June 2009 Archives
"No form of indignity is powerful enough to dissuade you from the uncontrollable love of your Blue & White. You bitch... and moan... and go insane over the always-accurate appraisals of the team in the media."
- Howard Berger, October 30, 2008, Most Valuable Losers Once Again
If any of you are still stopping by here every once in a while, you will have noticed that the site has been slowly withering away. We haven't posted since May 8. Between the two of us, we have only managed 30 posts in the first 172 days of 2009. This, friends, is how the Cox Bloc ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.
This wasn't how it was supposed to end. Last year at this time, when we were posting regularly and a few thousand people a day were stopping by to visit, we felt vindicated. Well, we never actually thought that more than a handful of people would be interested in our brand of unhinged media criticism, but it felt like we tapped into something. It turns out that we weren't the only ones offended by the quality of the local media coverage. Leafs fans - along with those of the Blue Jays and TFC, which we covered to a lesser extent on this site - are far from the mindless drones portrayed in the writings of Howard Berger and friends.
Turns out that the local sports fans are more than capable of analyzing and intelligently deconstructing the performance, history and future prospects of the teams they love. And, as proven time and time again, they are just as capable of seeing through the media bullshit like the quote above from Howard Berger. It has been a fun couple of years, refuting MSM nonsense with a steady stream of jokes, wrestling clips, Replacements songs, and, every once in a while, attempts at actual analysis. Still, two years later, we've lost our smile.
There are a few reasons for our decreased productivity over the past few months: family commitments, rapidly increasing workloads, health issues and digital cable. However, there is one overarching reason: We kinda don't care anymore. While we'd like to take responsibility for the higher quality of Steve Simmons' recent output, we know deep down that it has nothing to do with us. Highlighting the inaccuracies and logical inconsistencies of the local media has been cathartic, but the reality is, we`re not changing the way any of the columnists, bloggers and broadcasters that we`ve set our sights on really think. Not that we ever set out to change opinions, but after a while we realized that our talents, limited as they are, might be wasted on nitpicking every second sentence that Damien Cox and Howard Berger write.
We don`t read these guys anymore. Life is short, so why do we want to spend an incredible amount of time reading stuff that makes our heads explode, and then penning thousands of words in rebuttal? We've often wondered aloud how the same media market that publishes Stephen Brunt and Jeff Blair can be responsible for employing Howard Berger and Richard Griffin. Now, we realize, it doesn't matter.
In the last couple of years, dozens of excellent Leafs, Jays, and TFC blogs have sprouted up around the internet, quickly making traditional media irrelevant for us. There is no point complaining about the lack of originality, insight and balance in the mainstream media when a perfect alternative exists already. Why visit the Star.com or Eklund's Magical World of Make-Believe for insight when we can visit Pension Plan Puppets or From The Rink for up-to-date news and analysis. To be honest, we haven't read a word written by Howard Berger in months.
Thanks to everyone who supported us along the way, those who linked to us and those who came by daily to agree and argue with whatever caught our fancy that particular day. A special thanks to everyone in the Barilkosphere and all the regulars who joined us in our little game of reversing the initials of first and last names, coming up with works of genius like Pike Malmateer, Varry Galk, and Dick RiPietro, and absurdist greatness such as Bllan Aester (Still, we'll always wonder how no one picked Kill Bitchen). The fact that so many of you read, pointed out when we were idiots, and posted funnier jokes than we could have come up with was the single best thing about writing Cox Bloc. That, or the time Howard Berger egged our house. (Editor's note: this did not actually happen)
This isn`t goodbye forever. We're currently working with another blogger on a new site which will go up shortly. We're hoping to be less reactive, and practice what we preach by providing what we think is missing from mainstream sports coverage. We really hope that you will join us over there once it launches.
We'll leave the archives online in case anyone ever wants to find out what a couple of paranoid and angry yahoos from Peterborough were thinking from 2007 to 2009. If you've just stumbled across this site: you`re late, but feel free to browse around. We've compiled a list of our five favourite posts for anyone who feels like remembering why the hell they're on this site in the first place.
THE FAMOUS FIVE
It's hardly Smith, Johnstone, Reilly, Turnbull and Ormond, but here are our five favourite Cox Bloc posts.
5. Notes From Siberia - This post, in which Jorn digs up a throwaway line in a column not about sports just to fire off a salvo of bile at Edmonton's version of Linwood Barclay, perfectly captures the spirit of unhinged venom with which we started Cox Bloc. Bless.
4. See You Later Suckers! - Remember that time we pretended to be Habs fans? No amount of showers have made us feel clean again.
3. Exile on Main Street (And Pember, And Cambie, And Hastings...) - We started this blog soon after we had both moved to Vancouver. We were shocked to discover that the city was filled with Sens fans, except they called themselves Canucks fans and suffered from a crippling inferiority complex that put our friends in Ottawa to shame. This was Till's attempt to set the record straight. This post also beautifully illustrates the Cox Bloc Paradox: in demonstrating that there is no Leafs-Canucks rivalry, we bash the city and team a bunch of times and thus contribute to this non-existent rivalry. Great success!
2. Join the Conversation - We are probably going straight to hell for this one. It was worth it. Fortunately, we've been reading Blatch for years, so we have a pretty decent idea of what hell is going to be like.
1. Limo Driver on the Street - Pissed off a ton of Habs fans. Popularized the sobriquet "Working Class Howard", which along with Mittenstringer, OLAS and Jiri NSFW, are our main contributions to Barilkosphere vernacular. Generated a ton of comments. Spawned an incredible piece by HOF Blochead Varry Galk. If Cox Bloc was Appetite, this was "Rocket Queen".
Thanks Everyone.
Kim and Godd.
- Howard Berger, October 30, 2008, Most Valuable Losers Once Again
If any of you are still stopping by here every once in a while, you will have noticed that the site has been slowly withering away. We haven't posted since May 8. Between the two of us, we have only managed 30 posts in the first 172 days of 2009. This, friends, is how the Cox Bloc ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.
This wasn't how it was supposed to end. Last year at this time, when we were posting regularly and a few thousand people a day were stopping by to visit, we felt vindicated. Well, we never actually thought that more than a handful of people would be interested in our brand of unhinged media criticism, but it felt like we tapped into something. It turns out that we weren't the only ones offended by the quality of the local media coverage. Leafs fans - along with those of the Blue Jays and TFC, which we covered to a lesser extent on this site - are far from the mindless drones portrayed in the writings of Howard Berger and friends.
Turns out that the local sports fans are more than capable of analyzing and intelligently deconstructing the performance, history and future prospects of the teams they love. And, as proven time and time again, they are just as capable of seeing through the media bullshit like the quote above from Howard Berger. It has been a fun couple of years, refuting MSM nonsense with a steady stream of jokes, wrestling clips, Replacements songs, and, every once in a while, attempts at actual analysis. Still, two years later, we've lost our smile.
There are a few reasons for our decreased productivity over the past few months: family commitments, rapidly increasing workloads, health issues and digital cable. However, there is one overarching reason: We kinda don't care anymore. While we'd like to take responsibility for the higher quality of Steve Simmons' recent output, we know deep down that it has nothing to do with us. Highlighting the inaccuracies and logical inconsistencies of the local media has been cathartic, but the reality is, we`re not changing the way any of the columnists, bloggers and broadcasters that we`ve set our sights on really think. Not that we ever set out to change opinions, but after a while we realized that our talents, limited as they are, might be wasted on nitpicking every second sentence that Damien Cox and Howard Berger write.
We don`t read these guys anymore. Life is short, so why do we want to spend an incredible amount of time reading stuff that makes our heads explode, and then penning thousands of words in rebuttal? We've often wondered aloud how the same media market that publishes Stephen Brunt and Jeff Blair can be responsible for employing Howard Berger and Richard Griffin. Now, we realize, it doesn't matter.
In the last couple of years, dozens of excellent Leafs, Jays, and TFC blogs have sprouted up around the internet, quickly making traditional media irrelevant for us. There is no point complaining about the lack of originality, insight and balance in the mainstream media when a perfect alternative exists already. Why visit the Star.com or Eklund's Magical World of Make-Believe for insight when we can visit Pension Plan Puppets or From The Rink for up-to-date news and analysis. To be honest, we haven't read a word written by Howard Berger in months.
Thanks to everyone who supported us along the way, those who linked to us and those who came by daily to agree and argue with whatever caught our fancy that particular day. A special thanks to everyone in the Barilkosphere and all the regulars who joined us in our little game of reversing the initials of first and last names, coming up with works of genius like Pike Malmateer, Varry Galk, and Dick RiPietro, and absurdist greatness such as Bllan Aester (Still, we'll always wonder how no one picked Kill Bitchen). The fact that so many of you read, pointed out when we were idiots, and posted funnier jokes than we could have come up with was the single best thing about writing Cox Bloc. That, or the time Howard Berger egged our house. (Editor's note: this did not actually happen)
This isn`t goodbye forever. We're currently working with another blogger on a new site which will go up shortly. We're hoping to be less reactive, and practice what we preach by providing what we think is missing from mainstream sports coverage. We really hope that you will join us over there once it launches.
We'll leave the archives online in case anyone ever wants to find out what a couple of paranoid and angry yahoos from Peterborough were thinking from 2007 to 2009. If you've just stumbled across this site: you`re late, but feel free to browse around. We've compiled a list of our five favourite posts for anyone who feels like remembering why the hell they're on this site in the first place.
THE FAMOUS FIVE
It's hardly Smith, Johnstone, Reilly, Turnbull and Ormond, but here are our five favourite Cox Bloc posts.
5. Notes From Siberia - This post, in which Jorn digs up a throwaway line in a column not about sports just to fire off a salvo of bile at Edmonton's version of Linwood Barclay, perfectly captures the spirit of unhinged venom with which we started Cox Bloc. Bless.
4. See You Later Suckers! - Remember that time we pretended to be Habs fans? No amount of showers have made us feel clean again.
3. Exile on Main Street (And Pember, And Cambie, And Hastings...) - We started this blog soon after we had both moved to Vancouver. We were shocked to discover that the city was filled with Sens fans, except they called themselves Canucks fans and suffered from a crippling inferiority complex that put our friends in Ottawa to shame. This was Till's attempt to set the record straight. This post also beautifully illustrates the Cox Bloc Paradox: in demonstrating that there is no Leafs-Canucks rivalry, we bash the city and team a bunch of times and thus contribute to this non-existent rivalry. Great success!
2. Join the Conversation - We are probably going straight to hell for this one. It was worth it. Fortunately, we've been reading Blatch for years, so we have a pretty decent idea of what hell is going to be like.
1. Limo Driver on the Street - Pissed off a ton of Habs fans. Popularized the sobriquet "Working Class Howard", which along with Mittenstringer, OLAS and Jiri NSFW, are our main contributions to Barilkosphere vernacular. Generated a ton of comments. Spawned an incredible piece by HOF Blochead Varry Galk. If Cox Bloc was Appetite, this was "Rocket Queen".
Thanks Everyone.
Kim and Godd.
