I’ve put my foot in it again — this time, the target is a pro soccer franchise that needs a million-dollar kiss on the lips before it will screw the sports fans here in Bibleburg.
Yes, yes, yes — it’s your Finally Friday installment of Radio Free Dogpatch.
• Editor’s note: I’m in the process of moving Radio Free Dogpatch from its home at the old Mad Dog Media.com website to the podcast host Libsyn. Once the transition is complete, if you’re interested — as I appear to be, for no justifiable reason — you should be able to subscribe to RFD via iTunes. I think. I hope. I’ll keep you posted.
Mad Blog Media 
December 6, 2013 at 6:16 pm |
Wow … that’s almost small government tea-party-esque, but without the batshit crazy.
Is there anything in the proposed $1MM fixer-upper (or the future however million it was multi-use facility) that prevents local soccer clubs from using the facilities when not in use by the team?
December 6, 2013 at 7:57 pm |
Beats me … a previous USL outfit, the Colorado Springs Blizzard, once used the place before blowing away to Nowheresville (no mention of this in the Gazette story, by the way). I’m not certain who uses it at present.
December 6, 2013 at 6:55 pm |
“Pro” sports in the USA is an interesting business. Kind of like Wall Street where they want to privatize the profits but socialize the risks (costs) as in building expensive venues for their teams at the public’s expense. it’s rare that any real study of these schemes reveals any benefit to the community equal to the expense, but the team owners continue to sing the song – very similar to the Repuglicans constant tune about “trickle down economics”. Why do people fall for this? Well, you know what my wife says…
December 6, 2013 at 7:55 pm |
The Formula 1 contingent has been singing this same song for quite a while now. The event in Australia is a good case in point. The organizers say “we must have this; it’s a fabulous showcase for Oz, and brings tourist dollars”. The bean counters counter with: “But you blokes lost eleventybillion dollars last year, and the year before that”. After you pay Bernie E his reputed 20 Million $ just to bring the damn thing to your event, where’s the profit? Shop/restaurant/hotel folks see a boost, for four days, then the city and the taxpayers take it in the shorts.
December 7, 2013 at 7:22 am |
Dead right! Ol’ Bernie E. and Sepp B. are probably the kingpins of turning public money into private profits – if you leave out the crooks on Wall Street.
December 6, 2013 at 8:01 pm |
It’s mind-boggling, isn’t it? The very same people who tell you that Big Gummint is Satan incarnate and that the free market should decide everything will turn around and tell you that this sort of boondoggle is a job creator.
How has building everything required to host an Olympics benefited the average Joe or Jane in those cities? And just look at how working-class Brazilians are welcoming the 2014 World Cup.
A couple of these “pro” footie teams draw fewer spectators per match than will turn out to race a cyclo-cross in Boulder.
Remember your Joe Hill: “You’ll eat pie in the sky when you die. …”
December 7, 2013 at 7:57 pm |
Word, Larry.
December 7, 2013 at 6:22 am |
Pro sports want their share of that muni bond and tax pie. The “street” is getting its share with the interest rate swap bets they made with similar city boneheads all over the country including Detroit.
December 7, 2013 at 9:59 am |
Patrick — Am I the only one who thinks your audio level needs boosting? I’m turning you up full volume and straining to hear. Yes, it is perhaps my equipment.
December 7, 2013 at 10:07 am |
Hey, Bruce … maybe it’s a blessing, eh? Ask Herself, or anyone else who’s had to listen to me for years.
What are you using for equipment? I record the thing using headphones, but listen to it through the iMac’s internal speakers before uploading, and it sounds OK on my end.
Anyone else think the sound is too low for easy listening? I can always republish. That’s the beauty of the Innertubez — airbrush people out of the photos, raise or lower the volume … and cats! More cats!
December 7, 2013 at 11:07 am |
Okay. Did some audio testing. It’s low. While I can increase the volume on this iMac to a comfortable level, the iPad doesn’t have that power. “Don’t use that “fake” computer!” you say? I’d almost go along with that other than all the other things I listen to work just fine. Even on the iMac using internal speakers, your audio is lower than most.
Another subject: MLS attendance. I found this: http://mlsattendance.blogspot.com/ showing good attendance across the league. With Portland having the Timbers, I looked; but I live too far from Portland to know what the Timbers are doing.
Still another subject! Weather. Since you once lived here in the Pacific NorthWet, I figure you want to know. Maybe. It’s COLD here. We were 22 this morning, nothing by Colorado standards, but here? That’s colder than a mother-in-laws kiss!!! Rain? Clear and sunny right now and we are 30 inches behind our annual averages for 2013.
December 7, 2013 at 12:45 pm |
Hey, Bruce … I’ve tested now using an iMac, MacBook, iPod Touch (headphones) and iPad 2 (internal speakers, volume maxed). While I can hear the thing OK on everything save the MacBook (original black model, always had lousy speakers) I think you’re right that I should crank up the volume. A fella can always turn the sound down, but it will only go up so far. Thanks for the constructive criticism.
As regards MLS, I expect they would be doing better than this other outfit. I’m not quite certain where the USL fits in soccer’s pecking league, but they seem to be quite a ways down the food chain to the casual observer.
December 7, 2013 at 1:46 pm |
I too thought the volume was low but since I don’t know s__t about these computer gizmos in general, figured it was more ME than anyone else’ issue.
December 7, 2013 at 2:49 pm |
Thanks to Bruce for pointing the volume issue out. We had the same problem. Thanks to Patrick for fixing it. Long live RFD!
December 7, 2013 at 4:49 pm |
Thanks, everyone … I’ve uploaded a slightly louder version of the podcast, and it sounds better on the iPad (who thought it was a good idea to put the speaker on the back of this thing?). If anyone can bear to listen to at least part of the thing again, I’ll welcome your feedback.
December 7, 2013 at 6:39 pm |
MSL/USL??? Crap! In my ignorance I did not know there was a difference. 😦
December 7, 2013 at 7:59 pm |
Its coming through fine in BombTown, Patrick.
December 7, 2013 at 11:16 pm |
Finally had time to listen again. Much better mon ami!. Much Better
December 8, 2013 at 8:44 am |
Take it to 11.
December 7, 2013 at 2:29 pm |
In other tales of big biz trying to sweep up all the loot from the rest of us, check this out.
Just to piss ’em off I went here and bought a t-shirt, hoping like hell they sell enough to defend themselves against “Kim Il Sinyard” and his ilk!
December 7, 2013 at 2:58 pm |
These big bike companies remind more and more of wally world or microsoft. The big S is one of the first to offshore a bunch of jobs. Profit is the sole motive. No Clif Bar business model at that place.
December 7, 2013 at 4:51 pm |
Isn’t that a happy story? You should see Twitter. One 140-character kick after another, right up that Big Red S-hole. I’ve even taken a few predictably cheap shots myself.
December 7, 2013 at 8:01 pm |
Well, Fuck Specialized.
December 7, 2013 at 8:05 pm |
Speaking of bad news, The Kickstand and the Fixed and Free Bike Shop are each in the process of closing down in the Duke City. Bike biz has always been hard, but apparently even harder down that way.
http://www.abqjournal.com/315481/news/two-duke-city-bike-shops-closing-their-doors.html
December 8, 2013 at 9:02 am |
Well, that sucks. We’re losing one and gaining one here — Bicycle Experience is opening a second location at the Ivywild School, but CS West is shutting down in Old Colorado City. Tough times indeed.
December 8, 2013 at 8:52 am |
Not to defend the big bad guy but the lawyer…. errr representative makes a valid point, if you do not defend the copyright in one case you lose the right to defend in another, or lose copyright entirely. The machine is at fault right? I mean we all need income, following the rules helps to ensure that income. To the letter. Always. Yes Officer.
December 8, 2013 at 8:58 am |
I think there’s some question about the extent of the trademark, and Specialized’s selective defense of same (for example, Challenge makes a Roubaix tire; Giordana makes Roubaix shorts).
My friend, learned colleague and fangy-toofed legal beagle Charles Pelkey is writing an “Explainer” column on this very topic as we speak. I’ll serve up a link as soon as it’s ready.
December 8, 2013 at 10:08 am |
While happy to wait on Barrister Pelkey, I worked in a bike shop (now defunct for reasons having nothing to do with this issue) that used the same name as a bike model marketed by another big bike company, one that started with S in fact. They had the same issue, but the story was they worked things out with some sort of low/no-cost license agreement instead of threats and lawsuits. Why couldn’t the big-S do the same?
December 8, 2013 at 11:10 am |
Just what I was thinking Larry. They could dispatch a negotiator to the shop tomorrow and have it worked about by lunch time. All they have to do is settle somehow, then they can say the protected the trademark and get on with it. But, my mind favors simplicity, but the law does not. I will wait to see what Squire Pelkey has to say on the matter. My distaff side has a Facebook account and big s is taking a beating there as well.
December 8, 2013 at 11:10 am |
That’s the trouble with only dealing through lawyers (no offense to CP or one of my best friends in Hawaii who is also a cyclist-attorney, Tony Gill). In this case, there is actually a long standing race that uses this name as well as other people’s shorts and tires. If you only listened to lawyers, one could name a bike The Light and sue God.
IMHO, this is another case of the cycling world circling the wagons and pointing the guns inward. While I look forward to Pelkey’s analysis, I think sometimes the cooler heads, with a longer term outlook than a narrow trademark question, need to prevail. Cycling needs to thrive, not fight each other. Those shops going belly up being examples of the contrary.
March 1, 2014 at 12:16 am |
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