Newstalk: Off The Ball

Just heard the tail end of the news round in car. Richie has his usual terrible connection and ger was on from what sounded like a busy airport terminal. Rubbish audio quality.

For an audio medium, it's not good enough.

Yes but he is destined for RTE unless Virgin get some hurling next time around and hopefully not Matt copper presenting it!!!

Hard to estimate their costs

I’d be really curious as to whether the occasional guests get paid, and if so how much.

They have a huge network of contributors, for example Janesie O’Connor for Clare hurling, Joe Kernan talking about Armagh this week, Harris about Man Utd, Vinny Perth, Kenny Cunningham, BOD and ROG for rugby, and so on.

I’d assume the ones with a regular gig must get something, like Skehill or Paddy Andrews

I've not heard anybody complain about the opening ceremony, apart from it being too long (and it was lashing). I did see Elon Musk giving out about it I guess if that counts?

Simple question for you on this - what is woke nonsense please? Just so I know what you are referring to...

You know the painting below isn't an accurate image? Its paid for by a sponsor using the most modern techniques,1500 years after a last supper happened. Its more of a reflection of the time it was painted and not the time it was depicting, much like the image above.

Its not satire, it's a cultural reference to France being many things both Christian amd diverse.

I've probably gone too woke on you now though.

What's your view of this tweet so? Is your problem with alternative portrayals of a painting? Or this specifically?

I'm not stretching for anything, the painting goes beyond the church. It's a culturally significant piece that everyone in Western society and the rest of the world recognises. The West, since the renaissance used it's capitalist mindset to drive education and art (and lots of negative things too). The church was involved in that but not the only player. People have recognised and celebrated the renaissance artists just like the have later creators.

It doesn't show an event accurately. It does show off the brilliance of the artist. The pieta for example is the exact same in terms of accuracy of the event vs how brilliant the artist was. It hasn't hit the cultural levels of the last supper so it's less likely to be instantly recognisable in a performance piece.

No one needs to be offended. Some performers made a cultural reference. It happens in almost every piece of art. It's one of the most common ways artists hold up a mirror.

Yeah. The French and Paris have NEVER insulted Mohammad and know nothing of the consequences of parodying islam.

Good games, yes. As in watchable. But there was a serious lack of "very good" games. (But also, not all of those games were on TV so most people would not have seen them).

Its very sad when Irish people start reguritating garbage like "woke mind virus". American internet culture is often not healthy or benefical to consume.

It's just internet culture now right?

Look across all platforms online and people can only see black or white while 99.9% of the real world live in the grey.

I don't even really know what "woke" or "woke mind virus" mean to be honest.

There's something in human nature that leads some to appeal to fetishizing complaining. This is especially the case when it comes to talking about sports and especially especially when talking about those who talk about sport.

There's way more posts written about how bad all of these people are than there are commending them or supporting them on their actions. Like ten times the posts I'd say if I have to guess. I think its because people either consciously or subconsciously get annoyed at the fact that someone is getting paid to talk about sports while they have to get up and go out and work for a living.

People don't see Ger, or Eoin's or Nathan's or Joe's opinion any more valid than their own, but one group gets paid to voice their opinions, the other doesn't. And I think that really annoys some people.

It's something I've thought about quite a bit, this thread in particularly has been predominantly contributed to by people claiming pretty much everything about the show and its presenters is sh1t. I don't listen to the show as much as I used to so don't contribute here as much either, but when I was a frequent listener, this thread used to make me worry about the mindset of some people. I suppose if its their way of dealing with issues rather than working on them, so be it. But it is annoying for those of us who enjoy the show and appreciate what they've achieved and contributed over the years.

TLDR - Continuously listening to the show and then incessantly complaining about it is cheaper and less challenging than therapy.

What a load of steaming horsesh1t

Great interview tonight by Joe with John Treacy - Joe let John talk about what he felt when he won his silver in 1984 & the insight was great.

What are you talking about? Talking points like this clearly come from a certain area of the Internet which is a problematic "mind virus" itself.