Daily Archives: November 2, 2007

Lyle Lovett turns 50

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LyleLovett.jpgWhile the subject of the previous post is a new Houstonian, the subject of this Tennessean.com article is one of my favorite native Houstonians, the humble and multi-talented, Lyle Lovett.
Lovett performed and received the “Trailblazer Award” at the Americana Music Awards and Honors in Nashville last night. He also turned 50. As the article notes, Lovett’s marvelous talent has generated a remarkably consistent musical product throughout his 21 year recording career:

A back-to-back listen to his self-titled debut album and to new album It’s Not Big It’s Large offers evidence that Lovett has broadened but not changed his sound or style during his career. His songs have always been layered, intelligent and emotionally precise, written in moments of inspiration and whittled to marrow. Back then, they called his stuff “country.” Now it’s “Americana.” Go figure.

A marvelous songwriter, Lovett passes along arguably his most important songwriting quality:

“I don’t feel like [songwriting is] harder as you go along,” he said. “I’ve always felt like it’s hard. I’m always blocked as a writer, always. And every time I write something I’m happy with, I have this feeling like, ‘That could be the last one.’ “

The Rockets’ stathead

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daryl-morey.jpgCheck out this excellent Jason Friedman/Houston Press article on new Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey. As noted in this previous post, I liked Les Alexander’s decision in hiring Morey, who is a stathead. That quality has been sadly lacking in the Rockets’ management suite over the past decade as the team declined from its mid-1990’s dominance. Now, if Morey can just find the Rockets an above-average point guard.
By the way, if you want to read a blog that Morey almost certainly reads, then check out Dave Berri’s Wages of Wins. Berri is one of the co-authors of the popular Wages of Wins (Stanford 2006) that shows how statistical analysis debunks a large amount of the conventional wisdom regarding professional sports. In this post prompted by Friedman’s article on Morey, Berri explains how the traditional basketball boxscore often misleads the reader as to the effectiveness of the participants in a particular game. In my view, Berri is writing the most insightful analysis on the NBA in the blogosphere right now, and his insights on the NFL aren’t bad, either.

Why is Richard Justice analyzing sports, part II

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houston_chronicle%20sports%20logo.jpgChronicle sports columnist Richard Justice’s inability to analyze the subject that he covers has been a common topic on this blog (see also here and here). Following up on that theme, Matt over at DGDB&D provides this clever post on his attempt to engage Justice in a dialogue over the latter’s constant criticism of Texans’ defensive end Mario Williams. He also notes that most of the articles and columns generated by the Chronicle sports staff about the Texans can be categorized into one of three columns:

At this point in the season, the majority of columns proffered by that group (that aren’t pure Megan Manfull rumormill) can be lumped into one of three categories: (1) Richard Justice bashing Mario Williams like a jilted schoolgirl, (2) blame-laying columns that excoriate the whipping-boy du jour (these are sometimes disguised as Vince-Young-praise columns that excoriate the fact that he was not drafted by Houston), and (3) jump-off-the-bandwagon pieces from the same people who profess to be the biggest cheerleaders.

The specialized blogs covering the Texans — DGDB&D, Stephanie Stradley, and Texans Tail Gate, to name just three — are far superior to the Chronicle in providing insightful analysis of the local team. Those layoffs that occurred this past week over at the Chronicle happened for a reason — readers are gravitating toward better analysis than what the Chronicle is providing. Absent an influx of new talent on the Chronicle sports desk, that drift is not likely to change.