On My Good Buddy Bradam

Last Sunday, a friend of mine--let's call him "Bradam"--watched an illegal stream of a sporting event online. The game involved his favorite sports team, and Bradam and I are both fans of this team, so (let's say) he called me afterward to tell me all about the experience. It was streamed by a kind of underground celebrity, a person who illegally streams all of the sporting events, from multiple sports, from a particular geographic region. Let's call that region, "Scruffalo."

The site where this game was streamed, Bradam told me, was filled to the brim with Scruffalo fans. And the cult hero streaming the game was a Scruffalo fan, too, so the space had the feel of hometown bar. Scruffalo songs were played, Scruffalo jokes were made. Bradam wasn't sure how to interact in this space, at first, but the Anonymous But Still Celebrated Streamer Person regularly blocked out the feed's commercials, and used that time to, among other things, inform people of the rules of etiquette for the webspace. Bradam tells me he's planning to watch this feed again this coming Sunday, if he can find it--the stream-space moves, like so many other underground and less-than-legal communal spaces, and so there's no guarantee he'll know its location.

This experience seemed directly relevant to the kinds of things we're talking about in our class. So, being the industrious student that I am, I immediately thought I should write one of my required blog posts about it. And then I thought some more, and realized how dumb it would be to post information like this on a public forum. After all, who would want to get their "friend" in trouble, and potentially run the risk of exposing a secretish underground community, just to complete a little old homework assignment?

Fast-forward to this week, and my good buddy Bradam calls me again to ask if I want to attend the U.S. Day of Rage event in downtown Los Angeles. It's a solidarity protest, in support of those protesting on Wall Street in New York City, meant to convey outrage over the role of transnational corporations in American politics. Again, this seemed like great fodder for a blog post! Of course I would attend!

And then, again, I second-guessed myself. After all, how was I supposed to find time to write my blog post, if I'm spending four or five hours at some protest downtown? Besides, it's not like I'd be missed. Tons of people were already at the Wall Street protest, so undoubtedly the Los Angeles one would be jam-packed with energetic, homeworkless protesters. I was already watching some of the live webstreams from New York City, so maybe I could write about those video feeds, and those people, instead of going myself. Better to send Bradam, while I stay home.

I find myself wondering if this will become a tradition of sorts. Bradam will call me and tell me about the experiences he's having: the television he's watching, the games he's playing, the DVD's he's burning, the software he's torrenting. The classes he's blowing off. I wonder if I'll be able to keep up. Maybe I can convince Bradam to do a vlog or something. That way, I can watch him whenever I want.