Ted's Take

The Blogging Site of Ted Leonsis

Archive for October 11th, 2009

Yuck

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

That game looked like a game played between grownups and some spoiled teenagers.

When you play Detroit - in Detroit - you can’t give them 5 power plays with stick based penalties. Everyone knows that. Read this blog post to see some good notes from the game.

Detroit scored twice on the power play, one with 6 minutes left to take the lead and then they do what great and experienced teams do, they put the sleeper hold on us and just won like it was a playoff game 3-2. Boring and hyper efficient.

We have much to learn from a perennially great team like the Red Wings: Mostly don’t believe the press clippings; play hard, play disciplined; have everyone contribute on playing good D; and hold on when you get a lead.

We have left a couple of points on the table the last three games. We don’t use excuses of playing on the road against great teams to start the season. If we stay out of the box, we have more points. Points matter at the beginning of the season as much as at the end of the season. We are learning how far we have to go to execute and truly become a good team.

As I have said before, miles to go before we sleep.

My City is Smarter Than Yours

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Here is a controversial but well researched piece in the Daily Beast about intelligence and “smart” cities ranked from top to bottom.

Washington, DC comes in #7 - in a close tie - with Seattle.

You would hope we would have ranked higher as we do control policy, laws and budgets.

But on this scale, we “ain’t that smart.”

Check out the listing. Pretty interesting rankings.

Paranormal Activity

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Run - don’t walk - and see this film.

With a budget of probably less than a major star earns in a day, the film scares the bejeesus out of you.

What great news for indie filmmakers. This film is well acted, feels like a real life documentary film and is absolutely terrifying. I went in a skeptic and I came out not wanting to sleep in my bedroom tonight.

Wow. Kudos to the filmmakers and actors. Kudos to the major studio that bought the film and is distributing it everywhere now. It’s a great film and should be a big hit. This generation’s Blair Witch Project.