2018 Detroit Lions Preview

This could be an interesting year for the Detroit Lions. Poised to be the strongest professional team in the city, a playoff berth would be a nice response to a solid year from last year. 

Matt Stafford got paid this offseason. The nine-year veteran became the highest paid quarterback in the history of the league. He definitely deserves it. He is an elite quarterback, with years of experience and solid targets in Golden Tate, Marvin Jones, and the exciting, young Kenny Golladay. The issue is whether or not he will be protected on the line. The biggest tragedy¹ in Detroit sports this year--and I don’t think I’m over-exaggerating--is losing last year’s first-round draft pick, offensive tackle, Taylor Decker to a shoulder injury. As a rookie, Decker started all 16 games last season, and his injury leaves a huge hole in the line. There’s a chance he may be able to return for the playoffs, but the Lions will have to get to that point without him. 

The quarterback isn’t the only spot the offensive line needs to protect, though. For the first time in a long time, the Lions have a bit of a running game. Ironically, the first time the Lions don’t have a newly drafted “next Barry Sanders.” But they should be just fine with the pieces they have. Ameer Abdullah looks healthy at last and Theo Riddick is available to reel in screen passes in the short backfield. Of course, their skills are all dependent on whether the offensive line can create some running lanes. 

Basically, this entire season may hinge on the success of the offensive line. Do you still think Taylor Decker’s injury is overrated²? 

After earning a wild card playoff spot last season followed by an early exit to the Seahawks, can the Lions return to that stage this year? Sure, but there are a few problems with that, most prominently, the team in Green Bay. The Packers have had the keys to the NFC North for several years, and for the Lions to guarantee a spot, they have to top them. If they can’t, they will have to compete for a wild card against a tough NFC South with three (four?) playoff contenders³ and a perennially difficult NFC East. 

As the Lions have one of the hardest schedules I can remember in recent years, it will not be easy. They have to make it through a slightly weakened but still decent AFC North division, which should be good for two wins. The Lions also have to play the aforementioned NFC South, who has supplied the last two NFC Super Bowl opponents (and the last two league MVPs). All four of those games will be trials, so I would be overjoyed to split those games. If they can scrape out 10 wins, they should have a good shot. Unfortunately, as hard as I try, I can only come up with 8 or 9. We will need to rely on more Matthew Stafford late-game magic for hopes of returning to the postseason.

---

1 Deaths, notwithstanding. I don’t want to be morbid here.^↩
2 The most underrated tragedy is Malik Monk not falling ONE more spot in the NBA Draft.^↩
3 Not to mention three or four elite quarterbacks.^↩

A Supersaturation of Kendrick Lamar

Kendrick Lamar will be remembered as one the finest rappers of this decade. Since his breakthrough album in 2012, good kid, m.A.A.d city, seemingly everything he's touched has been golden. Good thing, too, because he has touched a lot of music since then.

In 2015, Lamar released the hugely anticipated follow-up third¹ album, To Pimp a Butterfly, which many (myself, not included) believe to be his opus. One year later, he released untitled unmastered, a collection of tracks that were great despite being, well, untitled and unmastered. As it were, the album was met with an appreciative surprise from the collective music world. One more year after that, Lamar was back with another album, DAMN, his third in three years. Personally, I thought it was his best since gkmc, but some reviewers have been less forgiving, claiming he may not be as fresh as he used to be. On top of all the full-lengths, he's been featured on numerous tracks.

As I write this, I am playing Vince Staples' excellent Big Fish Theory, on which Lamar has a featured guest spot. And this is far from his first feature of the year. Earlier today, I heard a Future remix with him as well. In fact, it is more surprising when a major hip-hop album does not feature Lamar in some way. I'm probably being hyperbolic here, but the amount of times he has been a featured artist is almost shocking. Just looking over the Wikipedia list for his guest appearances is enough to remind me of a half-dozen albums I had already forgotten he was on. He transcends other genres too, not just hip-hop. He was in songs with The Lonely Island, Imagine Dragons, Taylor Swift, and Maroon 5, not to mention the copious rap tracks. All of this prominence reminds me of another artist of the last decade: Lil Wayne.

In 2008, Lil Wayne released his last truly great album, Tha Carter III, after a consistently solid ten years. The new album was monumentally successful: it sold a ton AND it was really good. He put out three albums in the next 18 months, none of which attained the same quality as III. Over that same period his already-prolific guest features list increased by the dozens². Waves of mediocre songs peppered in with some good ones, and before too long, Wayne was tired and overplayed. Let me reiterate: Lil Wayne was at the top of hip-hop in the late 2000s (with good reason), and within three years he was basically done. He has continued to put out records and singles, but his best years were inarguably behind him.

Of course, Wayne had some personal issues that hastened his decline, issues Kendrick has not had to deal with (read: prison), so I don’t think Lamar should expect the same floor. And I get it, unlike other genres of music, the high points in a rapper's career are relatively short-lived. For the most part, older rappers can't compete with or move out of the way for younger up-and-comers. But Lil Wayne's career was something else, with some of the highest highs and lowest lows³. Both Lil Wayne and Kendrick Lamar are immensely talented, and both have had some fantastic albums and dozens (hundreds?) of guest appearances. I would like for the similarities to end there.

Don't get me wrong: I am not at the point of saying Lamar is already making bad verses, or that I don't still like hearing his tracks⁴. All I am saying is that there is slowly rising cause for concern. Maybe my complaints are petty, but he's just not surprising to me anymore. We are at serious risk of Kendrick Lamar over-saturation. He is one of the most versatile rappers working today, but that does not mean I need to hear him in every other major rap release. Instead, I would rather absorb his existing music for the time being without being hit with something else.

---

1 Yes, third album. His first album, Section.80, went virtually undiscovered until gkmc blew up and retroactively elevated it. Same goes for his solid mixtapes.^↩
2 Again, look at a Wikipedia list to see what I'm talking about. You'll be amazed.^↩
3 For the record, I would love a Lil Wayne renaissance with one, final, stupendous album.^↩
4 I'm serious here: I could name half a dozen tracks where his feature is the best part in the song. When I put on an album for the first time, and I see he's on it, I look forward to his track, eager to see how he sounds.^↩

Best Thing I Did Last Week: Read Stamped... and Listen to Between...

Stamped from the Beginning is a heavy book. The fact that it is a physically large book notwithstanding, the debut work from Ibram X. Kendi, historian and African studies professor, tackles some incredibly tense issues. And with a subtitle that reads, “The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” you will know exactly what to expect, which is to say that it is not a pleasant book. In fact, the majority is understandably troubling. However, this does not make the presented facts any less important. Instead, the upsetting nature makes the book all the more challenging and powerful.

Professor Kendi divides the book into five chronological subsections, each headed by a principal character of each era. Those characters have defining roles in racial relations of each time period, ranging from emphatic civil rights activists to prominent racist agitators, with some situated confoundingly in between. The effect of framing each era around a major figure, regardless of that person’s stance, serves to analyze each individual era in the development of racist ideas throughout the history of the country. Rather than title each section based on a certain era in the country as a whole, Kendi personalizes each section by following the individual, a unique choice for a book of this type.

Over the course of the book’s 500-some pages, Kendi demonstrates an incredible amount of research. Every era is thorough and well-documented, and you get the impression that he has dedicated years to tracking down all of the quotes, passages, and works he references. The way Kendi manages to walk through the history, however, does not feel simply like reciting facts and quotes. He expertly leads a train of thought through the history in a logical manner, drawing conclusions among different participants. At the same time, though, Kendi does not force an opinion on the reader. Of course, it would be difficult to read this book and not arrive at a conclusion. Personally, I think this book is required reading for anyone with an interest in American history.

Around the same time, I put on the audiobook for Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me. It is a short listen (the book is only about 180 pages), but another powerful one. Presented as a letter to the author’s son, Between the World and Me describes what it is like to be a Black individual in present day America. Coates describes his reactions to injustices both personal and in the news (which is heartbreaking, naturally). Furthermore, he narrates his own audiobook, so his words are quite literally his own. Imagine listening to this on your commute, and then picking up Stamped from the Beginning at home.

At this point, I was concerned that my high praise of the two books was based on the terrible concept of purported ‘white guilt,’¹ (because I also felt similarly about James Baldwin’s anti-racist treatise, The Fire Next Time, after reading it last year). The more I thought about it, though, the more that seemed preposterous. No, I appreciated all three books because the writing is emotional and beautiful. The subject matter inspires the writers, to be sure, which affects the sheer impact of the words. But subject matter does not define the sole reason these books are excellent.

What originally drew my attention to this book was the 2016 National Book Awards. Stamped from the Beginning rightfully received the honor of being the best literary work in non-fiction. After reading it, I wholeheartedly agree. It is the perfect complement, if you are interested further, to Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, the previous year’s recipient of the National Book Award. In fact, I suggest experiencing them back-to-back, but you should probably plan for a happy read afterwards. Not only was Stamped from the Beginning the best non-fiction book I read in the last year, it is one that will stay with me for a long time.

---

1 The despicable idea that groups of (white) people can and should feel shame for the racist ways their ancestors treated other people. On its own, this may not seem like a bad thing, but it can be if it is equated to false or hypocritical social progression. The term de-legitimizes the ability to appreciate a racial critique by turning it instead into some sort of apology. Honestly, I think accusations of ‘white guilt’ are both reductive and offensive to considerations dealing with works about race. Instead, we can appreciate the works for what they are: excellent literature.^↩

Best Thing I Did Last Week: Listen to Tonstartssbandht

The first step is learning to pronounce their name. When you see a name like Tonstartssbandht, it makes you think. Is this Swedish death metal? Some sort of German electronica? No, they are just two brothers from Florida who make exceptional rock music. And luckily, they have posted a pronunciation on their Bandcamp page. (It's TAHN-starts-bandit, by the way).

It should really be mentioned here and now that Bandcamp is a wonderful place to find music on the Internet. It is a place for artists to post and sell digital music directly to an audience. Because there is little attention and publication given to such releases, one can often find hidden gems of amazing quality for little to no cost.

The next piece of information about Tonstartssbandht you will find after spending a few seconds on their page is that they are prolific musicians. I only learned about them from their most recent release, but sifting through their older music reveals sixteen other distinct releases dating back to 2008. Imagine my delight in learning that there are another hundred songs to go through.

At any rate, their latest release, Sorcerer, came to my attention a few weeks ago, and it has been playing fairly consistently since I first heard it. There are only three songs on the album, but at 34 minutes, there is a lot to unpack.

The music itself is rather minimalist. Without doing any research on the band, the music feels like there are several potential possibilities. Either all of the instrumentals, vocals, and so on are done by one person and then intricately laid together, or each piece of the music is done by a group that is perfectly in sync. In reality, the sound is created by just the two brothers, which makes the sound all the more impressive, to my mind.

Sorcerer is the kind of album where any song (of the three) has the chance to be your favorite, and that choice could change at each listen. The music is diverse enough that a single genre is not enough to describe accurately the album as a whole. Instead, each song works as a 10 minute movement, sometimes acoustic, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes classic, sometimes modern. It is an album that demands to be listened to several times over, making new discoveries along the way.

For this reason, it is not easy to recommend the album in a conventional sense, as in “If you like this, try that.” You can hear roots from so many different eras of music. Their sound can be all over the place, while still being firmly situated in established independent rock music. If that appeals to you, Tonstartssbandht’s Sorcerer is totally worth checking out. Surely, you will find something great in this brief, yet impactful album.

Best Thing I Did Last Week: Play Bastion

When the word “craft” comes up in a conversation about video games, it often refers to the title of the game. Here, I’m thinking of the Mine-, Star-, [World of] War-, and so on. In rare cases, however, the word refers to what is going on behind the scenes. The word “craft” evokes the amount of time and effort it takes to a game with a certain style. Nothing about a well-crafted game is generic; nothing is boring. “Craft” is the word which constantly ran through my mind while playing the 2011 game, Bastion.

I have the tendency to come to games a few years (or decades) late. Usually, this works out in my favor, and I get to experience something classic that has withstood time. Of course, I miss out on the conversation around the game in the height of its popularity, but many times, it is nice look at the progression several years removed. In the case of Bastion, players have continually praised its style, despite being a small product from a little-known, first-time development team. Comparatively, a lot of praise for its small size. I certainly was never disappointed.

First, the gameplay itself is extremely engaging. It is no secret that Diablo II is my favorite game. The amount of times Bastion reminded me of Diablo was amazing. Not tonally (to be sure) but in the style of play. The view is top-down with a diagonal, isometric view that was so reminiscent of Diablo (but with much less red blood and dark shadows. The similarities do not end with the camera. The primary focus of the game is to fly to varied zones and recover a piece which in turn rebuilds the main world. On several occasions, my character was dropped in the middle of four roads with a choice towards the goal and--not unlike Diablo--I had to choose a route and hack and slash my way to the end. Whether or not these comparisons were intentional, it was hard not to be at least reminded of one of my favorite games.

There are differences, of course, in the art style, which was absolutely stunning. Each zone is unique in terms of terrain, color, brightness, enemies, and landforms. Every part of each zone looks to be hand-drawn. As your character moves about, the path builds its way up around you with pieces falling into place which literally makes it feel (here’s that word, again) crafted. Time after time, I would just run through levels and wonder at the visual display in front of me (which is dangerous, because you can fall off the map). Even if the act of playing doesn’t grab you (which shouldn’t be a problem) the sheer artistic merit makes it a worthwhile experience.

The soundtrack alone is worth turning the game on and leaving it running in the background. Each area has a unique sound that coincides with the gameplay. Not unlike the visuals, the music makes each zone feel like an individual part of a special world. The soundtrack has the kind of music that makes you want to grab a guitar and play along. In many ways, the music can stand independent of the game and still be praised for its quality. But the ways it works in conjunction with the game are superb.

Although I unintentionally seem to come to a few games late, I am usually rewarded for the long wait. And with a game like Bastion, it is most certainly better late than never.