Fake Steve Jumps the Shark

One of the biggest blog stories in the last year has been the emergence of a Fake Steve Jobs, who takes on the personality of the true Apple CEO, and amusingly, sarcastically and vindictively touts all things Apple and rips all others, from Microsoft to Sun to Google. While many an attempt has been made to expose the author's true identity, no confirmations have been made.

As the Fake Steve rounds up incredible attention, linkage and talk, other fake blogs have sprung up, for Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, and even PodTech's Robert Scoble. But none have gained much traction. If Fake Steve were to possess an incredible ego, it could be said he seems to have cornered the market on pseudo-CEO blogging. That's the only logical reason I can think of why Fake Steve would be "jumping the shark" and faking the addition of a co-blogger, his friend, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. In Fake Steve's absence, Fake Larry has been posting for the last few days.

To me, this is a sure sign that Fake Steve is down from his peak. Just like real, consistent, well-written blogging can be tiresome and occasionally unrewarding, I would assume that consistent, well-written fake blogging can be similarly tiring. To add Fake Larry as a co-author tells me that Fake Steve has hit something resembling writer's block, or that a gap in Apple news (is there ever a gap?) has him grasping for straws.

Fake Steve is not such a great writer that we are yearning for a network of fake tech pundits under the author's umbrella. Fake Steve is great because the mercurial Steve Jobs is such a unique target. There's something to be said for focus.

Chuck and Larry Get Hitched, to a Myriad of Stereotypes

Having seen Adam Sandler's work on Saturday Night Live for so many years, I didn't anticipate he could break through and become a legitimate, bankable movie star the way he has, trumping the SNL curse that claimed other would-be actors like Rob Schneider, Chris Kattan, David Spade, Chris Farley, and others in this era. But with mega-hits like Waterboy, 50 First Dates, Happy Gilmore, and more, Sandler's movies have become must-sees pretty much every summer. This year's offering, "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry", where he is forced into a fake domestic partnership with Kevin James of King of Queens' fame, to collect on domestic partner benefits from the pair's fire department, is, like the other films on his resume, quite silly at times, and forgettable at others.

The film, following the firefighter's "code", stresses that the department will stick together as one, and that one firefighter, having saved the life of another, will forever be in the other's debt. That the overweight Larry finds himself in a bureaucratic loophole, concerned about the long-term support for his two children, should he leave this world prematurely, forces him into the unlikely pairing with Chuck, a swinging gigolo most famous for being "Mr. February" on a pinup calendar.

From there, the movie pushes through just about every predictable worn-out sterotype of the gay lifestyle. The love of Boy George, Wham and the Village People, the focus on an unrelenting libido and constant sex, and even a "dramatic" scene when one of the pair's colleagues drops the soap in a communal shower. That, combined with the occasional words that only a despicable soul like Ann Coulter can drop with ease, made the movie a bit annoying, getting me to roll me eyes between amusing scenes.

The film, despite having been reportedly previewed by gay advocacy groups before its release, doesn't do the community many favors, in my opinion, making it seem that those who are gay are more like the eccentrics marching in a Castro Street parade, and less like the millions who blend into typical society every day. That Sandler and James eventually find themselves as serious gay rights advocates and see themselves undergo typical discrimination from their co-workers is good, as is Sandler's repeated mantra of what's a good word to use (gay) and what's not (rhymes with Bob Saget), but it's almost lacquered on top of the continued teasing and overdone innuendo.

Sandler and James play their parts well, but aren't a convincing couple, looking like a transparent fraud, and they don't exactly get away with their slight of the rules, but they do expose both the issues with the bureaucracy and the pension process, while championing for gay rights, getting two birds hit with one stone. And it is funny. Not as funny as The Simpsons Movie was, but pretty good.

Hairspray is Upbeat, Big-Haired, Fun

Rather than fall in the trap of the Wednesday mid-week doldrums, Kristine and I took in the much-anticipated movie, Hairspray, last night, watching a unique, plump high schooler with rhythm challenge the status quo, shimmying her way on stage to a local televised dance show, and in the process, resetting expectations for how the community looked at women without the typical model's body, while also taking up the cause for racial integration in the tumultuous 1960s.

While much of the show's promotion has centered around its two extremely well known big stars, John Travolta and Christopher Walken, it's the main star, a Nikki Blonsky, who owns the movie, and does a great job, starting out way too perky for a weekday morning, and despite society's expectations for how a chubby girl should act, refuses to fatigue under criticism or high school's typical hard knocks, which includes multiple visits to detention.

In fact, while Travolta is a semi-convincing mother in drag, wearing a fat suit, it's Blonsky who is at center stage throughout the film, getting you to root for her, and root against the comparatively evil Michelle Pfeiffer, who holds a key role at the TV show, and promotes her daughter to center stage, with her typical skinny blonde looks and grating personality. Blonsky makes the movie worth watching, with her unquestionable enthusiasm and drive to reach her goals.

While I could be grumpy and say I found the film over-reaching, that one plump little white girl couldn't single-handedly redirect the course of race relations in a matter of weeks through a TV show and a single march, and I could bag on the show for some of the songs going way too long, it was fun to see, just past the point of believability. I only wish the movie could have had a little more Christopher Walken, and a little less Queen Latifah.

Ballhype Surveys Sports Bloggers

Ballhype, the user-driven Digg-like sports site which publicly debuted at the beginning of April, recently completed a study of 135 sports bloggers from around the United States, from a variety of sports focuses, to learn if this unique breed of uber-fans was best characterized by the unwashed basement dweller, or instead, a well to do self-made individual. The answer? Some of both. But by and large, the sports bloggers community is led by job-holding, house-owning (or renting), 20 or 30-something folks who don't get paid much, who could sink anywhere from 1-5 hours a day into their work.

According to Ballhype's survey, more than 80% of sports bloggers hold a college degree, while another 18% are full-time students, assumed to be working on getting one. Additionally, a strong 26% have a post-graduate degree as well. Most of these bloggers see their work as a hobby, rather than a career. And it's a good thing, because most aren't paid much, if anything. The results show 58% see their blog as a hobby that's just for fun, while 26% see it as a hobby that just so happens to make some revenue. Another 17% see it as a part-time or full-time job. But that can't be all that rewarding for the non-basement dwellers, as fully half report making less than $20 a month from the blog. Only one of every six bloggers (16%) claims revenue exceeding $500 a month - which just might keep you in stock of Top Ramen and Cheetos.

Almost 60% of sports bloggers see more than 1,000 visits to their sites per month, with just under 20% of all sports bloggers seeing an incredible 100,000 visits or more per month. As expected, this level varies wildly, from the one-off just for fun hobby blogs, to the very serious, frequently updated sites like DeadSpin, TrueHoop, and SportsBlogs Nation network, where you can find me at Athletics Nation and Sactown Royalty.

Most promising, 70% of sports bloggers who responded to the survey found the experience more rewarding than expected, and a full 90% would love to blog full-time if paid to do so.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the survey skewed to privileged white males, with 95% of respondents being men, and 87% being Caucasian. This could be due to early adopters of Ballhype slanting this way, or simply evidence of a good old boys network reaching new networks as well. My expectation is that in further editions of the survey, you will see these demographics return to the mean a bit, as there are some fantastic sports blogs authored by women and others of all backgrounds.

Be sure to check out the survey, the first of its kind that I'm aware of which focuses on the fast-growing sports blog community. Great work, Ballhype!