Soundpolitic Sundays: Super Bowl of Crap Edition

by: Soundpolitic

Sun Feb 07, 2010 at 12:46:43 PM EST

Nowadays, after a years' worth of depression "due to" unemployment in my chosen field of paralegal studies and growing and frustration for lack of professionalism in indie rock, I've got the writing bug again.  Out of respect for all living beings, I refuse to swat it.  I've been feeding it like a fiend.

I had big plans for my return.  Summarizing the Talking Heads shows, going topical again, ect., ect., ect....but this proved to nothing more than some intangible idea to make a move back to wind-baggery.  It wasn't real.  

What follows below the fold certainly is:  I just starting writing an e-mail to a very dear friend of my father while he generously offered use of his computer to compose a freelance piece on traditional-string-based contemporary rock.  The two of us had gone to dinner last night and spoke a bit about the Big Game coming up today.  Naturally, we talked more about commercials than about football.

I decided to shoot her a quick e-mail link to the famous Apple 1984 commercial on YouTube.  Then I added a couple of blurbs from the web to give more information.  Then I kept writing and, voila!  I was blogging again, just for the love of putting words together.  I blind-copied it to a bunch of friends, but then decided if I left it at that, I'd have left all of you guys out.  So no fair...read on for the first installment of Soundpolitic Sundays.

Could Mixed Martial Arts Be Coming To New York?

by: robert.harding

Fri Feb 20, 2009 at 16:32:16 PM EST

The debate over ultimate fighting, or mixed martial arts, may be bubbling up this year in the legislature. While currently banned, there's a push, aided by the desire for more tax revenue, and aided by some big-time lobbyists such as Brown McMahon & Weintraub, to make it legal.

109th District Assemblyman Bob Reilly, whose district covers suburban Albany, has emerged as a leading opponent of the fights and he recently commissioned a poll of his district which found people oppose allowing such matches by a 67 percent to 18 percent margin with 15 percent undecided.

"I'm hoping it will be defeated in committee," said Reilly, a Democrat.

Assemblyman Bob Reilly has been a very vocal opponent of MMA coming to New York. He was very much against MMA coming to the state last year when the issue was being floated in Albany.

So why does MMA want to come to New York? And why would we let MMA come to our state?

The first question has to do with business. New York is a big market, including the largest city in the country. Having MMA events in New York City, plus other locales in the state will be a great way for MMA companies, including UFC, to expand their reach and bring in more money.

And while we do have plenty of venues in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and other cities throughout the state, nothing would bring in more money for MMA than having a big event at Madison Square Garden. That would bring in big revenue for any company that holds an event there, especially UFC.

But why would the state do this? The prime reason given is additional revenue for the state via tax dollars. I'm not sure if that's a great rationale, considering the state's leaders have been reluctant to along with Fair Share Tax Reform. That would create $6 billion in tax revenue, yet they have not signed on. So if tax dollars are the reason for bringing MMA to New York, I would hope they approve Fair Share Tax Reform on the same grounds.

This issue is in its introductory stages right now. As the Times-Union indicated, the debate could occur this year. Of course, the debate was supposed to happen last year, but it got removed from the agenda while still in committee.