A Meme: Beauty in the 20th Century

Blog-friend Mark had a good idea for a meme:

The 20th century gave us much that was not beautiful such as the Killing Fields, Auschwitz, Holodomor, Stalingrad, and that list continues much too far. However, every age has beauty to claim as its own. Doestoevsky claimed that “beauty would save the world.” In this vein it seems imperative that we remark and remember beauty that is in our midst.

This particular meme invites the partipants to name five things of transcendent beauty that were discovered or created in the last 100 years. Name them, explain why you find it beautiful and then instead of tagging N others to pass it along, if you read this and think beauty important … take it up!

Here goes. Note that these are "five things of transcendent beauty that were discovered or created in the last 100 years," not "the most beautiful five things created in the last 100 years."

1. Michael Jordan's Dunk

Jordan epitomized the combination of ferocity and beauty that represent sports at their most beautiful.

2. The Blue Marble



The definition of "transcendent." Just mind-blowing.

3. E = mc²

Terrible violence and incomprehensible power in such a little equation. I believe it may very well kill all of us. Today, incidentally, is the birthday of Robert Oppenheimer, who quoted the Bhagavad-Gita after the first nuclear explosion: "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

4. Imagine, John Lennon.

So haunting in the distance between reality and utopia.

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey



I surprised myself with this one. I don't even really like this movie, because it's so slow I can't stand to watch it. But film was by far the most important art form of the 20th century and I just can't say that any other movie is as beautiful.

Byron Scott on the Shaq Trade

I don't care what people say, I think the Suns got better. At least for a year or two. (So did the Heat.)

Via Michael Wilbon:

The person who changed my mind about the trade was standing in the visitors' dressing room before the game. Byron Scott, a candidate for NBA coach of the year, didn't like the trade for the Suns; he loved it. Scott flashed back to the end of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career, when he was nearing 40. Magic, Worthy, Scott and either A.C. Green or Michael Cooper, would run the Showtime Lakers break with Kareem bringing up the rear. "And when we needed to slow it down, wait for him and throw it in to him in the playoffs," Scott said, "he could still command a double-team, as Shaq will. He can either score or find a great shooter."

Nephtuli disagrees.

This Year's Boston Celtics

I have never been a Boston Celtics fan, but this past off-season, in a gutsy move to make fans everywhere but Boston green with envy, they went and got themselves two superstars (and two of my favorite players) Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.

Kevin Garnett is arguably the best player in the world and has been for about five years. Most people don't know this (in fact, I bet most of my readers who don't follow the NBA have never even heard of him) because for twelve years -- his entire professional career as well as his whole adult life (he was 19 when drafted) -- KG has been stranded in Minnesota, which has never been able to give him good teammates. He seems like a good guy and he brings an intensity and a desire to win that epitomize professional sports at their best. In a moving interview with John Thompson a couple of years ago, he broke down crying in frustration with the 'Wolves.

Ray Allen, meanwhile, is probably the best pure shooter in the game and I've always had a soft spot for guys who could make the J look so easy. (I was a huge fan of Reggie Miller.) Besides, how many NBA players not only starred in a movie, but starred in a pretty good movie?

Garnett and Allen join Paul Pierce (who is almost as good as Kobe Bryant, statistically speaking) and a decent supporting cast to form the most exciting Celtics team since the Bird years. It's sure going to be fun to watch.

Basketball Links and a Rant about the NBA Age Limit

Two links from the TrueHoop blog:

• Video of Wilt Chamberlain at 17 years old!
• Damon Agnos argues that college players should make the jump as soon as they become a "consensus first-round pick" by pointing out that seriously injured NBA players are collecting enormous paychecks while seriously injured college players may never make it.

Let me take this moment to editorialize about the NBA's age limit. I think it stinks and should be repealed. It's unfairly discriminatory against kids who are ready for the league and is probably bad for the NBA as well. Why should the next Kobe Bryant or LeBron James have to play in college for a year, with no salary or endorsements and no guarantee of either if they get injured? Basically, the age limit allows the NBA to outsource their coaching of 17-year-olds to college coaches at no cost. The NBA benefits from this in those (frequent) circumstances when kids are drafted on potential but need a year to develop. The colleges obviously benefit. NCAA basketball fans benefit. Television networks benefit. Everybody benefits but the kid.

Don't talk to me about how important college is, either. If you feel that way, convince the NCAA to let NBA teams draft young players and give them guaranteed contracts while still allowing them to play in college. Convince them to allow college players to receive endorsement money. It's unconscionable to let these often impoverished kids risk their entire careers for no money and no guarantees.

Besides, some of those kids have no real business even going to college. Jason Kidd, for example, is an amazing basketball player, but had to take the SATs four times to meet the NCAA minimum combined score of (if I recall correctly) 700. And he went to Berkeley. It's not like these guys are necessarily learning anything (although some do.) The whole system is a scam.

The D-League is a step in the right direction, I suppose. But an average salary of $35,000 is a far cry from the two-year, $1 million plus guaranteed contract some of those same players would get if they were allowed to enter the NBA draft.

NBA Playoffs

This is a public service announcement.

If you are at all a basketball fan, you must watch Steve Nash. He doesn't have the electrifying athleticism of a Steve Francis, but the things he can do will take your breath away. He is just great at: decision making, passing, shooting, free throws, post moves, and acrobatic layups. What I think is most unique though is his ability to create. Any idiot can throw alley-oops to Amare Stoudamire, it's true, but Nash can find the open man better than anyone in the league. As one of the commentators last night said, he plays behind the basket as Gretzky did behind the goal. Then he'll decide he needs to carry the scoring load for a while and he'll sink two or three shots in a row. He's Magic Johnson one minute and a high-percentage Allen Iverson the next. He's going to go down as one of the greatest of all time and we get to watch him in his prime.

As a bonus, if you watch the rest of their series against the Lakers you have a chance at seeing Kobe Bryant become Michael Jordan for a half or even a whole game. Kobe was spectacular -- at least as good as Jordan -- during the first half of game one, but without a supporting cast, he can't maintain it. Even Jordan wasn't Jordan without Scottie Pippen.

Sports Writing Round-up

Gilbert Arenas has a blog. And it's great.

Growing up, it wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about the cars. It wasn’t about the bling-blau that it is today.

It was simple.

It was, “How did MJ feel? How did he feel right at this moment after he hit that game-winner?”

That’s what I wanted to know. Like, “What’s going though his mind?” Like, “How does he feel crying, kissing that trophy, with the champagne on his head?”

That’s what I wanted to know about.

Chuck Klosterman on why we look the other way about steroids in the NFL.

Shawne Merriman weighs 272 pounds.

This is six pounds less than Anthony Muñoz, probably the most dominating left tackle of all time. Shawne Merriman also runs the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds. When Jerry Rice attended the NFL draft combine in 1985, he reportedly ran a 4.60; Rice would go on to gain more than 23,000 all-purpose yards while scoring 207 career touchdowns...

After the summer of 1964, the Beatles started taking serious drugs, and those drugs altered their musical performance. Though it may not have been their overt intent, the Beatles took performance-enhancing drugs. And this is germane to sports for one reason: Absolutely no one holds it against them.

Brian McCormick on why Kobe should be MVP.

If you took Nowitski off the Mavericks, Dallas makes the play-offs. If you took Nash off the Suns, Phoenix makes the play-offs. If you took Kobe off the Lakers, they would fall to the bottom of the Western Conference along with Memphis...

And, now the most talented player in the League is doing things nobody has done in forty years while in the thick of a play-off race...