The Perfect Valentine's Gift

For all you guys out there wondering what to get that special lady in your life, here's a great suggestion from Justin Timberlake:

The National 'Basketbrawl' Association

(Originally posted on Mixi on Friday, December 22nd, 2006)

I've never really been a fan of basketball as I can't get past the monotony of the game. I know there's a lot of skill involved and I've heard it can get quite exciting at times but whenever I watch it, basketball just seems like a bunch of guys running backwards and forwards.

Despite my lack of appreciation of the sport however, this week I tried to find an NBA basketball video on YouTube for the first time ever. The reason was last weekend's news about the New York Knicks vs Denver Nuggets game, which ended in a full scale brawl involving pretty much everyone on the court.

The first video of the brawl I watched has actually been removed from YouTube at the request of the NBA, but I found another one:


While I was looking for this video I also found loads of other videos featuring NBA fights including this legendary Indiana Pacers vs Detroit Pistons brawl from a couple of years ago:

(just do a search for 'NBA fights' and you can find numerous other 'basketbrawl' vids)

Seems like there's often more excitement in an NBA game than I realised, though a lot of it is not so 'sportsmanlike'.

The Racist Outburst

(Originally posted on Mixi and MySpace on Friday, December 08th, 2006)

The sitcom Seinfeld is one of my favourite TV shows of all time, so when I heard that Michael Richards, who plays Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbour Kramer, had become headline news because of a racist outburst I was both surprised and intrigued.

It appears that Richards was performing at a stand-up comedy club in LA and got fed up with some members of the audience ignoring his act, finally venting his annoyance at their behaviour with a torrent of racial abuse. (a full account of the incident can be found here).

Due to the offensive nature of his outburst, a lot of news sources weren't able to show or explain just how harsh his tirade was so (as usual) I had to check out YouTube to find the full uncensored version of the incident; I was also able to find Richards' apology on The Tonight Show and the victims of his racial abuse being interview on NBC.

Watching the three videos together gives a fairly complete account of what happened. Check them out at your own risk though - not only will Richards' outburst offend some people, it may also change the way you view the Kramer character on Seinfeld and spoil your enjoyment of the show in future.

The Outburst


The Apology


The Victims


There's also a great alternative account of the situation, that's been created by editing Seinfeld clips together with footage of the outburst and the apology:


Funnily enough, however, there's no mention of Michael Richards' racist outburst on the official Seinfeld website yet, and I doubt there'll be any new TV shows or stand-up performances to add to his career notes anytime soon either...