KanJam

Going for the gold

So as I was browsing through facebook, and thinking about how cool it will be when we get to 20,000 fans (only 110 more to go by the way), I also noticed a petition to make KanJam an official sport for the 2012 Olympic games in London. At first I thought this was laughable, I mean if the IOC is going to throw away baseball and softball what chance does KanJam have? But than you see that there are such events as badminton, rowing and weight lifting. Weight lifting is a hobby, an athletic activity, it is not a sport. I mean it only meets five of the eight official criteria to become a sport (see last Wednesday’s post to review said criteria.)

Now some people may say that KanJam is not played world wide and that could cause an issue, I say it's just another opportunity to declare our dominance, we'll take gold silver and bronze.

While we may have to wait some time for KanJam to be officially recognized as an Olympic spot, we won't have to wait too much longer for the 2010 winter Olympics to be upon us. And while there may not be a Michael Phelps-like attraction, the fact that I'll be able to watch most of the games at a regular hour, and not wake up at 2 a.m. to watch the basketball championship, has me frothing at the mouth.

Come February I could care less what is going on in figure skating or who is curling who, won't even tune in to see who is carrying the flame in the opening ceremony, but Olympic hockey is far and away my favorite sport to watch in HD. That's right....better than football, better than the NHL, watching the Canadian hockey team play in their home country will be the best thing to hit the Olympics since Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley.

OK I have rambled long enough, but to surmise: hockey, baseball, softball and KanJam = good for the Olympics, badminton, rowing and weightlifting…not so much.

Oh and KanJam= more gold medals for the US team.

Until next time,

Alex

 

Remember when....

Hey everyone, sorry for the late post today but I guess something is better than nothing. It's Friday, which is cool now because you get to go out and have fun.....but wasn't it much cooler when you were a kid?

You knew that you actually didn't have to go to bed before 9 p.m. and that you wouldn't have to sit in school for 8 hours the next day. Plus you knew you were going home and that night you could watch TGIF on ABC. Who didn't love those classic shows?

Boy Meets World and Family Matters were my two favorites, but Full House, Step by Step, even Sabrina, were all required viewing. And who could forget Dinosaurs? That was only on for a year or two but the baby was always funny.

So ya, that had nothing to do with KanJam but we'll leave you with two cute photos sent in from families. If anyone else has some cute KanJam photos or any photo involving KanJam that they want put on the blog, just email them to alex@kanjam.com and I'll put them up.

 

Oh an finally, 19,837 fans on facebook, so we have added 73 since the first post and have only 143 to go. That's a lot of threes.

Until next time,

Alex

Let's get this show on the road

While most of us are sitting in offices today, the faithful leaders of KanJam as well as the two guys running the KanJam tour (honestly getting paid to go on a road trip, maybe the greatest job on earth) are in Virginia Beach right now for the East Coast Surfing Championships.

If anyone is out in that direction stop by the booth and say hello. Also, if you wouldn't mind, tell them that you'd be really interested in what the blogger had to say about the East Coast Surfing Championships and they should get him on the next flight down there. 

But honestly, it's the end of summer, everyone's still a little lazy, and with KanJam on the road there isn't much to talk about. So I'm going to leave you with an awesome awesome video from the Daily Show. The five minute clip is full of awesomness as Stewart talks about Lenny Dykstra, the former baseball player, turned financial expert, turned apparent financial loser. Fun stuff all around.

  By the way, anyone who says Stephen Colbert is funnier than John Stewart deserves to be kicked in the balls. Like really hard. It's just not true.

Anyways the link I sent you to is thebiglead.com. Probably my favorite blog. They talk a lot about sports as well as sport media, pop culture and anything else they want. 

Hope you enjoy the video, until next time,

Alex

What makes a sport a sport?

Well we added 20 fans to the facebook group, so the grand total 19,784. We are slowly but surely making our way to 20,000.

Today's post goes back to something I wrote about when I was in college. What makes a sport a sport and a hobby a hobby. Is poker a sport? hell no. Is fishing? I really don't think so. Is bowling? Again I'm going to lean towards no. I do believe golf is, and that's because it takes athletic ability to hit that small white ball 300 yards.

So that brings us to KanJam, is it a sport, an activity, a hobby? I believe it's a sport, but to prove so here's 7 qualifications of a sport, to be considered one KanJam should have to meet at least 6.

1. There is an easy to understand point system- 

2. You need a modicum of athletic ability

3 . There is a clear cut winner at the end of each game - (I don't want to hear about soccer. Obviously soccer is a sport, but like I said you need to meet 8/10 so soccer can stay....though it's ridiculous two teams can leave the heart on the field for 90 minutes and still end in a tie.)

4. The game is decided on the field and not by a judge

5. It lends itself well for spectators either live or on TV.

6. If you take steroids, you will improve at said sport

7. You get worst at the game the drunker you are (This eliminates beer pong)

KanJam becomes a sport and I would give it a 7/7, but you can make the argument that steroids would not affect the performance of a Kan Jammer. 

Games that did not make the cut include bowling, ice skating, I wanted to eliminate cycling (major athletic competition, not a sport) but it squeaked through missing only lends itself well for spectators. Oh well.

What do you think makes a sport? What are some "sports" that you consider a game?

Until next time,

Alex

Friends of KanJam

Today we start a campaign. Right now there are 19,764 fans of KanJam on facebook. That seems like a very strange number, while it's much higher than a lot of fan groups - Vanilla Ice only has 1,469 fans - it's not high enough. I want a nice round number. I want 20,000 fans of KanJam. After that we'll worry about 25,000. So tell your friends, tell your family, tell the homeless dude down the street who doesn't have a computer to join the KanJam facebook group.  If your in the school library and the person before you accidentally left himself signed into facebook....sign him up. they'll thank you later. 

I'm not setting my standard very high at all I only want 256 more people, and yes I did the math without the help of a calculator.

I'll keep a running count every day to let you know how we're doing. By the way, just from a quick check of facebook Ladderball/golf only has about 1600fans when you combine all of the groups. and that bean bag toss game is no where close to us either ... Just saying.

So get to stuffing those ballots, we only have 256 to go.

Back with more probably later today.

Until next time,

Alex

To jam or not to jam

Going back to Friday's post, there were a lot of responses on what we can add to the KanJam World Championships. Maybe the most interesting comment was Keith Radford hates Dan. I'd kind of like to know why honestly.

Another intersting point was a few readers believed there should be less live music. Personally, I really enjoyed the Blood Thirsty Vegans, but again I may have been blinded by the greatest of the name. But I can see how the loudness of the music could be distracting because in the end the world championships are a sporting event.

What I liked was Morty Abramowitz' idea. By the way, I'd like to thank your parents for giving you another awesome name, there aren't enough Morty's in the world. Anyways Morty suggested there should be  bands after the event to go along with an afterparty. I mean it could even be called the Kan Jam. Obviously music and tailgating and parties goes great with KanJam so there should be a way to add music to the World Championship without taking away from the concentration of the players.

This way everyone can hang around after the event, talk, play some games for fun and listen to the music without the pressure of competing for the championship.

What does everyone think?

OK off to the first day as Hollywood Hulk Hogan....The Summer has officially ended. Bring on the snow.

Until next time,

Alex

Help me help you

It's a friday in late august at 4 pm and where I'm at it's 82 degrees, why am I still in my office? Because I procrastinated writing today. That's why. An hour from now I'll be golfing, but noone probably cares about that.

Today's post is short and simple what would people like to see at the World Championship next year?

I know it seems lazy and broad for me to ask such a generic question, and maybe your half right. But the truth is that we will start planning for next years tournament some time in the next month. So as great as this year's tournament was we can always do better.

So let's hear it?

And as soon as your done with that, get off the computer. Go golfing, go barbecue, go do something to enjoy the last couple weeks of summer.

Until next time,

Alex

I feel like Hollywood Hulk Hogan

So it's mid August and it feels like summer has only been around for about 10 days due to all the rain in July and early august, and today is my first day of grad school orientation. It just came up to quick on me, like some bad sea food. Anyways I've been out of school for almost 2 years now so I'm trying to find  my old trapper keeper and my Boy Meets World folder with Topanga on the cover seems to be missing.

But really what I'm most concerned with today is I am entering a stage of my life that I'm kind of uncertain about. Starting Monday I enter the world of sports bigamy. I know I know, Big Love and HBO made it cool to have more than one love, but I'm just not down with that.

I did all of my undergrad at the University at Buffalo, was even the senior sports editor at the school paper for 2 years, and was a die hard UB football/basketball fan. Still am. But Monday I start grad school at Canisius. Does this mean I have to trade in my blue and white for gold? That I have to trade in my Victor E. Bull bobblehead and Reggie Witherspoon spoon for whatever the heck a griffin is?

These are the things that keep me awake at night. What they have to do with KanJam I really couldn't tell you, but it's just something I had to get off my chest. So now I'm asking, can I continue to be a diehard UB fan and hate the Golden Griffins while I attend Canisius, or do I have to completely turn my back on the Bulls....I mean that would be severe.

That would be like Hulk Hogan leaving the WWF and joing the NWO as Hollywood Hulk Hogan, complete with black hair dye for the beard. 

OK, that's off the chest, and I'm waiting impatiently, anxiously even, for your responses. But in the mean time let's talk a little Kan Jam. With the summer ending and fall approaching with it's 50-degree-still-warm-enough-to-be-outside-but-who-really-wants-to-be weather, where are you going to get your KanJam fix? I know Epic Center has the league, and if your still in high school your playing in gym, but I've played more Kan Jam this summer than ever before in my life and now I can see the end of the glorious tunnel.

So ya. There's two things that are keeping me up at night. Three if you want to include the fact that Hollywood Hulk Hogan is in my nightmares. And no I don't watch wrestling....anymore. But I'm just saying, couldn't I be thinking about someone cooler like the Road Dog Jesse James or the Bad Ass Billy Gun...The New Age Outlaws?

Oh well. Off to orientation.

Until next time,

Alex

Still more photos from the world championship

I got an email yesterday asking for more world championship photos.... your wish is my command. And there's video as well. All of the photos are provided by the person only known as Shaffer. Thanks again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That should be all of the photos unless people send me more.

Until next time,

Alex

Kan Jam on the road

I'm going to start with a question today, is there any possible way to not get pumped when listening to Journey's Don't Stop Believing? They'll be in Buffalo next week so I'm preparing for the concert by listening to their greatest hits while writing today. So just a forewarning if this post seems infused with excessive testosterone, blame the Journey.

OK Faithfully is now playing I'm a little more mellow now and able to concentrate. The air guitar has been unplugged. 

So on to actual Kan Jam matters... we're bringing the van out again for a tour in the upcoming weeks. Starting next Wednesday we'll be out at the East Coast Surfing Champions. Than from August 29-September 19 Kan Jam will invade SEC country, tailgating at six home games for SEC schools. More information on which lucky schools were chosen coming soon.

One thing about the SEC trip: I visited my cousin last year at Mississippi State and went to a Bulldogs Tennessee Volunteers football game. The atmosphere of SEC football, the tailgating, the tradition is completely unmatched in the north. I know Penn State and Ohio State fans may have something to say about that but, I preferred being able to wear shorts and sandals to the november battle.

I guess that's the kicker for me, and why the south beats the north in a lot of issues....like being able to play KanJam outside all year.

I may be making another trip out there in November for a Bulldogs Alabama game in Mississippi, than travel the three hours to Tennessee for the Bills Titans game. Nothing like roadtripping for sports events, and you can bet the Kan Jam will be making the trip with me.

Until next time,

Alex