THE BLOG WISER HOT SEAT: NEATE SAGER

by Rupert, Ghosts of Wayne Fontes

The hiatus is over, we’re out of hibernation, and we’re headed north. The Blog Wiser Hot Seat is back and this week we’re sitting down with the best Canadian blogger in the business, Neate Sager, renowned blogger from Out of Left Field as well as columnist at the Ottawa Sun. We have some good topics lined up, including the emotional impact of blogging, the Canadian labo(u)r boom, and of course sports. Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Ghosts: In one of my favorite posts on Out of Left Field, you wrote “Sports blogging is dead.” That was back in December, are you still feeling apathetic toward the old blogosphere or have you revitalized? For what it’s worth, we can totally relate. The whole thing is like a drug: you get so excited at first, particularly, with those first big links and gradually it loses the excitement. Ultimately, it’s tough to keep trudging on, but like Joe Dirt said, “Keep on keepin’ on.” If that doesn’t work, weed is usually pretty helpful.

Sager: The whole thing is like a drug, but what’s even more like a drug is being red-haired and left-handed – it’s like smoking a bowl a day. Seriously, though, sometimes it seems like that Seinfeld episode where George and Jerry stop in the middle of discussing the picayune personality tics of their latest exes and say, “What are we?” … “We’re not men!” … “No, we’re not!”

I know I sound like a stick in the mud and 31 is too young to be a curmudgeon, but sometimes it just shallow, hence bouts of apathy and me pulling a few Jay Z-like retirement announcements. One of my commenters, Dennis Prouse, is spot-on when he says I'm blogging sober and thinking too hard. Still, you see the problem here? You can round up 10 people in an hour, easily, who’ll tell you they’re turned off by newspapers and TVs obsessing over celebrities, and here are some folks taking an alternative media form and doing much the same thing. It's not what I want to be here for, honestly.

However, it filters up from the audience. Who knows? Perhaps blogs have caught on because we really are giving people what they want when we dress up a morning links package with a bikini shot of B-list actress snatched off Google Images.

I don’t want that to be ruled by lazy, uninspired ways to drum up web hits. There’s enough of that from the corporate media with their iCabs (as in “it’s called a blog,” even though it’s not) and, to give an example, lamebrained Hottest Female Athlete polls. (Seriously, sportsnet.ca, how can you say you left no stone unturned when your poll doesn’t include a single Canadian, let alone a curler? Watching women’s curling on TV is one of the great unexamined lonely-guy diversions. Lots of close-ups of the players, you see that the women are patient and forgiving of tiny mistakes. Plus, they’re in ponytails and sweatpants, so you get an idea of what they look like in an everyday setting.)

Blogging ain't journalism (of course, it's just my luck I type this before this went up on Deadspin) . On some level, it's like people shooting the shit around the bar in response to what's on one of the TVs mounted overhead; it's not meant to be taken seriously, which is what that thin-skinned Frank D'Angelo could never understand. Yes, you have to be entertaining, but on some level, you gotta provide some context in the wake of the news, going into depth in a way the papers and TV can’t or won’t, focusing on a couple areas of keen interest. (The genius of KSK is they pull this off while being profane; same for Drunk Jays Fans up here in Canada.) Paraphrasing Bill Hicks, we ought to be aiming to be Bill James with dick jokes. And there’s always the good-natured mockery that we do here at Epic Carnival, of course.

We should be trying to push back against that. We've got the KSKs, but I'm not equipped for that... if it means less traffic and more informed readership, so be it. So long as we put a few ideas out there that eventually get to the general audience. Yes, I am definitely blogging sober and thinking too hard.

Ghosts: You mentioned in that post that blogging has afflicted unwanted personality changes. Care to go into more detail?

Sager: Long-winded internal dialogues seem to be a symptom. Friends have said I’ve become anti-social, a poorer listener. That comment was mostly in reference to how time-consuming it all is, having written 2,400 posts in the past 20 months, while already working evenings and weekends as a newspaper desker. That’s a lot of hours and a screwed-up sleep pattern. There was an award-winning story in the L.A. Times a couple years ago about an old boxing timekeeper, a guy in the 80s, never married or had kids. At one point, with the candour you probably get when you're too old to care what people think, he says by some point in his early 30s, he realized he would never have a family. You can't help but free-associate a little when you're up at 3 a.m. writing about the Kingston Frontenacs' latest pitiful loss.

I’m not playing the sympathy card, it’s really about a lot of soul-searching to wonder if it’s worth sacrificing health and social life. Perhaps we should take Chuck Klosterman’s idea and try to slow down the sports culture, lest we lose our mind.

Ghosts: Along those lines, what’s your take on the Ballhype rankings, best blog tournaments, and all the other hand jobs going around in the sports blogosphere?

Sager: Hey, a creative community hasn’t come of age until it has a big ritual patting-itself-on-the-back fest. Like Red Green said, we’re all in this together; I got through the whole D’Angelo farce largely thanks to e-mails and comments from people I might never meet in person, on top of the support from friends and family. I’m not doing to dump on any of that. If you’re part of that mob, you can help steer it in wise directions. Now where’s my foam cowboy hat and airhorn?

Ghosts: Have you ever considered stepping into a different realm of the blog? For instance, some of the EC carnies have ventured more into pop culture, music, and hitting girls with bricks with some success. Any chance we’ll see you blogging about Canadian Maple Bonds in the near future?

Sager: It has to be sports for me since I’m slow to understand anything else. Hopefully, whatever you write on, it has to be in a way that lets one's general point of view get across. It’s all about sports fandom being a lifestyle choice. It’s just not a very good or logical choice.

That said, you hit on a great point: Any blog is going to be moving target. One new direction that I’ll hopefully be able to go in is reviewing books about sports. It occurs to me I’ve become an expert in the subject, so why not do something with it.

Ghosts: If you had to bet on the Super Bowl, where’s your money going?

Sager: First off, I’d try to find a sports book that is giving odds on Randy Moss throwing a touchdown pass during the game. Since you can’t put anything past The Hoodie, I bet we see Moss try to throw one on a gadget play. It looked like there might be a pass option on that reverse the Pats ran to him during the AFC title game.

The Pats should cover and beat the over/under.

Ghosts: That’s not a bad idea, man. Stan would probably bet on that. Give us three random predictions for the upcoming baseball season?

Sager: The Reds win the NL Central with Toronto native Joey Votto as Rookie of the Year; the Tigers blow a 3-1 lead to the Red Sox in the ALCS; and the Orioles go 63-99.

Ghosts: Think back to when you were about 8 years old. What is the one thing you would have expected to see on Earth by the year 2008 that never came to fruition?

Sager: The Toronto Maple Leafs riding in flying cars during their Stanley Cup parade.

Ghosts: You have all but guaranteed a Jamario Moon victory at the dunk contest. Care to share a juicy Jamario YouTube clip?

Sager: Sure, here and here.

Moon has hinted about using props in his dunk contest. One suggest is that he should parody Vince Carter’s final days as a Raptors: Hobble in on crutches faking an injury, then throw the crutches away, go in and slam it down.

Ghosts: Any movies tickle your fancy lately? Are you as smitten as the rest of Canada (and me) over Juno?

Sager: Refer back to the answer about becoming a hermit… Juno, No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood are on the to-see list as soon as I can drag myself to an early movie. (Tuesday is cheap night at the movie theatres in Canada, but I have trouble getting that day off since a colleague from Saskatchewan needs to have it free for his curling league.) I still can’t believe I didn’t get out to Walk Hard.

By the way, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point this out: Ellen Page played Lahey’s daughter in a couple early seasons of Trailer Park Boys.

Ghosts: Who’s the greatest sports movie character of all time?

Sager: Phil Elliott from North Dallas Forty. That movie came out in '79, but it intuited a lot -- how technology would come to rule our lives, the quarter-life crisis. There’s that great scene early in the movie: “Jo Bob is here to remind that the biggest and the baddest get to make all the rules.” … “well I don’t agree with that.” … “agreeing with it doesn’t enter into it.” Granted, in 2008 it’s hard to embrace a character played by Nick Nolte, who’s got the washed-up drunk taint about him, but yeah, that kind of ambivalence sums up a lot of how I feel toward the world, at times.

Ghosts: Any Canadian music us Yanks don’t know about yet that we should?

Sager: Since this is a blog on sports, it’s probably apropos to mention Matt Mays and El Torpedo, since they are from the same town as Sidney Crosby (Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia). They play with an edge, but without having that prefab pretty boy thing going on that makes Crosby so off-putting. Seriously, next summer in Cole Harbour, they need to take Crosby out and get him piss-drunk, then make sure it’s on TMZ the next day.

Hello Operator has that whole synth-inspired take-off on '80s pop that hipsters seem to like; their new album's coming out next month. As for the veterans, what is it America doesn’t get about the Tragically Hip? (Being from Kingston, Ontario, pretty much means a binding contractual obligation to convert people to Hip fans.) The Hip has that whole quality that the best Canadian writers seem to have, you listen to them, you feel like you're walking along the Canadian shield. I would use the Hip to explain Canada to a newcomer. Pretty much anything out of Halifax is worth a listen, for sure.

Ghosts: Who’s the better NBA conference this season, Eastern or Western?

Sager: Western, easily. The Raptors are muddling along and they still look like they’ll win a playoff round. Is it completely crackers to believe that Atlanta could expose the Celtics in Round 1? Probably.

Ghosts: Sorry to go on a total tangent, but I met a Canadian fellow the other day who claimed that you can make 150k working at Tim Horton’s in Alberta (I think it was Alberta) right now, because the demand for Canadian labor is so strong. He went on to say that Tim Horton’s can only afford to stay open for 1 hour at breakfast and one hour at lunch, because they have to pay employees so much money. Is there any truth to this?

Sager: Half of the stories about the labour and housing markets in Alberta are half-true, or at least it would seem. It’s almost that nuts. In the service sector, yes, there are places that pay $12 a hour (minimum wage in Alberta is $8) and actually give bonuses to people if they stay more than a couple months. Some places do have to open late or close early. You hear stuff about how in Fort McMurray (AKA Fort McMoney), there's such a rental shortage that people rent apartments in shift -- one guy gets it while the other's working, and so forth.

Frankly, it's weird and scary, like the direction the blogosphere is taking on some dark days.

Ghosts: Know the feeling. Is it Paradise City or Welcome to the Jungle, who the hell knows? Thanks for taking the time to chat Neate. This was definitely a really interesting chat and probably the most thoughtful interview to date. It’s been a pleasure.