Crappy hockey and theater links

I went to the Rangers game tonight because I thought it would be less depressing than the debate. Boy, was I wrong.

In addition to exceedingly sloppy, uninspired hockey, tonight also featured the worst "Potvin Sucks" chanting I've ever heard. The first 30 minutes of the game practically begged for the chant about 90% of the time, but the only time it managed to get chanted was when something actually important was going on. In sum, the whole night just seemed.

Too tired to do a full on blog post on theater, but here are the links that have drawn my eye today:

-Time Out Chicago covers marketing: Elizabethan style. You may Marnie Stern's new album had a long title, but she ain't got nothing on Marlowe.

-Frost/Nixon: not so much, says the L.A. Times. This is particularly depressing, because the main knock on the play crtics had was that it would be better off as a movie.

-CNN Newsanchor says the worst word in the English language—twice!


-Milan Kundera, former Soviet informant (though still not as big of a hypocrite as Gunter Grass).

Alexei Cherepanov dies, top New York Rangers prospect

Sad, sad news comes from the Russian Superleagues today. Alexei Cherepanov, ranked by Hockey's Future as the top prospect of the New York Rangers, collapsed on the ice and died from apparent cardiac arrest. He was just 19 years old.

Jaromir Jagr, who was on Cherepanov's Omsk team, collided with him in a line change, and then saw him collapse. The two had grown close over their bond with the Rangers. According to reports, Jagr shouted "Wake up Alexei!” amid tears as the efforts to revive Cherepanov proved to be in vain.

This is awful news for every Rangers fan, and it's a sad day for hockey in general. This is going to make for a rather unpleasant MSG broadcast tonight...

[Slapshot Blog]

I won't be the quarterback of the power play for the New York Rangers either

The moment it officially hit me that I would never be a professional athlete was when I learned that Phil Hughes was born one day after me, on June 24, 1986. The New York Rangers first round draft pick Michael Del Zotto was also born on June 24...in 1990. It's even worse when athletes start becoming my brother and sister's age. Oy.

Weekend Linkpunch: I've got some serious thinking to do (and by thinking, I mean drinking)

Here's some links to whet your intellect before you drown it in beer:

• I certainly liked the Court Theatre's Carousel, but apparently not as much as Terry Teachout, who went as far to call the production, now at the Long Wharf, "the best Rodgers and Hammerstein revival [he's] ever seen." He also gives props to Chicago theater in general. It's nice to see the love, here's hoping it comes from more than just the one New York theater critic who actually reviews regional theater.
• The biggest commotion at Cannes this year has been in response to Steven Soderbergh's 2 part, 4+ hour bipoic of Che Guevara, with critical opinions raging from masterpiece to needs work to utter crap. The Los Angeles Times has a good summary of the reviews, as does Defamer.
• In Britain, where free speech standards have increasingly reached Orwellian (or Ashcroftian) standards, legislators are looking to extend the movie rating system to online video. This is a sure-fire success; after all, the same standards have prevented 13 year olds from viewing online pornography everywhere, forever.
• Further proving that theater critics can actually make a living (even if it comes after they're done being theater critics) the Butcher of Broadway is signing on to work with HBO. He'll still be writing fr the Times, but finding alternatives to exclusively working for print journalism is probably a good idea right about now.
• Despite the 2005 Dover ruling, which proved to me more than anything else that historians of science are employable, 1 in 8 high school biology teachers are still teaching intelligent design or creationism in some capacity. I'm actually surprised it's that low, but considering that it's 0% in pretty much anywhere else in the industrialized world, that's nothing to brag about.
• Finally, when you combine the powers of hockey mythology with the powers of stop-motion animation, you will almost certainly get a link on Tynan's Anger. The NHL proves its adeptness at new media once again with this video:
  
  Let's hope a Stanley Cup Finals with two major American hockey markets outdraws CSPAN reruns this year.
  

When Theater and Hockey Don't Mix

Despite my shared love of theater and hockey with Tracy Letts, I do admit the two don't always mesh. This is one of those times:



Seriously, didn't the GCTC have a better fitting gladiator helmet in prop storage? After that display, the Senators have lot my support in the series. Even more so than there terrible play.
(Yahoo! NHL Experts Blog)