Stanley Cup Preview

Even though I don’t really care for either team, I’m actually fairly excited for this year’s Stanley Cup matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. In fact, I think this one of the most important Cup finals in years, for several reasons.

Throughout the year, Detroit had its bumps but it simply looked like a dominating force in the Western Conference. A lot of people had wrote them off after dominating in the beginning and fading down the stretch, but they’ve simply earned it.

In the East, it was difficult to figure out who was the best team in the conference for much of the year. In the end, it seemed like it was either one of two teams, Pittsburgh, or my team, the Montreal Canadiens. Boy, was I wrong about the Habs, as they looked like a different team in the post-season. Pittsburgh on the other hand, just looked far superior than any other team in the East, losing just twice in the three rounds. Because of this, I really think we have the two best teams in the league in these finals.

If the Red Wings win the cup, they won’t acheive dynasty status in the traditional sense, but they will be the NHL’s version of the San Antonio Spurs, winning several championships through a period of a decade or so.  As much as you have to respect a franchise like the Red Wings, I’ll be rooting for the Penguins myself. I really hope that someday the NHL is going to get back on track in comparison to the other major sports leagues, (despite it’s current situation) and having Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and company win the Cup would be a great start. With that being said, I’m predicting Detroit in 7.  

Finally, someone has noticed my music career

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=140272826

This is what happens when I google my own name. No, it wasn’t the top link, my Facebook was. It was a few results down though.

But yea, if you haven’t seen it yet, my name is in this guy’s favourite musicians list. In fact, my name is listed ahead of Pink Floyd (one of my favourite bands of all time), Cream, and the Dixie Chicks.

So now, my only question is…what the hell? This whole time I thought I was the only important Mike Renusz in the world, but here we are. Or maybe I dropped a solo album while I was sleeping. Hopefully, someday I will have all the answers.

Problems in Leafland

Yesterday, I read this stupid blog about one idiot’s suggestion on how to fix the Leafs. For those of you who are too lazy to click the link, it basically says the Leafs should just forget about the upcoming deep draft and instead focus on Jeff Carter.

I’m tired of people giving their “expert opinion” on topics that they clearly know nothing about. The best line in the whole blog is the author’s comment on the draft, “That’s fine — if you like playing the lottery and dreaming of a better team for tomorrow with an untested talent.”

Maybe somebody should tell this guy to name the most successful franchise of the past 10 years. If you said the Detroit Red Wings, you would be correct. This is a team that has 2 Cups in the last 10 years (3 if we stretch to 11) and most of its recent success has to do with success in the draft.  Because of their success, you never see Detroit landing a lottery pick, and yet despite this, they still manage to find gems in the later rounds. Look at some of their key players and when they were selected:

Pavel Datsyuk- Round 6, #171 overall, 1998 NHL Draft

Henrik Zetterberg- Round 7, #210 overall, 1999 NHL Draft

Niklas Lidstrom- Round 3, #53 overall, 1989 NHL Draft.

Detroit has more impressive picks, but these three are most important because:

a) They will finish the season as Detroit’s top leading scorers

b) Detroit has hung onto them this whole time since they were drafted.

The New Jersey Devils are probably the second most successful team, and they have also been successful in their drafts, although with a slightly different approach. They drafted a franchise player many years ago (Martin Brodeur) and also found several supporting talents.

Meanwhile, the Leafs have missed the playoffs the past three seasons partly because they liked to mortgage their future for short term solutions. When the lockout was resolved they had little to show for it, and no one was celebrating the additions of Owen Nolan and Jeff O’Neill. I am not comparing Jeff Carter to these two players. Perhaps if they were to throw their latest draft away, Carter might not be a bad person to do it on, since he is young and highly regarded. But it would still be a terrible idea, seeing as how he’s still unproven (career year at 49 points so far), and it is basically sticking with the same formula the Leafs used for the past 10 years. If the Leafs want to model themselves after anyone in the league, Detroit might be a good team to do so.

Also, there is no rush. Rebuilding does take time after all. But no one is laughing at the Pittsburgh Penguins or Montreal Canadiens this year after spending a few playoff-less seasons not long ago.

Video Blog II: With a Vengeance

This week I give my thoughts on the upcoming election in America. This is one of the most imporant elections in recent history and it seems like America isn’t any closer to completely making up their mind.
NOTE: This blog wasn’t completely what I envisioned. I had to do about 12 takes and it was supposed to be a lot longer. My iMovie was being a cock and it was cutting out after about 2 minutes and 15 seconds each time so my current ending looks a bit sloppy and I cut out a bunch of hilarious jokes that I had in mind. But at least I look awesome.

Video Blog on Oscars

It’s what we’ve all been waiting for:

Video Blog

The Way of the Future

Last year, in Online Journalism class with Wayne MacPhail I remember being asked similar questions about the future of Web 2.0. My thoughts haven’t really changed, social networking sites and Web 2.0 probably are the way of the future.

When I first learned of Facebook, I had already used my Myspace for about a year and I didn’t see the point of registering to another site. However, I quickly saw that none of my friends were even using their Myspace’s anymore so I joined Facebook and check it daily. Having a Facebook was exciting at first but even now I have considered getting rid of it since I would prefer to have a conversation with someone over the phone or face to face, but then I remembered how much time I’m actually able to kill on that site.

Recently, I have been introduced to Digg, Twitter and re-introduced to del.icio.us. I remember after using del.icio.us last year in class, I remember thinking that it was the most useful of the Social Networking sites. Yet, I still didn’t end up using it after the course was finished. Maybe now that a year has passed, I’ll have more fun with it.

I hadn’t heard of Digg before this class, but I’ve talked to a few people about it outside of class and they said they use it frequently, so I plan on keeping an open mind.

I don’t think I’m in the minority in my thinking that Twitter isn’t going to help that much, and I probably won’t use it at the end of this class. But then again, I’ve been following the U.S Presidential Primaries closely and it’s actually pretty cool how Twitter was used to follow all of the intense action on Super Tuesday. It wouldn’t be the way I would follow, but I could see how it works for some people.

Maybe I missed a lot of Web 2.0 action in the past few years, but in the next few weeks I plan on giving it more of a chance and maybe I’ll become a Web 2.0 freak by the end of the course.

Tribute to Heath Ledger

Even though I’m a bit of a film buff, I try not to get too caught up on Celebrity news. However, hearing the news of Heath Ledger’s passing had a deep effect on me. A big part of it is probably because I am a huge fan of Batman, and I was so excited to see Ledger play in the Joker in The Dark Knight. I was such a huge fan of Batman Begins that from the announcement of Ledger’s casting to seeing the first trailer, I would tell my friends that this was the most excited I have ever been for a movie. I already have the movie’s poster hanging in my hallway outside my room.

Until a few years ago, Heath was just another actor for me. Yes, he was a hearthrob in 10 Things I Hate About You and A Knight’s Tale. Then in 2005 he surprised everyone after being nominated for an Oscar in Brokeback Mountain. However, last year me and my friend Chris rented a movie called Candy and it was a complete shock for me. I had no idea Heath was such a talented actor both of the acting leads moved me their performance. The movie dealt with a heroin addicted couple and it was maybe the most depressing movie I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, I would recomend this movie to anyone, but don’t watch it if you’re already in a bad mood.

I’m still going to be very excited about the new Batman, but after what happened today I know it’s going to be weird watching it. Of course, the saddest part of it all isn’t my enjoyment of the Batman film series, it’s that Heath was just 28 and had a two year old daughter. So much talent just disappeared from the Earth so quickly.

RIP Heath, it’s too bad you won’t be able to see how kick ass you’re going to be in The Dark Knight.

Radiohead and the Music Industry

Hello…

This is my first post on my brand new blog at WordPress. I had a blog before on Vox that I used a bit last year but I eventually got lazy and stopped updating it. I only wrote about sports before but now I’d like to write about other things as well, such as movies, music, politics, or whatever I feel like.

Right now, I feel like talking about one of my favourite bands…Radiohead. A few months ago in October they shocked the world and the music industry by releasing their latest album “In Rainbows” online and by letting the listener decide how much they would ultimately pay for it. The band eventually released the album in stores on January 1st.

Since then, you’ve probably read in other places about how this is going to affect the music industry, and how the future of music is going to change as more people would try to sell their music without a record label online, while smaller bands would struggle to sell their music.

I’ve been downloading music for years, and I never really saw anything wrong with it. I do own several albums; some of which are my favourites and others that I regrettably bought as a 12 year old. I love collecting CDs, and anytime I find something new I like I try to get the actual CD as soon as possible. I prefer to hold an amazing album in my hand rather than play it off my computer or on a burned disc.

But still, music is very expensive, and to own all of this music while not having a job and going to college is impossible. And yet, I think I have contributed more money to my favourite bands by downloading rather than getting their CDs. An example would be the band Brand New. I first saw Brand New playing on Much Music, and I’ve seen them on the station (which is terrible) a grand total of two times. If I hadn’t downloaded their album, I would have never been able to buy their album right away. I would have forgot about them 10 minutes after the song ended. Instead, I downloaded one of their songs, which was so amazing that I decided to hear the rest of the songs, and I fell in love. Now, I have so much respect for their music that I purchased all three of their CDs, seen them in concert three times, and even own two shirts with their bands name on it.  None of this would have been possible if I hadn’t downloaded their single one night.

I may have downloaded more than I should have, but I’ve probably spent more money on music than I can afford, anyways. I have a lot of respect for Radiohead as musicians for making what could have been a risky venture, and I hope more bands will follow. I don’t think anyone should really worry about the future of the music industry, I think they should worry about making good music.