This week's Twitter round-up - Feb 28

Some recent links and notes we posted to Twitter over the past couple of weeks. Check out my live feed here.

1. RT @CanadaCool: Brian Williams of NBC left behind a thank-you note to Canada: http://bit.ly/dCsvPh VIA @smalltownpete
2. Watching CTV, just learned their promo voiceover guy is Lee Marshall, who has a very interesting resume http://bit.ly/b51fri
3. RT @MuppetNewsflash: A Fraggle perspective on curling -- http://bit.ly/ch9ERK
4. Quiet please, we're curling http://bit.ly/cMGC5S
5. Karma pays back the raptor for eating a cheerleader http://bit.ly/dBio46
6. RT @humplik: The BEST video clip you'll see today. I promise. Thanks @kennyhotz. http://ow.ly/1pffM0
7. What's your pick for the top moment is Daniel Alfredsson's career? http://tinyurl.com/ya8h9ww
8. Muk Muk rally for full mascot status at Vancouver 2010 http://bit.ly/aILUXO
9. Article about the new 22,000-seat arena in Louisville Kentucky http://tinyurl.com/yftvkz3
10. Best figure skating routine ever: Chris Farley on SNL. http://bit.ly/aeIMdX "Pump up the jam they will."
11. More mascots eating cheerleaders (SFW) http://bit.ly/95ZAV0
12. Awesome video: Canadian men's hockey team raps http://tinyurl.com/yeq83yg
13. Nicely done. RT @6thSens: Memorable Senators hair. http://bit.ly/bdEo6P
14. RT @CanadaCool: Curling today! Ten Great Songs About the Sport (who knew?) http://bit.ly/aKr2ci VIA @justkarl
15. Zamboni company disavows any connection to Richmond's malfunctioning ice-resurfacing machines http://tinyurl.com/ygze9hq
16. If you enjoy watching mascots eat cheerleaders, here's another video for you http://bit.ly/a0xMx0
17. Not suprisingly that "failed marriage proposal" at the NY Rangers game yesterday was indeed a hoax http://bit.ly/akQ8ed

This week's Twitter round-up

I'm posting less and less to this blog, and using Twitter more and more for short links & comments. Starting this week, each Sunday I'll post some of the "best of" stuff from my Twitter feed. You can check it out (no subscription required) at http://twitter.com/glengower/

• RT @Ottawa67sHockey: Valentine's Day Rose Ceremony for the player's Moms' http://yfrog.com/1dqaulsj (via @pajoho)
  
• Interesting read re: technology at the new Penguins arena in Pittsburgh http://bit.ly/8ZOa4E
  
• More about that 50/50 technology: http://5050central.com/
  
• Video: the future of the 50/50 draw (unlike other videos tweeted tonight, this one is actually serious) http://bit.ly/aazCOz
  
• Covering all your stadium favourites: We Are The Champions (another bizarre video) http://bit.ly/cQ2XfY
  
• How come nobody told me about this before? http://www.yourmascotsucks.com/
  
• Raptor devours cheerleader http://bit.ly/9Z24vh
• Scoreboard will be lowered to 62 feet above the court. http://tinyurl.com/ygyaojz
  
• NBA All-Star game in Dallas: The stadium’s video scoreboard, at 72 feet tall and 160 feet long, is twice as large as the court
  
• Sens TV: Pre-game ceremony featuring Olympics players from both the Sens and the Caps http://tinyurl.com/yfe3zlh
  
• Sens TV: Gordie Howe gets a standing ovation last night at the Sens game: http://tinyurl.com/yf9fchk
  
• NiWoTa, who do a lot of video animation for the Sens, just launched a new web site http://tinyurl.com/ydkjej3
  
• Auditions this Saturday to become a president @ Washington Nationals http://gameops.com/wp/2010/02/11/racing/
  
• http://twitpic.com/12imm3 - Best teaser photo EVER on OttawaSenators.com today (Ruutu)
  
• Song of the Day: "The Power", as covered by The Apples http://bit.ly/3lGPc2
• My Little Pony Glue Factory: http://bit.ly/bJ5nCv This season's hottest gift
  

New York Times article about New Jersey Devils organist

Nice article about Pete Cannarozzi, the arena organist for the New Jersey Devils: Devils’ Organist Remains Part of Arena’s Rhythm. Some highlights from the article:

Hockey was once played to the sole accompaniment of an organ: the mighty Barton, its pipes built into the walls of the old Chicago Stadium; Gladys Gooding playing “Rangers Victory Song” at the old Madison Square Garden; Paul Newman storming into the booth of the Charlestown Chiefs’ arena in the film “Slap Shot” to tear up the sheet music and demand of the organist, “Don’t ever play ‘Lady of Spain’ again!”

...

“I am absolutely a firm believer in what the organ means to hockey,” said Lou Lamoriello, the Devils’ general manager. “It adds so much atmosphere and flavor. Younger fans want rock music, videos, and we accommodate them. But I hope we never lose sight of the traditions of hockey and what organ music adds to the experience.”

...

Once the game starts, the Devils also use plenty of recorded music and scoreboard videos, but Cannarozzi still plays. He exhorts the crowd with a four-note “Let’s go, Devils” chant; accompanies an announcement about snack stands with “Food, Glorious Food,” from the musical “Oliver!”; and fills the time during a video goal review with the theme from “Jeopardy!”

“The main thing about the job is to get the crowd pumped up during the game, and entertain the audience,” said Cannarozzi, a longtime studio musician and musical director for Ashford & Simpson.

Kyle Hankins, the Nashville Predators’ organist, said: “We help underscore the hockey game in real time, just as any composer would do for a Broadway show or jazz pianist would do at the Blue Note. You can’t get that flexibility out of a CD or MPEG. Also, the timbre is comfort food to the ears that carries some nostalgia for young and old alike. Listening works a lot better than trying to shove a hot dog down your ear canal.”

Paul Cartier, an air-traffic controller and the Yankees’ organist, has been the Islanders’ organist off and on since 1979. He has seen a lot of changes.

“It used to be just me and the P.A. announcer, nothing else,” Cartier said of entertaining crowds at Nassau Coliseum during the Islanders’ Stanley Cup dynasty in the early 1980s. “It was awesome. I probably did a full 15 or 20 songs a night, and all the chant stuff. On some stoppages I didn’t even do anything; sometimes I let it just breathe.

“That doesn’t happen anymore. It’s all recorded, no dead space allowed. Now I’ll play two or three songs, tops. The only time I get to play a full song is when someone gets injured.”

The rise of prerecorded music at N.H.L. games dates to the mid-1980s. The Devils announcer Mike Emrick told the story of Mike Keenan, then coach of the Flyers, who signaled the game director in Philadelphia to crank up the rock music to pump up his players during warm-ups.

...

“It all depends on whether your producer likes organ music,” said Larry Olsen, the Carolina Hurricanes’ organist since 2000. Olsen said that his producer, Pete Soto, was a longtime Rangers fan who appreciated the organ’s place in a hockey game.

“The younger ones tend to like sound effects more,” Olsen said. “Some teams have laid off their organists for budgetary reasons, and because they figure the effects will do the job.”

But some organists detect a comeback for their music.

Jeremy Boyer, the Blues’ organist, said: “Here in St. Louis, the team toyed with the idea of changing the goal song to ‘Crowd Chant’ by Joe Satriani and replacing the traditional goal song, ‘When the Blues Go Marching In,’ played on the organ. When the team put the songs to a vote on its Web site, the St. Louis fans voted for the organ playing after goals in a landslide.”

An organist can come in handy in an emergency, as when a bank of lights failed here on Jan. 8, causing a 100-minute delay before the game was postponed.

“We had to wait for the N.H.L. to make a ruling on what to do,” Cannarozzi said. “In the meantime, we had to entertain everyone, so we went round robin: videos, ads, Dave doing a couple of prerecorded songs, me playing a couple of songs. It was a lot to do for an hour and 40 minutes.

“In the meantime, people were coming up to us and asking us what was happening,” he added. “They were almost hostile. So I played ‘We Are Family,’ ‘Thanks for the Memories.’ I tried to keep it light and up."