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adventures

Wrapping up my last conference of the spring

On Saturday I took part in two panels at the conference. The first was the now traditional roundtable discussion of issues in the upcoming midterms. We decided there was not a thing at all going on, the republic is safe, the economy is great, we are at peace and universally beloved, our style of representative democracy is health, and no one need pay attention.

That last sentence is in code. The key to breaking the code is in realizing that the opposite of everything listed there is true.

In the afternoon I also participated in a more structured panel. I believe I pitched the idea for this one, in face. The premise was that modern media has changed the format of the foundation and persuasion components of political campaigning. Basically, comparatively inexpensive equipment and online platforms are changing the messaging we’re seeing. (To say nothing of AI.)

I talked about how Jerri Green, who is one of the seven prominent candidates running for governor in Tennessee. The Memphis City Councilor is introducing herself with an extensive bio video.

There are strengths and weaknesses to the spot.

I talked about Fred Wellman, who is his socials (and some genAI that is both clever and weird) to show his family’s military heritage (dating back to the French and Indian War) and his time as an Army aviator to explain how his career of service began.

He’s one of nine people (and no incumbents) running for the 2nd Missouri seat. The primary is in August.

I explained the social media efforts of Zach Wahls, who introduced himself as an Eagle Scout, and then a state senator, and then a sixth-generation Iowan. And then a new generation of Democrat. He’s campaigning for the U.S. Senate.

There’s a lot clever production techniques in each of these. They’re professionally done, but not overbearingly so. In each of them you see longer stories you can’t get in a pricey 30-second spot.

I also mentioned Andrew Cuomo’s published an AI-generated negative ad while running for mayor of New York. It might be the worst spot I’ve seen in my life. It’s certainly the most grotesque attack ad.

Andrew Cuomo’s campaign just posted — and quickly deleted — this AI-generated ad depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani.”

Features a Black man in a keffiyeh shoplifting, an abuser, a trespasser, a trafficker, a drug dealer, and a drunk driver all declaring support for Mamdani.

[image or embed]

— Prem Thakker ツ (@premthakker.bsky.social) October 22, 2025 at 8:08 PM

Depicting “criminals for Zohran Mamdani” highlighting shoplifters, domestic abusers, pimps, drunk drivers, drug dealers, speaking directly to camera it finally ended with an entire city block on fire. It was quickly, and quietly, deleted. Here’s some coverage of this from last October. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/23/cuomo-zohran-mamdani-ai-ad”>Cuomo condemned over racist AI ad depicting ‘criminals for Zohran Mamdani’:

This video follows a trend from the Cuomo campaign, who have published a handful of AI-generated videos in the lead up to 4 November. In one early October video, Cuomo was seen performing various jobs around New York City including driving a subway car, trading on the New York stock exchange and washing high-rise windows.

In response, Mamdani posted on Instagram: “In a city of world-class artists and production crew hunting for the next gig, Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI. Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one?”

Just this week, Cuomo shared a video featuring an AI-generated Bill de Blasio and, again, Mamdani. That video attempted to paint Mamdani as a “mini” De Blasio and emphasize a moment from the first debate where Cuomo compared the former mayor to the mayoral hopeful.

Cuomo, of course, lost convincingly.

I touched on the Hell Cats, four female veterans of the American armed forces now running for Congress in New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Arizona. Their introductory ad was a 68-second montage piece featuring all four of these accomplished women leaning into their service, and the proud history of the Hell Cats name (the first all-female Marine unit, dating back to WWI). I also mentioned Doug Jones’ stumbles out of the media gate in his gubernatorial bid in Alabama (Update: he won his primary and will be trounced in the general) and the Mr. Rogers-esque feeling of some of Brad Landers’ congressional content in New York (they primary in June).

It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of campaign messaging in these last few cycles. The notion of what is effective is changing on every media front, and is different, in subtle ways, from platform to platform and format to format. I could talk on the finer points of that, the evolution, the concerns, the consultants, and the grassroots feel of authenticity in politics all day. We could also talk about the use of AI in this messaging.

But what you really missed were the campaign efforts that others discussed. Derek Dooley — famous for being his father’s son and an underwhelming football coach — stepped into the senate race in Georgia. And this is how you introduced himself.

The Georgia Democrats, a few days later, ended Dooley’s political career and any hopes he might have of returning to big time football, in a 95 second spot without saying an actual word.

The Georgia Democrats didn't just destroy Derek Dooley they buried him 100 feet under the earth.

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— Dan Weiner (@danweiner.bsky.social) February 4, 2026 at 8:14 AM

(Update: Dooley finished second in his primary.)

And you’ll absolutely want to read up on Aaron Spencer, who is running for sheriff in Arkansas … in the same county where he’s facing second degree murder charges. It’s a real Walking Tall story. He handily won the Republican primary, and is currently in pre-trial motions for his murder charges.

Things I saw before the conference ended … this delicious noodle bowl.

I want some more, please and thank you.

This colorful tunnel.

This cup of M&Ms. One of our colleagues found a giant jar, produced a huge plastic bag and took his fill. We just borrowed this little cup from the juice and coffee stand.

This awesome mural. The only not-awesome thing about this is that someone has places crowd control ropes right up next to the wall, crowding the whole mural. This is awesome. Fred should just be reaching out of the wall, all fierce and kind.

The problem with this conference ending is the idea that we won’t see some of our dear friends until next year’s conference. This is an unfortunate and unacceptable annual realization.

Back to it tomorrow. Back to classes, back to whatever else comes to mind, and back to those great Irish videos. (We’ve only just begun to recollect.)

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10
Apr 26

If you’re gonna blow something up give it meaning

For my part in the conference today I spoke on panel titled Games of Power: The Weaponization of Sport for Political Gain.

The premise of the panel acknowledges the long history of sport as a battleground, the interrelationships of politics and sport, and the dynamics of regional and national interests that are oftentimes at play. The topics included how sport functions as a contested space where political actors, institutions, and movements seek to assert power, shape narratives, and mobilize public opinion, often while using sport as a weapon.

I talked about identity fusion theory, within the context of nationalism, using the Winter Olympics and the men’s locker room hockey phone call example.

I later asked the question, “What is it to be a 28-year-old athlete, on a gold medal high, and laughing at a punchline from the president of the United States?” I also talked about sport as a soft power, and how that political influence and persuasion might be changing. (The Global Soft Power Index seems to think the U.S. numbers are softening.)

Ultimately, I said this should perhaps be a conversation about sport in a new era. If that sounded wise it was only because of what my colleagues on the panel said after that.

I will take part in two more panels tomorrow. The rest of my day I spent in various audiences, doing the Academic Nod.

This evening, before dinner, we caught some fireworks almost by chance.

Call me old fashioned, but I think fireworks should be memorialized. That’s a lot of sound and fury … and some money … that someone is exploding for no real reason. The least we can do is record it and view it from every conceivable angle.

This series of percussive explosions wasn’t even about nationalism. Call me old fashioned again, but I miss the days when fireworks displays meant something. They told a story, dagnabbit!

Don’t mind me, I’m going to go yell at this cloud of sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide.

That is Cuan na hAisléime … (still not a series of letters that comes readily to my typing fingers) another casual side-of-the-road view that would be an absolute show stopper most anywhere else.

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8
Apr 26

Both nations featured here like green

I saw this hat at the drug store. I like the colors. Not a big fan of the trucker style but you never know. Plus, the design on the bill is fun. Futbol comma!

Or is that a soccer apostrophe?

Besides, I need a good Mexico hat. And you know it is authentic. Says so, right there on the label. That little plastic tie that you rip off, the tabs disappearing into oblivion, is how you know.

Out of curiosity, I looked on the label stitched into the thing.

C’mon, man.

I’m still living in the happy memories of our wonderful Irish vacation. So, I’m sharing extra videos that we didn’t get to at the time. It was a great vacation. I have a lot of footage. This will go on for some time. Enjoy it with me, won’t you? Here are some more of those waves bashing into the rocky shores. I removed the audio because it’s mostly just wind pops.

That particular place didn’t have a name, of which I am aware. But if you’d like to see more of those waves, try here.

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6
Apr 26

Flowers and Easter

There’s a certain sequence to spring. Sequences, perhaps. There’s the macro and the micro. And now we can look at some of the smaller parts of it. Different things burst into life at different times. And we dutifully trudge out to see them all, pretending that we understand how we can improve something that is so vibrant unto itself.

You may know, I often do not.

In the backyard we have this taller-than-a-shrub, shorter-than-a-tree exhibition. It looks great when you step back and view the whole, but it’s rather chaotic up close.

Across the yard is this guy, which is one of my favorites. I like the delicacy of the florets. They’ll soon be everywhere and get into everything, but that’s the price you pay. That, and being barely able to photograph them.

And then these beautiful specimens, which never appear with quite the right tone on the screen. Any screen. But they bloom and persist. Long-term show offs.

We went to my godparents in-law (just go with it) for Easter. It rained. The kids in their family did an Easter egg hunt in the basement. They broke them down by age groups, so the hunts went on for some time.

They put out the plastic eggs, and each kid is looking for a specific color egg. Each egg has some change or a few bucks in it. And someone creates a map recording where all of the eggs are hidden. For recall and recovery, I suppose.

I stayed out of the way, watching other kids playing hide-and-seek, wondering if they hid eggs in different places for each age group, or recycled the hiding spots. Probably they should.

A 5-year-old and a 6-year-old spent the afternoon hiding from one another. The boy would count, and the girl would hide. He couldn’t find her, so she talked him in. “When you hear the sound of my voice, that’s me.” Eventually, he’d track her down by ear. And then the girl would count and the boy would hide. I was telling her where to look for him. They’re adorable.

They did not share with me their Easter money.

Got a lovely lunch and wonderful company out of the deal, though.

This is Old St. Dympna’s Church.

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31
Mar 26

Some days you get a lot of little in

In Rituals and Traditions we had a group work day today. At the end of the semester the groups will be delivering big presentations and I’m trying to give them some built-in time to work on their projects. They are presenting ideas to the university’s athletic department. Rituals, traditions, game day atmosphere, and so on. Today I overheard of the few ideas that are percolating. Some of them are going to shape up nicely.

In Criticism, we talked about two basketball stories that the class selected. First, we had this one, which gave us a nice modern and historical parallel.

It’s been 75 years since college basketball’s first major gambling scandal. Not all that much has changed:

Odds are, there won’t be any ads about it over the next three weeks of the NCAA Tournament, but college basketball is celebrating an anniversary this year.

It was 75 years ago that the New York district attorney announced the arrests of 32 college basketball players as part of a sweeping sting operation into point-shaving that eventually included 86 games, 17 states and $72,000 in bribes – more than $900,000 in today’s money.

[…]

Time is, in fact, a flat circle.

Three-quarters of a century later, coaches remain aggrieved that their players are equal parts coddled and entitled, and the sport is in the throes of yet another point-shaving scandal. Twenty people are alleged to have hatched a game-fixing scheme that affected 17 teams, 29 games and at least 39 players.

When these stories come up I realize I need to learn more about gambling. “Gambling: bad” only gets you so far. Also, the thing that seems obvious to me is less an issue for others. But we talked about framing and the like, which led nicely into this next story they selected.

Maryland coach Brenda Frese went viral for yelling at Oluchi Okananwa. There’s more to the story. The “more” was a delightful conversation of the function and structure of clickbait, and also curated writing.

Just yesterday we had our first outdoor ride of the season. We made it off campus in good order today and that allowed us another nice treat, an after-work ride. The days are getting longer; it’s about time.

So we pedaled by the winery, where we will soon return to eat pizza. We cruised through the pastures, where I see my horsey friends, and then turned left to go down the asphalt shoot which is some of the best roadwork around here. We went up to the park, passing empty sheep pastures, and hooked a lovely left uphill into the backside of town. We took the biggest hill around, huffing and puffing in the still-warm sun, and turned onto the road that I rode so incredibly well one time that I turned it into three Strava segments — I have never ridden it well again. Then we breezed by haunted house, down the hill, up the other side, and home.

It was a lovely, windy, 12-mile stretch of the legs.

This is Dumhach Bheag.