LE FLANEUR: TELEVISION EDITION, WITH SPECIAL GUEST BERNARD-HENRI LEVY

God is dead but my hair is perfect.

Does this mean that Pam Ward is no more? Because that would be awesome.

The Daves don’t need validation from some high-falutin’ cheese-eatin’ surrender monkey.

Fresh—

If you check the article, the basso Ms. Ward is still on the Deuce. She falls under “much remains the same.”

Bernard-Henri Lévy …love this guy. Hope we see him more often.

Ironically, today I was looking into joining a reading group on Continental Philosophy… I love smart chicks….

Whoops …just misused ironic. Winona moment…

Well, damn. I was hoping Mr. Finkel, er, Ms. Ward had finally met her demise. She is one of the biggest in a long line of stupid decisions made by the Worldwide Leader.

Apparently the Daves on JP Sports (it’ll always be JP Sports to me) don’t need production values either.

By the bye, I listened to your EDSBS Live thing from this past week, and I wanted to say that it was some of the funniest shit I’ve ever heard. It’s good to hear some callers bringing their “A” games.

Whoa…I totally missed the “Flaneur” reference. Nice, Swindle.

EDSBS — Bringing you both French intellectuals and Subcommandante Wayne since 2005.

Salud!

I had to read the article twice: the first attempt was lost to a reverie about Ms Tautou and a canoe paddle. I’m just glad that Foucault is beyond contributing because it always came back to nipple clamps with that old perv, which would bring frightening new meaning to “You’re with me, leather!”

Anway, one would think that a French media correspondent would be more comfortable with the dirigiste approach of ESPN than the rest of us. Maybe the wide open spaces between the asses of the Chili’s waitresses in a flair-iffic threesome outside Omaha has changed his world view.

And FWIW I’d say he is doing Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo a grave disservice by comparing him with Craig James, but that’s just me.

Vraiment, this post is le pas au-delà.

Did somebody read Levy’s interminable essays about America in the Atlantic Monthly?

Ron Franklin moving to ABC might seem like a good idea, but this means he will no longer be doing SEC games, which is bad. And the Mouse must have a Bush-ian sense of loyalty over competence since the Alberto Gonzalezes of the college football airwaves – Mike Patrick, Paul Maguire, Pam Ward, and…fuck, there are too many to list – remain.

i agree about thorne- he’s the best NHL play-by-play announcer in the world, and he’s a damn good football caller as well. as a matter of fact, i think they should reunite the team of gary thorne and barry melrose for the early saturday college football slot…. i don’t see how that move makes any less sense than hiring a zombie for the ESPNU telecasts

oh yes- and thank whatever deity you hold in esteem that the two words “joe” and “theismann” were not combined in the same sentence and placed in a paragraph describing a college football broadcast team for ESPN this upcoming season…

Sacrebleu! They still haven’t canned Pam Ward? I can see that they want to have a woman on the team. That’s not the issue, hell, I love listening to knowledgeable women talking about sports, you throw in a little twang and I’m in heaven, but Pam Motherfucking Ward? Really?

Re #11: I’m old enough that my reverie was Isabel Adjani and a kayak paddle, but, basically, yeah.

Nothing there on Gameday theme music. That can’t be a good sign. I, for one, can’t take another season of that aneurysm-generating, feathery top-hat wearing, Village-People cowboy looking, no-talent duo. You’re not coming to my city, douchebags. You do and I’ll blow up your damn bus.

I don’t want to live in a world where Mike Gottfried is banished to the U. It will be a pleasure knowing that Coker will probably be doing the UAB vs USM game live from Hattiesburg MS teamed up with Gottfried and his BAC of 2.4. Welcome to the big time, Coach!

“Bernard Henri-Levy is so fucking rich he can afford French taxes.”

I’ve paid French taxes. Nobody’s that rich.

Craig James is an odious twat. I love the way he makes fun of how much SMU football sucks now…when he’s a large part of the reason it sucks so much. But at least he seems functionally literate and has a moderate command of English, unlike his former backfield mate in the Pony Express.

Du bumsende Frösche kennst nicht Fußball!

I second that emotion, #19.

After reading that article, I want nothing more right now than to watch a Saturday night, middle of the pack SEC matchup with Franklin and Gottfried announcing.

Great job, gents. Levi is a ridiculous person, and you captured his writing style very well.

Craig James somehow remains gainfully employed by ESPN despite total football illiteracy, and free speech pioneer Brian Kinchen is nowhere to be seen.

Somewhere, a patriot weeps.

This was a nice article but I prefer Levy’s Madness, Civilization and Starkville. A true postmodern tour de force on nothingness.

Amelie is worthy cheesecake, in my humble opinion. Extend the international flair across the pond!

Just when I thought nothing on EDSBS would surprise me, you guys do a send-up of BHL. This is some serious highbrow to go with the chickenwings. Great stuff! With all the Gators walking around campus greeting each other this summer with chants of “speed, speed,” self-respecting EDSBS-ers should reply with “elan!”

Sorry, but I’m going to stand up for Pam Ward, and Beth Mowins as well… since i’m sure some of you can’t tell the difference. Unless someone wants to come up with specific critiques in areas such as technical knowledge, timing, or anything else, you’re blowing smoke. They are my Saturday morning.

I have no idea who Mssr. Levy is, but I take it he has elbow patches on his jacket.

Gary Thorne could announce an aquarium full of plankton and make it sound exciting.

Not that I enjoy being put in the position of defending ESPN, but the Gottfried-thing may have more to do with his health than anything else. I believe he had a stroke a couple of years ago, and it’s been a bit of a struggle lately for him to make it through a 30 minute speaking engagement….a 3 1/2 hour broadcast could just be too much.

#27: I never said you couldn’t like Pam Ward. If she puts the wind in your sails, god bless you. For me, she’s a nightmare. Her timing is impeccably bad, her voice makes Pam Shriver’s sound like it’s soaked in honey, she’s dry as a popcorn fart, she mispronounces names, repeatedly (even though she does the same 4 teams all season), and if you tried to tell her a joke I think she’d short circuit. She doesn’t appear to even enjoy the game.
I’m not a fan.

PJ,

I agree that Pam Ward is technically a competent announcer: my issue with her is actually the pitch of her voice. For whatever reason her voice is virtually indistinguishable (sp?) from the background noise of the game, so it just sounds like a low hum above the crowd noise.

If, like me, your version of Hell is Indiana vs Michigan State at 10am, then it really doesn’t matter whether she’s on or not.

I have to stop drinking so early in the day. My critique of Ms. Ward was hic directed at PJ.
Thank you.

“I’m just glad that Foucault is beyond contributing…”

You and me both, DC Trojan. Just the mere mention of that name brings back grad-school nightmares. I was not surprised to learn that dude refused to call his work “post-structuralist.” He’s the only one who thought it made any sense whatsoever. (If had a choice between a paring knife in the ear and taking my grad-level comparative rhetorical theory course over again, I think I’d opt for the cutlery).

That said, how can you not love a college football site that drops an “Amelie” reference?

Gottfried, according to our sources (not making them up for once,) really does have some kind of neurological disorder.

This made us feel like shit on a shingle for suggesting it mockingly in a piece here.

Never have understood why the Franklin/Godfried tandem was ever removed form the ESPN Saturday night game. Those two voices should forever be linked to SEC night games.

Well, I’m glad I asked for some specifics. I have to agree with JBC that she may very well be an Animatron. I’m not so sure about the mispronunciations, but I’ll keep my ears open this fall.

I don’t have any trouble picking her voice out from the crowd noise, but then again, that’s not usually a problem for the Dear Old Alma Mater. It’s hard to whoop-up when your student body-stadium size ratio is roughly half that of the rest of the conference.

Jebushchrist, I could use a cold one right about now. Weekend project: move yardarm to Central time, use EDSBS clock as reference.

Who killed EDSBS?

Will we get a contribution from Baudrillard about how football as produced by ESPN is a hyperreal version of football as actually played?

so Bob Davie is now longer announcing footbaw games on broadcast TV? I wonder if it was because of the tough schedule, cold weather, academics or how hard it is to recruit on ABC.

I’ll keep hating her, you keep loving her, and we can still be friends. It’s nothing personal.
We could all use a cold one right now.

I would rather hear Gottfried slur his way through a game and mispronounce player names than hear Trevor Matich and Rod Gilmore argue like junior high debate team flunkies with no coherence or concept of abstract thought. I am pleased to see their absence from the ESPN press release. Perhaps Matich finally consumed GIlmore after being poked one too many times with a stick.

I always liked Gottfried, even though he is a {Name Redacted} apologist.

1. It is Ty Willingham’s fault.

No Corso reference?

And, yes, #18, if those guys come to my “cittttayyy” with their rapping cowboy, I am retaining Dan Kendra to practice his “hobbies” on the GameDay musical staff.

out here on the Left Coast I wouldn’t wake up in the morning if not for Pam Ward calling a Northwestern game.

that said, I miss Keith Jackson

Does anyone else associate Pam Ward Big 10 games with nursing hangovers?

+ many, many cocktails. Levy’s made me want to rip many an Atlantic to indignant shreds.

Holly reads the Atlantic. Ruh roh.

And, I had such high hopes for her.

Sigh…

Apparently The Sporting News just located, translated and published a posthumous article by Lyotard about how the great sporting narratives of our time were dead. Maybe ESPN will stop runnig the same fucking highlights over and over again if the Cthulu/ABC hybrid dies. Sadly, this might also mean that the joyful Lundquist presence over at CBS wioll be looking for work.

My two cents:

1. Having Ron Franklin doing Big 12 games means no Brent Musburger. Woo-hoo!

2. I guess the Big Ten Channel couldn’t pry Man Ward away from ESPN? Pity. I never watch the noon Big 10 games anyway…both for the teams and the announcers.

Levy’s made me want to rip many an Atlantic to indignant shreds.

Bloody foreigners, eh?