Thumbs Up – Abby Wambach’s Goal as Called by Gus Johnson
There’s nothing quite like the thrill of the World Cup, either men’s or women’s tournament. The number 1 sport in the world is on the international stage as countries fight to lift the coveted trophy. This past weekend, as you may have heard, the USA Women’s National Team pulled off a stunning comeback victory against highly talented Brazil.
Playing down one woman for 50+ minutes and down 2-1 in the final minutes of the second half of overtime, the USA team needed a last minute savior to keep their hopes and dreams alive. And, they received just that as Megan Rapinoe played a perfect left-footed cross which just missed the outstretched hands of the Brazilian goalkeeper and connected with the head of Abby Wambach, a clinical and perfect header to tie the game at 2-2 and force the game to penalty kicks which the USA eventually won.
In such a dramatic victory, when you watch the clip and replays you can’t help but get goosebumps as you hear the sound of the ball hit the back of the net and the whole stadium erupts in applause. The only way to make this moment even more dramatic is with the help of THEE Great Gus Johnson. He actually wasn’t there to call the game; however, someone had the great idea to overlay one of his NCAA basketball game winning calls on the replay. I’ve add the original call as well for comparison.
The edited Gus Johnson’s version of the goal:
The original call and commentary by Ian Drake and Julie Foudy:
Every Dunk From Every NBA Slam Dunk Contest by Hoopism – Thumbs Up
The NBA All-Star weekend, although it lacks defense in its actual game, is one of the most entertaining all-star weekends there is. The MLB, although their all-star game now has meaning and that does make it a bit more watchable, is still baseball…slow, uneventful, and boring. And theres only one-dimension to a home run – it is hit hard, high, and over the wall. The NFL Pro Bowl…child, please. None of the players want to actually play, I don’t even know if they do a skills challenge at all. The NHL upped the ante this year with the inaugural playground-captain-pick-em all-star game, pitting teammates against each other and even brothers (Daniel and Henrik Sedin) on opposite teams. The breakaway challenge does open up the weekend for some creativity and it will be interesting to see what players are able to create and come up with as the years go on.
But, the NBA all-star game and slam dunk contest, for me, top them all. I know, there may not be any defense in the game, but alley-oops, crazy dunks, no look passes, and And1 streetball moves are entertaining enough for me (better than pitch and catch like in baseball and football). The highlight of NBA all-star weekend is undoubtedly the slam dunk contest. From legends such as “Dr. J” Julius Erving, Dominique “Human Highlight Reel” Wilkins, Michael “Air” Jordan, and “Vincanity” Vince Carter, the slam dunk contest has seen its fair share of creativity and innovation when it comes to dunks. Wish you had footage of all of the classic great dunks to relive those “Ohhhhhh Baby” moments? The people at Hoopism have done just that. They have created a simple timeline slider listing all of the dunks in a given year by score. By rolling over the circle in the timeline, you will receive information on the dunker, the round, the dunk of the round, and the score of that dunk. Make sure you have cleared anything that you wanted/have to do today because this video thread will pretty much take up your time. And as well it should because it is highly entertaining.
Thumbs Up- The Mars Cheese Castle becoming an actual castle!
Anyone who has driven between Milwaukee and Chicago will recognize The Mars’ Cheese Castle. It is an infamous part of the drive, not quite as nationally known as the Bong State Recreation Area, but still a great pit stop along the way. A few of my out of towner friends have expressed disappointment that it’s not an actual castle, but now all that is all going to change. It turns out that the store is currently building an actual castle with a drawbridge and a tower. If you want to keep up with the renovations check out the countdown.
Picture by Julie
The store opened in 1947, and was called Mars because the founders name was Mario which is based off the Roman God of War.
I stopped their once when I was younger, so my friend’s Mom was driving, and she said that all these cheese shops popped up because at the time, processed cheeses and margarine were highly regulated (like pre-mixed yellow dyed margarine was illegal) in Wisconsin to support dairy farmers and to procure these items people would drive to the border to get these items, though I couldn’t find anything about this online.
Thumbs Up- SMBC Theater: Theater vs. Graphs
Love this video from The SMBC Theater called Graphs vs. Theater. As someone who has a love of statistics AND drama, it is so hilarious to see them go toe to toe in the form of a couple breaking up. The ending made me laugh so hard.
Their other videos are great too, but this is still my favorite! See some of their other videos here: http://www.smbc-theater.com/.
Brett Favre – Thumbs Down
Here’s a funny parody of LeBron James’s Rise commercial from this past summer featuring Brett Favre:
Here is the original LeBron James commercial for context:
Thumbs Up-The Scrollwheel
As someone who has a moderate amount of technology experience, I’ve definitely felt frustrated watching other people searching the web, typing the url into the search bar or copy and pasting by using the mouse and going up to “Edit” instead of using the keyboard shortcuts. It’s not wrong per say, but this video describes pretty well how it makes me feel:
Based on the original comic by NeonNoodle and animated by Guy Collins.
Calvin and Hobbes + Fight Club Mashup – Thumbs Up
We love mashups here at Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down. Here is a great one with Calvin and Hobbes images set to the trailer of Fight Club:
Two awesome things combined become an even awesomer thing.
(via @anniecolbert and TheHighDefinite)
Josh Groban Sings Kanye West Tweets – Thumbs Up
Kanye West is on Twitter (@KanyeWest). This isn’t news to anyone who is a regular on The Twitter. Since he has joined Twitter, Kanye West has earned a reputation of having some interesting and random tweets. He also used his Twitter feed to release some songs from his new album before it hit stores.
Back in late July/early August, I wrote a blog post about how comedy duo Paul and Storm used various Kanye West tweets and assigned them to an assortment of The New Yorker comics, resulting in very humorous captions.
Now, the tweets of Kanye West are being use for another ruse. Oscar and Grammy award winner Josh Groban has decided to make a compilation CD of the very best Kanye tweets. Putting his tweets with comic strips are one thing; placing them to the sound of music is quite another. Check out the video below to hear Josh Groban put his angelic and award-winning voice to the tweets of Kanye West.
PS- Thanks to my friend Maura for bringing this gem to my attention!!
2010 Top 10 Lists
2010 was quite a year! In total, Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down had 25,198 visitors from January 1 through December 29. (My mom and dad must have been visiting our blog several times per day!)
All kinds of people and websites are posting top 10 lists at this time of year, so we decided to post our own. We included lists for our top 10 most visited posts of the year, the top 10 links clicked, top 10 referring sites, and top 10 searches that brought people to our blog.
Top 10 Posts
Top 10 Links Clicked
Top 10 Referring Sites
| teamkong.net | |
| blogadilla.com | |
| en.wordpress.com | |
| search.aol.com | |
| gordonkeith.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/st-pats-party-monday/ | |
| StumbleUpon | |
| linkedin.com |
Top 10 Searches
| eastern washington red turf | |
| the hangover | |
| eastern washington football field | |
| green bay packers | |
| red turf | |
| beer | |
| liu bolin | |
| eastern washington field | |
| green bay packers logo | |
| packers |
Logo Burn – Thumbs Up
Awesome pre-movie ad by BMW in a movie theater. Read more about it at Wired
Update: One thing that interests me is how I, as someone working in marketing, perceive things differently from others. For example, I saw this as a cool stunt, but a good number of commenters on reddit sound worried, concerned, or cynical about this video and would not give it a thumbs up.
