Smells Like Cabbage: Carny Interviews

by Jon Pyle, Pyle of List

Readers, by now you're probably confused by the copious amounts of bloggers posting here at Epic Carnival. I imagine you feel like many old-time sheriffs when PT Barnum and the gang came rolling into town: "If there are going to be carnies running around my town, I damn well wanna know who they are!"

Well, I'm here to help you out. But there's a catch. All references that would directly identify the carny in question have been removed from the interview, including links. You wouldn't expect me to dime out my colleagues that easily would you? Your job is to attempt to identify the carny in the comments section below. Correct answers will be rewarded with old-fashioned helmet stickers of the imaginary variety. Still better than a lame ass +1.

Propose a fight for Fracas Friday.
Wha?

3 best games you've ever watched (in person or on TV).
Arizona/Gonzaga 2002(?) NCAA Tournament 2nd Round
Game 4 2001 World Series Yankees/DBacks (In person)
Boise State/Oklahoma

What 4 celebrities or athletes do you want in your posse? Whose posse would you like to be in?
In mine: Shaq, John Maine, Frank Sinatra, Tom Hagen
In someone elses': Derek Jeter (I'd make a good wingman)

What is your closest brush with fame? Famous person?
I was on TV once when I was 4....

When I was 10 my parents dragged me to a Hillary Clinton rally (don't worry, she scares the shit outta me now.) I got a picture taken of our family and her.

What teams do you follow? Sports?
MLB, NFL, NCAA Football and Basketball and after a few years of no interest I'm trying to get back into the NBA.

Mets, Falcons, Texas Basketball, Sonics, Knicks. I don't really have a favorite NCAA Football team. I root for Rutgers, Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State and Texas but I don't like any of those teams enough to label them as favorites.

Give me your predictions for the major sporting championships (World Series, Super Bowl, BCS, Final Four).
World Series: Angels over Mets
Super Bowl: Patriots over Cowboys
BCS: USC over West Virginia
Final Four: North Carolina over Memphis

What is your greatest athletic achievement?
12 tackles as a DT in a game in 10th grade

Why do you blog?
I love talking about sports and this gives me another way to talk about them to a wide audience.

What do you want your blog to be known for? What do you personally want to be known for?
People read my blog?

Seriously, I hope that ______ will be known for being a damn good blog.

I want to be known for being Hugh Hefner's protégé, but that'll probably never happen.

Do you want to do this for a living?
I still have a lot of my life in front of me, but if it came to that I wouldn't be complaining.

Thoughts on the present and the future for the blogosphere. How does it fit with the mainstream media?
I think that right now the mainstream media is reluctant to address many of the issues blogs bring up because it puts them in a tough spot. For example, let say The Big Lead has pictures of Mark Kotsay dancing with nothing on but a banana hammock and he is surrounded by men who look like Fabio. The blogosphere would go apeshit but the mainstream media could never pick that up because in their mind if they show this Mark Kotsay will never appear on any of their shows again and it damages their relationship with MLB. Its not like they don't read the blogs though. I mean, they go through MySpace and YouTube all the time, so you know they are checking in on Deadspin, Awful Announcing and The Big Lead.

As for the future, I think the media will start to cave it. We just saw the beginning of it earlier this week when Will Leitch appeared on ESPN Radio with Scott Van Pelt. Most newspapers have blogs on their website and ESPN has plenty of blogs on their site as well. If the community continues to crank out these stuff, I can only see the blogosphere getting bigger and better than it already is.

Any suggestions for a future interview?
Search people on MySpace and Facebook. You can find a ton of guys that way.

Another tip would be to ask Matt Cerrone at Metsblog. He has a weekly podcast and somehow gets interviews with guys inside the organization every week. He just interviewed Lastings Milledge today.

Are you a Deadspin Commenter? If so, what's your Commenter name?
Yes, Cooler Than Warm Milk.

What post on your blog are you most proud of? What's the most linked?
My favorite post at _____ has to be the one where I found the invitation to the party which had plenty of NFL players on the invite including Michael Huff and Mario Williams that was hosted by Chris Houston. Where else can you find a "Make It Rain Power Hour"?

The most linked post at ____ is the one I posted about the trouble in the Mets clubhouse. I swear to go I heard that from a trustworthy source, but when I posted it basically the entire Metsblog community come out and killed me. It was really what got me on the map, but I would much rather get on that map by doing something else. Whatever gets you there I guess.

What is your vision for Epic Carnival? Where do you and your blog fit into that?
I see EC has a "Fanhouse Lite" if you will. Its a very similar concept to the FanHouse, take a shitload of writers from some of the best blogs out there and stick them all in one place. This blog obviously doesn't have the star power of a FanHouse, but I think that with the content the place has been cranking out so far its going to be a mainstay in the Ballhype top 5.

I think _____ fits in perfectly with EC. ____ is becoming one of the top blogs out there. In only one month, we have climbed to as high as 48th in the Ballhype rankings and our hits are growing every day. The sky is the limit for us at _____ at this pace.

Have you made any new blog discoveries through EC?
Our Book of Scrap is fun. I popped in there and I liked what I saw.

Pitch me your best idea for the EC t-shirt.
This. But update the pic.

If it wasn't named Epic Carnival it would be called...
Derek Zoolander's School For People Who Can't Write Good