. So to have her there, my family was there, my sister, Reina, my son, Ian, were there. They are both here tonight. And it goes by so fast, and you want to thank so many people, and your mind just goes blank. And, you know, my mom was like the lighthouse right there. And…mmm, just everything.

Mike Baker / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q: how was it to get to say those words and play somebody who believed, you know, to the depth of their soul

RK: Yes.

Q: About love?

RK: Love. Persevering. I mean, If Beale Street Could Talk is a beautiful film, a beautiful novel before it was thank you before it was a film you might be clapping for somebody else, but I’m going to take that. Thank you. And where we are to your point, where we are right now, I think that’s it’s a film that is breaks through a lot of the sections that are exist right now. You know, love is that thing that pushes us through trauma. You know, this is an urban tragedy, but tragedy is a is something that is experienced no matter what sex you are, no matter what race you are; and love and support is usually what pushes us through, which gets us to the other side. So I think this film is so needed right now because we need a lot of help getting through the other side and seeing how how much we are alike. We are different in a lot of ways. Absolutely. Our circumstances are so different; but it’s to the core, to the core, we are really a lot alike.

Q: Four hundred years ago this year in 1619, the first slaves were brought to Jamestown. Talk to me a little bit about what it means to stand here today winning your first Academy Award, the same place where, you know, Hattie McDaniel, and so many others who may have been discounted?

RK: Well, I mean, it’s I mean, I think it kind of piggybacks on what we were just saying in the last question: That it means so much for me personally, because you guys aren’t able to witness this, but the love and support and the lifting up that I have received on my journey as an actor in just this last five months, how many people have been rooting for me, and it has not just been black people; although, you know, the black family has always lifted me. But it’s just a reminder of when Hattie McDaniel won. She didn’t win just because black people voted for her. She won because she gave an amazing performance. And especially then, the Academy was was not as reflective as it is now. We are still trying to get more reflective, still trying to get there. But I feel like I’ve had so many women that have paved the way, are paving the way, and I feel like I walk in their light, and I also am creating my own light. And there are young women that will walk in the light that I’m continuing to shine and expand from those women before me. You know, I’m blessed and highly favored.

Q: So I’m thinking about that very climactic scene when you confronted you and Emily Rios

RK: Yes.


Q: …and it’s such a visceral and emotionally raw scene. So I wanted to ask you, What particular source did you draw from to portray such emotion?

RK: You know, all of us, we just pulled on being women, and we have all been in if we have not experienced a violation on that level firsthand, we have lifted a sister up through that. And that, you know, even all the way from when the abuelitas came in and escorted her off, that was something that was universal. Every woman that had something to do with this production, the understanding and the need to make sure that it was very clear in the story that we all knew that she was raped. It wasn’t Fonny, but she was raped. And we hold each other up through a secret that shouldn’t be a secret. So often, that’s the beautiful thing about the Me Too Movement, and the Me Too Movement has I think have gone has gone even beyond that with creating opportunities for women to find their voice even beyond just being violated sexually, but being marginalized, being violated. When you have put in the work to be at the table and being denied a seat at the table, this movement has allowed us and has inspired us to say no, I am supposed to have a seat at that table. So that energy was going on throughout the production of that film of this film. Barry supported that and lifted it up as well. And that’s the thing. When you have men and women working together, pretty amazing things happen.

Q: If Beale Street Could Talk was a very important part of American literature before this movie. What do you think James Baldwin would say right now and feel about this win and about the movie?

RK: I think one word, something that he would say often, amen.

BACKSTAGE INTERVIEW WITH:
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Q: And your other movie won, too, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.


Mahershala Ali: Yes. Spider-Verse.

Q: This film is about people changing each other, or they’re changing because of what they go through. How did this film change you? Could you put that into words? I meant the making of it, obviously.

MA: Well, I never it was the first time that I had that kind of responsibility. I’ve always been very fortunate to contribute to stories in a more limited way, and this was the first time in which there was a good degree of the time I was at work in there all day every day, you know, or all day during the week, you know. And so to to shoulder that, to shoulder more responsibility than I’ve been accustomed to shouldering, to have to play a character that had attributes that were very different from my own; so, therefore, I had to let certain things go that were in my personality in order to to take on and embrace other attributes that that man had. It was it was constantly sort of having sort of negotiating and finding my way to locking into a truth and finding his essence, you know. And so I was really just grateful for failing and succeeding at times and just fishing through it all, digging and excavating, and collaborating with Viggo. So I’m sure I didn’t answer your question. But, you know, it was it was difficult and beautiful and very grateful to have gone on the journey.

Mike Baker / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Q: What is going on? It’s your second Oscar for a supporting role. How do you feel about it?

MA: I feel very fortunate. I feel fortunate to have been nominated. Any of those gentlemen could have been up here and would be, obviously, deserving of being up here. They did wonderful work, beautiful work, work that inspired me. So to be the one that was chosen to get to hold this trophy again, it’s not something that I take lightly. It’s not something I take for granted. If anything, it makes me aware, more aware of all the people that have really contributed to my life, from childhood to my team that works on my behalf and is always looking to take advantage of the best opportunities, the opportunities that are fit for me. And so I’m I’m very grateful. The first one helped me get Green Book, you know. I don’t think if I had won I wasn’t just getting offers like that, you know; and so to to get an Oscar for Moonlight, it changes your profile. It changes it gets you in other rooms, and it shines a light on your work; and then suddenly you could have been around for 15, 20 years and suddenly people notice you; and so I’m really grateful for that, because I’ve been wanting to work and expand and stretch. I have been wanting to stretch my legs for a really long time, and this was the first time I got to stretch my legs.

Q: You kind of touched on what I was going to ask you a little bit about the failing and succeeding. And then I just wanted to know what was your thinking when you after Moonlight the time that it takes to come to now. Did you ever feel that failing and succeeding from, like, Moonlight to now, or did some things that you thought would happen since Moonlight didn’t happen? Can you speak to those things?

MA: My life is has changed tremendously since in two years. My daughter just had her second birthday two days ago, you know; and I was busy in that time, you know, working. But I think when I say success and failing, I think of them as the same thing, in that as long as you walk away having been improved, having learned from the experience, that it’s all an education, you know. And and so there’s things that I try in my work where I personally watch, and I feel like it worked; or sometime I feel like it doesn’t, it didn’t work. And and I try not to be too hard on myself, but I got to just go for it, and take chances and commit and see how things turn out all with the goal of improving, and growing, and being stretched, and also just making a contribution. I just want to feel like I’m being productive with my time on this earth, you know; and because I just don’t take that for granted. And so I will continue to fail, and I’ll hopefully continue to succeed; and, but I and continue to make my best efforts, and to do the best work that I could possibly do, and be the best person I can be.


NOTES ON THE SCORECARD:

Past Media Guy Oscars Backstage Columns: 2018 – 2017 – 2016 – 2015 – 2014 – 2013 – 2012

The Big Four — Oscar-winners Rami Malek, Olivia Colman, Regina King, Mahershala Ali pose in the Press Room with their Oscar for Achievement in acting:

Getty Images / Rick Rowell

Jennifer Lopez outs the finishing touches on her makeup backstage.

Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler goof around backstage.

Lady Gaga sips champagne as Bradley Cooper looks on.

Instead of breaking the rules, I took a portrait in front of the step and repeat the day before the Sunday telecast:

I met five-time Academy Award nominee Amy Adams – what a delight:

Q: Does the Adapted Screenplay win makes up for the Do the Right Thing loss at the 1990 Oscars and the Academy overlooking it for a Best Picture nomination (Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture the year).

Spike Lee: “I’m snake bit. Every time somebody is driving somebody, I lose – but they changed the seating arrangement!”

©A.M.P.A.S.

Rami Malek celebrates with the bubbly:

That Julia Roberts Smile:

©A.M.P.A.S.

James Bond and the Atomic Blonde:

©A.M.P.A.S.

Captain America discusses the weather with JLo:

©A.M.P.A.S.

The post Backstage at the Oscars: 2019 appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Note: Part I can be found here.

Part II.

I’m back from the holiday break and what did we learn (or were reminded of) between the trading freeze and today?

• Drew Doughty is an All Star.
• The Kings have fantastic goaltending and goalie coaches.
• Willie D. has no idea how to build team chemistry.
• The players have goal songs. 
• Jack Hughes is still in play!

While I was touring Kontinental Hockey League country (column coming next week), my inbox was filling up from those of you who had their own bad fan experiences. So before I get to the worst 10 fans of all time, here are the top email selections from you, the readers:

• Shirt off guy. Sometimes in the upper upper 300s.
• The visiting fan entourage who starts chanting their hometown chant.*
• The guy who gets ice cream all over himself and doesn’t realize it.
• Sharks Fans who call Kings Fans “bandwagoners.”
• The Creepy Dance Cam Guy.
• The guy who thinks he’s a hockey scout.
• The former college player.
• The guy sitting 600 feet from the ice who screams at the refs and actually thinks they can hear him over 100 db of Bon Jovi and crowd noise.

* – The only time this actually works is the Freeway Series where Kings fans invade the Honda Center. The “Go Kings Go” is two to three times louder than “Let’s Go Ducks.” Ducks fans may actually be the worst in all of sports. But that’s another column altogether.

And, now on with the countdown…

10. Too Many Beers Guy

Here are the warning signs:

A.) He’s typically a college freshman who hasn’t really figured out the whole drinking thing yet;
B.) He’s usually the shortest guy in his group;
C.) Every TV timeout, he hops up for another round;
D.) He almost always returns to his seat carrying two beers and spilling them all over the place;
E.) He enters a glazed stupor by the second intermission.

9. The Puck Father

You know this guy. He’s near the team benches — near the spot where the junior equipment folks throw out the pucks before the players emerge for warmups — practically pleading for pucks and holding his kid up in the air like a hostage.

8. Check-in Guy

Check-in Guy brings his kid to the game and feels the need to call home during every period to check in with his wife. The first call usually unfolds in a sequence like this:

”Hey honey, it’s me…” (Translation: I just wanted to thank you for letting me come to the game.) 

”I can barely hear you!” (Indeed, it’s tough to hear when you’re sitting in an arena with 17,000 other people.) 

”We’re at the game!” (Always said with an inflection, as if it’s an amazing feat to be able to call someone from a hockey game.) 

”It’s great!” (He wouldn’t know if the game’s good or not, because he just sat down and couldn’t allow a few minutes to pass without calling.) 

”Uh-huh, yeah he’s right here.” (It’s important for the wife to know that her husband didn’t lose their child.) 

”I’ll let you talk to him…” (To prove it.)

Every subsequent call pretty much sounds the same. On the bright side, this guy also leaves early because it’s a school night.

7. Stoned Aggressive Guy

He’s a distant cousin to the Too Many Beers Guy. These guys are prepared to offend everyone within earshot of their seats. They’ll catcall your girlfriend, daughter, or sister. They’ll drop random F-bombs. They’ll spill beer on you. They’ll use their middle finger until it hurts. Usually you can spot the SAGs right away, sometimes even before the game starts.

6. Instagram Mom

The first of two callouts to the ladies in my top ten goes to the Instagram Mom. She’s the mom who suddenly decides that she needs to get a picture of her family during the middle of a period so she can post it real time on Instagram. Bonus points are earned here if she’s oblivious enough to ask somebody else in the section to take the picture.

Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images

5. The Obnoxious Guy Rooting for the Visitors

Look, most of us have cheered our home team in an enemy arena; however, there’s a huge disparity between supporting the visitors and provoking the home fans, amirite? The Obnoxious Guy usually wears some form of opposing paraphernalia (usually a sweater, sometimes a hat), shouts out unintelligent nicknames for his players, claps his hands repulsively, curses and flashes his middle finger towards the ice, and does everything imaginable to exasperate people in his section. He blossoms when he does it.

4. Flirty Fans

Hockey has a spectacle where some women make “Marry Me” or double-entendre signs directed at players and stand at the glass during warmups, garnering a lot of attention on social media these days. You see that a lot on the Eastern time zones, not so much in the West.

3. Work Buddies

Listen, going with work buddies is excellent team building and camaraderie. But pick your seatmates wisely because three out of five of your work buddies have no interest in the game and we all suffer. They’re sitting in the company seats. Sometimes wearing suits or a blazer over jeans. They’re nursing a single beer over two periods. They’re discussing work-related projects. They still think Canadians say “Eh?” every two seconds. They’re not afraid to tell a story from that other hockey game they went to eight years ago and they definitely plan on leaving before the end of the game to “beat the traffic.”

As an added punch in the stomach, they usually have great seats. The world just isn’t fair. Don’t confuse this guy with Game Date Guy. Game Date Guy brings his budding relationship to her first hockey game and tries to show her why hockey is the greatest game on earth. That guy is just plain awesome.

2. Cotton Candy Guy

This is the guy who orders something from a strolling vendor during a critical penalty kill. He doesn’t just order, he stands up to take his wallet out and decides if it’s going to be a twenty or a ten he is going to pay with. He remains standing, unaware, until someone gives him the “DOWN IN FRONT!” and forces him into the half-standing, half-crouch position. Goodness gracious, sakes alive, I hate this guy.

Odd Fact #1: This guy is always firmly planted in the middle of a row, which means everyone needs to pass both the cash and the purchased item back and forth. If you want everyone in your section to hate you with every fiber of their being, start here.

Odd Fact #2: Cotton Candy Guy usually pulls double duty as Check-in Guy. If you ever notice Check-in Guy at the start of a game, buckle up for the vendor/wallet fiasco at some point. Trust me here.

1. Cell Phone Guy

The guy sitting on the glass right behind the goal who talks excitedly on his cell phone and executes those “Hey, look at me!” waves during every scrum behind the net. Cell phones at the game is the worst phenomenon of the technology century, especially the dude who wants to showcase what he can do to disrupt the game experience from his $750 seat.

That wraps up the top ten. I am sure I missed some, so feel free to write in with your own. In the countdown world, I think I’m supposed to quote the immortal Casey Kasem and remind you to “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”

The post The Worst Fans in Hockey—10 through 1 appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Number 14 – Big Hat Guy (c) Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

It’s time for a break from criticizing the Kings, so I turn my gaze on some fans instead.

I started this column a few weeks back by previewing and revealing the Number Five Worst Hockey Fan: Obnoxious Loud Guy. Today, I look at the worst fans, numbers 20 through 11. Full disclosure, I’ve probably morphed through being some of these guys in my 45 years watching puck all over North America. I’m on version 4.0 of myself. It’s a better place.

Now, on with the countdown…

Oh wait. Before I get to the worst 20, I’d be remiss not to cover the Honorable Mentions:

• The guy who gets his kid a souvenir stick before the game and lets them spend the entire game banging it against the back of your seat. (Bonus points when they whack you in the back of the head once or twice.)
• Foul-mouthed dude in the middle of a section filled with kids.
• Dude wearing a sweater with his own name on the back.
• Guy sitting in the first two rows who stands when there’s a fight so he can see better and instead blocks your view.
• Guy on the glass who bangs the glass during that same fight.
• Dude who challenges players in the penalty box.
• Without further ado, here’s the first installment of my worst fans in hockey countdown.

20. Restless Leg Couple

The couple ten seats into a row who leave and come back repeatedly, each period, every period, and then struggles with their footing as they inch by with drinks without lids.

19. Dude Who Sits in Your Seat / The Guy Who Is in the Right Seat and Row, But Wrong Section

You know the guy who sneaks down into your seat when he sees a patch of empties. He’s made himself comfortable — even brought his food with him and/or left his empty wrappers in your foot space. Arenas use assigned seating and have ushers for a reason. This guy should be ranked higher but the pain typically only lasts for a second.

18. Jealous Dude

This is the guy who thinks the entire stadium is looking at his girlfriend. Jealous Dude does not want you looking at her. And no matter what happens, even if you’re clearly not looking at her, he’s still glancing around with one of those Robert DeNiro Looks from Taxi Driver all over his face.

17. Back of Bench Dude

The guy sitting near the opposing team bench who yells insults, usually unfunny ones, at every player on the bench. This guy is polite in every aspect of his life but turns into a Vegas standup guy after knocking back a few. Unfortunately for all of us, he’s not remotely clever and stumbles out insults like, “Hey, Dumba, did you lose your magic feather?” He’s bombing out there and doesn’t care. Every time I sit near Back of Bench Dude, I’m always angry he didn’t bring his sitcom laugh track.

16. Phonetic Guy

This guy needs to pronounce every Russian or Slovak or Czech player’s name the way a native speaker would say it. You know, the know-it-all American who digs out his acting class Eastern European accent to pronounce “Artem Anisimov” or “Tomáš Plekanec” when shouting out the names of those respective players. Phonetic Guy is the same guy who turns around and corrects you when you unknowingly screw up a fact.

15. Big Shot in the Cheap Seats

We have a saying when we go to StubHub searching for the game: “Do you want good seats or in the building?” The wallet usually dictates “in the building.” I mean, just being there is a treat. Way in the upper upper 300s, there are some interesting characters. Like the fool sitting right in back of you telling his bros about the struggles of being in upper management but bragging about the “great seats that he got from work.” He’s in denial somewhere.

14. Big Hat Guy

Hey big hat guy! Give us a chance to see the game. Save the Babushka or your derby-shaped Kangol for your trip to the snow. Inside the arena, don’t act oblivious that you’re blocking my view. You definitely are and it isn’t the slightest bit cute. I hate that guy.

13. Guy with Glass Seats Who Brings His Young Kids and Doesn’t Take Away Their Electronics

I don’t know, it just bugs the living hell out of me. It’s worse on television when there’s a big play and the kid can barely lift their eyes up to see what just happened.

12. Bad Parents

Yeah, yeah, I know where you think I’m headed. Think again. Bad hockey parenting is where you’re a long-term Kings fan who let’s their kids make their favorite team choices. You’ve seen the beaten-down father wearing a Dustin Brown sweater while his kids sport their Ducks or Sharks sweaters. That’s bad parenting, plain and simple. As soon as they are born you have to drill the sports bias into them. You have to go all Manchurian Candidate Fan on them, brainwashing at will.

11. The Dude Who Wears a Sweater of Someone Who Isn’t on the Team

Okay, (most) retired players are exempt here. So are the warm-up jerseys you won in the Kings Care Foundation silent auction, or even a game-worn sweater.

This actually happened: Three weeks ago at Staples, I spotted someone wearing a purple Kings, number 28 Oleg Tverdovsky, sweater. I swear. Apparently his “other sweater” was in the wash.

Now, pay attention Kings fans, because Guy Number 11 will probably be pretty relevant come the 2019 trade deadline: Once a someone is traded away, don’t wear it to the stadium. Don’t burn it or throw it away either. Wear it at home when you are cleaning or watching a game on the NHL Network.

That’s it for this week … we’ll continue the countdown soon. What fans do you think will make the top 10?

This column is from my Perspectives From The Cheap Seats slot on Jewels From The Crown.

The post The Worst Fans in Hockey—20 through 11 appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

It’s late and I’m polishing my running diary for tonight’s Los Angeles Kings game against the Arizona Coyotes. It’s been a struggle this season in my first year as a moonlighting sportswriter. The Kings are really bad and coach is worse. How bad is he? He’s so bad that I penned letters to him and then to his boss, general manager Rob Blake. That one took a lot for me because I would never want anyone complaining to my bosses. As far as I know, no one has ever complained about me in writing. Hopefully that streak continues.

Also, I am still waiting for Dr. Peter Lam, Chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, or their executive director Anthony Lau, to call me to sort out the disaster that is their “Treasures of the Heart” tourism commercial.

Inspired by the awfulness of the Hong Kong Tourism Board, I’ve unearthed a handful of truly horrendous tourism campaigns…

Barcelona

This ancient Barcelona video showcases every fountain in the land. And here you though they were only known for their food, beaches, Gaudi architecture, and pickpockets.

Canada

Once upon a time a photobombing squirrel made big news in the Great White North. So, of course the marketing folks at Banff Lake Louise Tourism rushed a commercial to air touting its national park. Needless to say this didn’t age well. Now, or then.

Latvia

Here, the inability of Latvians to communicate without a huge supply of napkins and tomato ketchup is showcased. Also showcased is awkward couple flirts, the cheap beer, and bad waiter haircuts.

Miami Beach

In 1970, Miami Beach jumped into the colorful advertising gimmick game first launched by Mary Wells Lawrence for Braniff.

I’m red, I love…
I’m yellow, I groove…
I’m blue, I appreciate…
There’s one place where colors and people best come together – Miami Beach!

This is opening of the original meandering infomercial type (13+ minutes long) featuring a shameless number of good looking, eyebrow raising women in front of roaring fires and reclining beds.

Massachusetts

In the 1980s, Massachusetts dreamed up this classic showcasing New Englanders living in harmony. However bad the spot is, it features maybe the best tourism jingle ever:

This spot was so bad good that it was lampooned by Family Guy:

The post The Five Worst Tourism Campaigns I Could Find on YouTube appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

It’s been crazy lately. Why do you ask? Loyal readers already know that I started this moonlighting gig with a Los Angeles Kings blogging site*, so I am at Staples Center to see the Kings and their new coach. The pay isn’t great, but I feel like I could be some type of Jim Murray columnist. A renaissance in my fifties…that kind of thing.

Jim Murray (center) with Tommy Lasorda (left) and Fred Claire (right).

Most of you don’t know who Jim Murray is, and really, that’s a shame. Just over 20 years ago, the greatest sportswriter who ever lived passed away. That was pretty much the time I stopped looking forward to reading the Los Angeles Times every morning. His words floated off the page and were instantly carved into your mind. He was magic with the typewriter. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. I mean, he was one of only four sportswriters (at the time) to win a Pulitzer Prize for goodness sakes.

When I heard the news, I remembered reading this years before about a time he spoke with a very sick and blind Jackie Robinson before the Dodgers legend left this earth:

“Jackie, it’s Jim Murray,” Murray said when they touched.
“Oh, Jim,” Robinson replied, “I wish I could see you again.”
“No, Jackie,” Murray responded, “I wish we could see you again.”

More from Murray:

On the 1989 earthquake that disrupted the World Series:

“God put the World Series in perspective here in San Francisco Tuesday night. 

“He shook the ballpark, like a dog would a rag, just minutes before the start of Game 3. 

“A baseball game is about as trivial a pursuit as you can imagine when nature is in a rage. The earth growled, heaved and, suddenly, a World Series that had been as deadly dull as a chess game in a firehouse became more wildly exciting than you would want.”

On the historic Wayne Gretzky trade:

“Gretzky will fill the seats. If he can fill the nets, too, he’ll be the biggest bargain since Babe Ruth. The game needs glamour more than goals. He’s already pulled the hat trick. He’s put hockey on Page 1. In Los Angeles. In August.”

On the death of Loyola Marymount basketball player Hank Gathers:

“Death should stay away from young men’s games. Death belongs in musty hospital rooms, sickbeds. It should not impinge its terrible presence on the celebrations of youth, reap its frightful harvest in fields where cheers ring and bands play and banners wave.”

At the Indy 500:

“Gentlemen, start your coffins!”

On Muhammad Ali:

“He lay on a sofa in white shorts and gray socks with an exhausted but mystical expression on his face. No crowds in mink, no loud music, no sounds of sycophants. The man who had just won his way into sport’s richest vault was lying there just staring as if he couldn’t believe what had happened. 

“Ali (then Cassius Clay) spoke like a man in a trance that night. He wept, whispered, marveled. I have kept my notes and my column from that remarkable night because it was an Ali the public was never to see–withdrawn, staring at something only he could see.”

On Elgin Baylor:

“Nobody ever made me want to be a basketball player until I saw Elgin Baylor. The poetry, drama, and meaning of the game eluded me until he made it all clear.”

On tragedy and terror at the Olympic Games:

“They are 2,500 miles, three time zones–and 24 years–away but I think I know what my colleagues are going through in Atlanta this weekend. 

“Rage, frustration, helplessness, resentment, sadness and, if not despair, something close to it. 

“Here they were covering an event that is an expression of all that is best in mankind–the youth of the world entering on fields of friendly competition, mingling, enjoying, laughing, exchanging pins, rings, addresses, a world of hope, happiness and heroism. 

“And then the merchants of death and hate crash the party with their engines of murder and mayhem. 

“It was 1972 when our little world of non-winning times, golden fractions and golden medals came crashing down on our heads. . .  

“Has the cost of the Games gone up too much when it starts adding up to human lives? I think not. We already have enough bars on our windows, locks on our churches, parties we cancel. You don’t change the world by hiding from it.”

So who knows where this will take me. All I know is that I doubt I can every live up to the greatest. But I can sure try.

* – ICYMI…here are my first columns from the hockey assignments:

GAME RECAP:
Anaheim Ducks @ Los Angeles Kings Game #14 Recap: Kings Undefeated in the Willie D. Era
Nov 7, 2018, 10:45am EST

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CHEAP SEATS:
See Ya, JS…Welcome Willie D.
Nov 5, 2018, 10:37pm EST

GAME RECAP:
Columbus Blue Jackets @ Los Angeles Kings Game #13 Recap: Gluten-Free
Nov 4, 2018, 11:30am EST

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CHEAP SEATS:
Brownie the Leader
Nov 2, 2018, 3:45pm EDT

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CHEAP SEATS:
FINALLY!
Oct 29, 2018, 9:30pm EDT

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CHEAP SEATS:
Pitchforks and Torches
Oct 22, 2018, 9:30pm EDT

GAME RECAP:
Buffalo Sabres @ Los Angeles Kings, Game #8 Recap: Lost at Staples Center
Oct 20, 2018, 10:30pm EDT

PERSPECTIVES FROM THE CHEAP SEATS:
What Do We Do Now?
Oct 18, 2018, 11:00am EDT

The post An Ode to Jim Murray appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Note to reader: Due to unbridled anger scheduling conflicts, I was forced to write the inevitable “John Stevens has been fired!” column on October 20th. That was after the Kings were embarrassed by Buffalo and Stevens uttered the now famous, “I have to be honest. I don’t have an answer at this second.” Yes, actually I wrote this two weeks before they relieved him of his duties. Further, please excuse my insolence when reading. I know John Stevens is maybe the nicest guy in hockey and he had a quiet hand in the two Stanley Cups the Kings won, but for goodness sakes the wheels really fell off on his watch. I refused to be silent when it’s already been bad enough watching him botch my beloved team since the game against Dallas on the final day of the the 2017-18 season. Really, that was the beginning of his end. So Coach Stevens, I want to say that we wouldn’t have these two Stanley Cups without you. You were a great assistant coach. Truly, thank you! To all reading the column after the firing, I appreciate your understanding.

And now, without further ado, the future Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award winning column, “See Ya, JS…”

When we were leaving the Sabres game, a couple of Kings fans were walking ahead of us and humming the words “Lose for Hughes, Lose for Hughes, Lose for Hughes, Lose for Hughes,” almost as if they were chanting the words to a top 40 song.

So much for Champions of California Hockey.

Not only is the defense gone, not only do we only have one playoff win since Brownie raised the Cup the last time, but our fans are singing the names of potential lottery saviors eight games into the season. And if that’s not bad enough, my daughter (the girl who can see a rainbow and sunshine in almost any loss) wasn’t even remotely appalled.

”It’s like they were inside my mind,” my son said with resignation. “I say we trade everything not nailed down and keep Stevens for the whole season. Let’s go for Jack Hughes.” That’s when he sent me this video:

I found that comment mesmerizing: Not that my son wanted to trade everyone not named Drew, Quick, Dustin, or Anze, but his unbiased confidence that keeping John Stevens gave the Kings the best opportunity at finishing with a high lottery pick. Honestly, what more do you need to know? If we’re gunning for Hughes next spring, either we could be unashamed about this mission, fire John Stevens and hire Bob the Security Guard from Lot 1 … or we could keep Stevens and guarantee six more months of blowout losses, defensive breakdowns, motionless offense, clueless excuses and an NHL coach juggling lines every few shifts like he’s forgotten how to coach at all. Unfortunately for Hughes lovers, Rob Blake and the Kings owners imagine that their team still has a chance — and they might be right, given the lack of team success in the Pacific Division this season — so Bob the Security Guard from Lot 1 is out.

And so is JS.

JS must be breathing a sigh of relief. In private, at least.

He spent the playoffs against Vegas and this season coaching with the same look that I used have when I was working up the courage to ask the cute waitress out when I was in college. On opening night, his team looked disjointed and lost as they wandered to an overtime loss as his players seemed to refuse to shoot the puck all game. That was followed by a predictable nail biter win against Detroit (!), a miserable game against Winnipeg (16 shots on goal), a shutout against Montreal, wretched losses to Ottawa (!) and Toronto, then an ugly 7-2 loss to the New York Islanders (with the entire Kings team getting lustily booed at the end of the second period).

JS followed-up the Islander game by calling out the team for lack of effort and saying all the things that indicates the team had quit on him. Then tonight, he pulled out his “I don’t have any answers” line tonight after pulling his goaltender with almost five minutes left and down 4-1. Ugh, I’ve never been so upset at a Kings coach. For those of you unaware, the Kings have had 23 previous coaches, so there’s a lot to choose from.

[Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, the John Stevens era!]

Meanwhile, all of the Kings pundits and journalists I respect were doing their rationale trying to figure out “what’s wrong with the Kings?”, with tweets that easily could have been written about Sharks, Ducks or Capitals. You see, it’s not hard to tell when your coach stinks. You typically know when your players are constantly saying things like “We just need to sustain that intensity for three periods,” “We need to play the kind of defense we’re capable of playing,” “I think we’ve got some soul searching to do,” “We’ve got to figure some things out,” and my personal favorite, “We can’t seem to score first,” (which is a specialty of John Stevens’s coached games).

All of this athlete talk is a huge misdirect. Every word of it. Players from well-coached teams never say these things. If those quotes look familiar to you, or if those tweets look oddly familiar to others that have been written about your own team, then your coach is underperforming and needs to be shown the door.

So why did the Kings retain JS last summer, you ask? Maybe because there wasn’t an available coach out there who was noticeably better. Except the guy who just won the Stanley Cup and was a free agent (OMG, we could have had Barry Trotz). If you owned an NHL team, would you pay three people to perform the same job for you? Especially when the players and the media purportedly admire and respect your coaching? Of course not. It’s easier to cross your fingers and hope he improves, right? What followed that Vegas sweep in the playoffs was inevitable: JS spent the preseason tinkering with lineups until team chemistry was shot. If JS didn’t have a master plan last season, he certainly doesn’t have one this season and it’s only getting worse.

Look, it’s never fun to write that someone should lose his job. By all accounts, JS is a tremendous fellow — that’s the main reason both local columnist and the radio guys kept spinning his B.S. and enabled him to go this long without the criticism he’s earned. Even this week, after these Buffalo and Islander games, the writers who understand hockey and all its subtle nuances endorsed JS and collectively absolved him of all blame.

[Note #2 to the readers: This is the end of the pre-written column and fast forward to yesterday.]

Boy, that escalated quickly… I mean, that really got out of hand fast.

This was the talk at home on Sunday — a Ron Burgundy-type reflection on some swift action from GM Rob Blake. Many wanted John Stevens gone, but few thought they would do it 13 games in. My daughter wrapped it up nicely while she took a break from Dapper Days at Disneyland: “Everyone thought Rob wasn’t going to do anything, but he has great awareness of the issues on the team and a win wasn’t going to derail what he thought would ultimately make the team better.”

Note #3 to the reader: Now that JS has actually been fired relieved of his duties, I’ll say something nice about the interim coach and point out that his best quality is that he’s not John Stevens.

When Willie Desjardins steps behind the bench for his first game as Kings interim coach, it’s worth mentioning that he coached Team Canada to a bronze medal in the last Olympics with former King Ben Scrivens as one of his goaltenders. He’s well respected in coaching circles and anyone who can coach a team to a championship in Medicine Hat is legitimate in my book.

Welcome aboard Willie D., our 25th coach.

The king is dead, long live the king.

The post EMERGENCY HOCKEY COLUMN: See Ya, JS…Welcome Willie D. appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

Read the new column: click here.

Okay, so where am I?

It’s almost time to leave town…vacation style. Well, working vacation. Actually just working at my moonlighting gig. Shhhhh, it’s top secret…

Before I get to the business at hand in this column, I want to report on the homework assignment I spoke of in the last column. The good news (for me at least) is that I got the gig for the hockey website Jewels From The Crown, an SB Nation site dedicated to my beloved Los Angeles Kings. I’ll be writing a weekly opinion column called “Perspectives from the Cheap Seats.” The best part about all of this so far is the killer bio they put up:

Michael Lloyd used to sit in Jack Kent Cooke’s office at the Fabulous Forum stuffing season tickets into envelopes. Since then he’s grown up to be a modern-day mad man with a couple of Clio Awards and Emmys to his credit while penning multiple books. As a 45-year Kings fan, Lloyd brings a unique brand of angst and perspective to the cheap seats.

Yeah, that’s fairly awesome!

Speaking of killers…there are the seven deadly sins and the seven marketing career killers. Believing in bogus platitudes, falling into cognitive bias, clustering into cliques and four other things that could stop your marketing career in its tracks.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Italian philosopher George Santayana famously said. In the workplace, the saying may as well be, “Those who cannot learn from the errors of others are doomed to make the same mistakes.”

Author Becki Saltzman wrote about seven career killers in her recent book, “Living Curiously: How to Use Curiosity to Be Remarkable and Do Good Stuff”. Each is very common and likely noticeable by anyone who has worked in an office setting, and each can stop a high-potential career in its tracks.

To combat these career killers, Saltzman suggests bringing curiosity to work every day.

“Bringing a dose of curiosity to your expectations, you can remain curious prior to being judgmental, fearful, complacent or critical,” she says.

Here are Saltzman’s seven career killers and how marketers can reverse course on them.

1. Believing in bogus platitudes

Statements such as “Let’s not reinvent the wheel” and “The customer is always right”​ are clichés and beliefs that can end up being major roadblocks to career advancement.

“Platitudes can be a trap in marketing,” Saltzman says, adding that most of these platitudes, such as “Quitting is the easiest thing to do,” don’t ring true in many situations.

“Tell that to me with a pitcher of margaritas and a bowl of chips in front of me,” she says with a laugh.

Instead of believing in these cliché maxims, Saltzman suggests testing assumptions by looking at these sayings with curiosity and skepticism. Test and explore how they can relate to aspects of work, such as the review and promotion process, evaluation of leaders and hiring or firing of employees.

Saltzman gave an example of how dangerous it can be to adhere too strictly to platitudes. She was working as a sales manager at a retail shop when a customer tried to return a vial of perfume; the vial was filled with urine.

“My employee was like, ‘What do I do? The customer is always right.’ But that’s the time where you may have to elevate curiosity a little bit to see if that actually matches reality and if ‘The customer is always right’ is going to fit with the review process,” she says.

Illustration by Andrew Joyner

2. Clustering into cliques

Becoming cliquish at work can provide a sense of belonging and security, but it can also mean putting a cap on your potential at work by branding yourself as a group instead of an individual.

Instead of forming a friend group, a la high school, Saltzman suggests expanding work networks to be broader. Knowing more people will provide more opportunity to jump into leadership roles, she says.

3. Trying too hard to be interesting

Most people want their effort to be recognized, but perceived effort can be a dangerous thing. Often, those who try too hard can come off as self-centered or desperate to coworkers and executives.

Instead of trying too hard to be interesting, Saltzman says employees should become more curious at work and focus on being interested in what they’re doing. This, in turn, will make others more curious about who they are and what they do.

“My gig is curiosity,” she says. “I think most people get trapped into [these career killers] because they think they show up to work on time, they do a good job, they get their work done, they don’t make excuses, they don’t fall into the trap of these career killers. But they’re not curious enough to see beneath the curtain.”

Become curious about work by asking questions of coworkers about what they like about their job and what policies they would put into action. Figure out something unique about a coworker or uncommon commonalities between you.

4. Gravitating toward groupthink

​​​Getting caught up in groupthink may be one of the more difficult traps to avoid; it’s tough to be a single dissenting voice among a group of people saying, “Yes.”

Saltzman says that she often asks clients whether they’d rather be wrong in a crowd or right by themselves, and concedes that the answer isn’t always clear.

“Sometimes it’s a matter of picking your battles,” she says. “Sometimes you can’t be the contrarian that’s always poking. By the same token, sometimes you can’t be the silent one. But [you must] always be taking the pulse of the crowd [and figure out if it’s a battle worth fighting]. The stakes may be high, but you’re probably not ever going to differentiate yourself as a leader if that’s something you won’t do.”

Engaging in new ways of thinking and suggesting other coworkers do the same thing can go a long way toward eliminating groupthink in a work environment, Saltzman says.

“Just falling into anti- or pro-groupthink is dangerous. I’d suggest too much groupthink has a much greater downside than too little.”

Avoiding groupthink certainly does not mean avoiding working with others. Dana Glasgo, a career coach based in Cincinatti, says employees may want to find a good mentor internally to help them grow within the company.

“Networking is the key [to becoming a top employee],” she says.

5. Becoming too familiar with coworkers or bosses

Not knowing your coworkers and bosses well enough certainly isn’t good, but Saltzman says becoming too familiar can be even more of a career killer. Sharing too much or “knowing too much,” thereby becoming less curious, can lead to stagnation at work, she says.

Instead, she suggests finding the right balance between knowing and sharing. Be familiar with people, but not so familiar that things get dramatic or you become incurious about coworkers or work itself.

Becoming too familiar may also breed gossip, especially when in concert with cliques. Glasgo says employees need to have a positive attitude at work.

“You’re there to do a job, and that’s what they’re paying you to do,” she says. “Keeping that attitude right is important.”

6. Mental Sand Traps

“Mental sand traps,” or cognitive biases and mental shortcuts, are the most dangerous of the seven career killers, Saltzman says. Confirmation bias, for one, may cause someone to always believe they’re correct, even if they are not.

“That kind of belief system allows us to think that we’re doing the right thing and we miss cues in all of these career killers that might be illuminated if we weren’t caught in these mental sand traps,” she says. “From a practical, tactical standpoint, the first thing [to counteract this] is becoming really comfortable with being wrong. In the workplace, that’s hard. We’re not awarded for making mistakes and being wrong.”

Saltzman says people should practice being wrong outside of work when the stakes are not as high. This can be as simple as testing assumptions outside of work or taking up a new hobby.

“You realize [being wrong] doesn’t kill you,” she says. “Maybe you call it the beginner’s mindset​ or the mindset of not being an expert. You start seeing how that mindset is OK to bring to an area where you may need to be perceived as more of an expert, such as the workplace.”

7. Behavior bombs

No one likes being around someone who flies off the handle, easily gets angry or holds passive aggressive grudges. Saltzman says these are “behavior bombs,” something that may cause people to erupt when confronted with others’ selfish behavior, not being listened to or a perceived lack of fairness, among other issues.

To confront this issue, Saltzman says a simple solution is to figure out “what pisses you off,” your behavior bomb, so that you can recognize when it pops up among coworkers or bosses.

“Before you figure out your behavior bombs, figuring out what are the behavior bomb triggers and why [they happen], be really curious about it: Why do you think that’s an appropriate way to be?” she says. “Once you’ve identified that and you get really curious, you almost get so analytical that you don’t react to it thoughtlessly. You can chuckle at catching yourself before these trigger behavior bombs [take hold] because you can see nuance in things you thought were so absolute.”

Saltzman suggests elevating curiosity over criticism, judgment, fear and complacency as an ordering mechanism. This, she believes, can help stave off most of these career killers.

The post Career Killers and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Media Guy Struggles.

My Los Angeles Kings* flamed out on their way to the Stanley Cup. Shoot, they didn’t even make the playoff this year. Nothing left to cheer for in the 2017 playoffs except every team playing the loathsome Anaheim Ducks. Attention NHL: let’s get this done ASAP.

Needless to say I’m a little depressed after watching this season. So many reasons including the Bob Miller, the vaunted voice of the Kings is retiring after 44 years and then the team’s decision to fire the coach and the general manager right after the season ended.

To say I need a stiff beverage is definitely an understatement.

For once, I have to tell you that this column is written for more for me than for you. And so, if you don’t want to read my catharsis about a sports announcer, I forgive you. Come back later for a new column or re-read an old Oscars column. Today, it’s about a beloved voice that impacted me in ways too profound to truly describe…

Bob Miller is special for many reasons. None of which most would ever understand. In my sports universe, Bob was there for almost every high and every low. Bob Miller announced 3,353 Kings games, closing with this unscripted speech:

For those 44 years and nearly 4,400 games, Angelenos have been hearing those passionate words come floating out of that voice: the most passionate, most welcoming, most knowledgable voice in the sports universe. And if it feels as if this voice has been a part of your life forever, well, it probably has.

He has been as much a presence over these last 44 years as the cool ice mist and the sparkling spotlights that hover above the broadcast booths where he has spun his magical web of hockey tales. So how am I supposed to comprehend life after Bob, life after hockey’s most iconic voice exited the booth for the last time?

When Bob first walked into the Kings broadcast booth, I was just a kid who was allowed in Jack Kent Cooke’s office stuffing season tickets into envelopes. I went to so many games in the early years, that I only heard his voice on away games and home games that were sold out (those were the games I couldn’t go to for free). In a game that featured non-stop motion and a rubber disk you could never see on a 1970’s TV he drew a verbal picture that guided my hockey senses for nearly four decades now. It was one particular instance that forever engrained him into my life.

It was April 22, 1976. My Kings were overmatched against the Big, Bad Boston Bruins (yeah I hate alliteration too) playing game six at home trying desperately to force a deciding game seven. Try as we might, there was no ticket to be had for me. Staying at home wasn’t something I was used to doing when the Kings played. After all I had been to about 100 games in three seasons. With the game NOT on television (imagine this today), I sat cross-legged in my dad’s Inglewood apartment as I listened on my Toot-A-Loop radio, staring intently as if I was willing Bob’s voice from the device. The game ventured into overtime and the playoff torture was on. Each shot resulted in a heart attack for this eight-year-old. Late into the fourth period of the game, the magic happened and I can still hear the words exploding from the AM dial:

So how do I capture the magnitude of Bob Miller, the meaning of Bob Miller, the majesty of Bob Miller? I guess it is not with my words, but with the words of the people who have known him best and whose company he has shared:

To some of you reading this, you’ll say, “it only sports.”

To me…to many…Bob Miller was the steady voice showing us the way. First, through decades of failure. Then through a pinnacle of success. He was the cadence of my life. The one steady force I could count on to get lost with after a bad day or celebrate on a good day. Surely, there will be someone decent, maybe good, maybe great, to replace him over the airwaves. But that all rings hollow right now.

I’ll miss you Bob.

Hockey will never be the same.

#ThankYouBob

AD OF THE WEEK/MONTH/WHATEVER


Panasonic was the trail blazer of the gadget mobility path. Making electronics smaller and smaller was a big part of the second-half of the twentieth century. The the Toot-A-Loop could transform from a loop that (kind of) fit around your one’s wrist into a shofar-like horn contraption, and yes, it was also a radio.

The Cooper Hewitt Museum explains “Simply by twisting the swivel joint at its thinnest point, the radio opens out into a snake-like ‘S’ shape with a bold, circular station selection dial at the top and the speaker grill at the bottom.”

In print ads, Panasonic emphasized how crazy such a radio was. It was no gray box. No, it was “as much fun to look at as listen to.” While I opted out of the color model — I went white — the device that predominantly delivered Bob Miller voice during hockey games was beautiful with smooth, interesting curves. Good times…!

Toot-a-Loop Radios – great ads. Great sound. Better with Bob Miller.

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According to those who care about me (yeah, yeah, oxymoron) I spend an inordinate amount of time at Staples Center from October to May each year. I mean, who wouldn’t? Kings, Lakers, concerts. There’s also the Clippers, but no one cares.

Today I’m back at Staples Center—media pass in hand—to cover the unveiling of former Lakers superstar Shaquille O’Neal. If you’re not a basketball fan, you still might know him as the player with the most noms de plume in the history of sports:

-The Big Aristotle
-Diesel
-Shaq Daddy
-Wilt Chamberneezy
-Big Shaqtus
-Superman
-Big Shamrock

Statue unveiling are seldom worthy of a blog column or covering other to see stars are breathe the same air they breathe. I’ve covered some of the Hollywood Walk of Fame Ceremonies…Jennifer Aniston, Katy Perry, Kate Winslet, LL Cool J, Jeff Lynne, and more…but I always dream of a ceremony like the time Clubber Lang mocked Rocky Balboa in Rocky III. Lang was desperate to get Rocky into the ring and started insulting Adrian:

Then it was on. Well, kind of. *-See the clip below to see how to call out someone at a press conference or a statue unveiling. Yet, I digress…

Shaquille O’Neal with his new statue.

Shaq (also a nickname) became the latest Lakers legend to be honored in sculpture form at the Staples Center. Fellow Lakers legends Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Phil Jackson, Jerry West, and Kobe Bryant joined the fun at an unveiling ceremony, during which the imposing 1,000 pound statue was formally revealed.

This isn’t any statue, it’s possible the greatest statue in the history of sports tributes.

The mammoth sculpture depicts O’Neal pulling down a basketball rim as a freshly-dunked ball drops through through the rippling net. At almost nine feet tall, the statue is just a bit larger than Shaq himself. It’s only fitting that Shaq be honored in bronze. Lakers president Jeanie Buss pointed out that O’Neal broke ground for Staples Center in 1998 and was the leader of a team that brought the venue’s its first three titles.

This is the eighth statue honoring a Los Angeles sports icon to be unveiled at the Staples Center’s Star Plaza—though O’Neal is one of the few to have actually played in the building.

Shaq Ceremony Highlights:

* – Clubber Lang provokes Rocky Balboa at his own statue ceremony:

Luc Robitaille / Los Angeles Kings

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / Los Angeles Lakers

Oscar De La Hoya

Jerry West / Los Angeles Lakers

Sorry…didn’t cover this one…Wayne Gretzky / / Los Angeles Kings

Marge Hearn with her late husband’s statue…Chick Hearn / Los Angeles Lakers

Magic Johnson / Los Angeles Lakers

Sorry, didn’t cover this one either…Los Angeles Kings 50th Anniversary

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