What We’re Watching This Week: Rockefeller Center, David Lemieux, and the Billboard Charts
Go Jets?
Monday
The matchup between the Dolphins and the Jets is fairly unremarkable. Presumably Tannehill will continue to show how capable he’s become while some committee of New York QBs that may include Phil Simms’ kid does the opposite. Doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the Jets are desperate and willing to hire players (cough, Vick, cough) everyone else hates. Are they desperate enough to sign up Ray Rice? Maybe. Rex Ryan is nothing if not wildly unpredictable – doubly so when cornered. If they get beat badly, Rice will become part of the conversation and the legion of fans who quietly root against the Jets may take to empty, desolate streets through the Meadowlands.
To make ourselves feel a bit better about sports, we may pick up “Bobby Moore: The Man in Full,” the new, comprehensive biography of the greatest English soccer player to ever live. Was he an underworld pawn or a national hero? Bit of both.
Tuesday
Another big football day: Jameis Winston‘s disciplinary hearing (for violating FSU’s “Code of Conduct”) and Adrian Peterson’s appeal are on the same day! What a fun sport. Verdicts are the future of fantasy competition.
It’s cold out and this is all too depressing. Thank goodness for Instagram. We’ll be checking in on our old, appropriately named friend Alyssa Arce. Nothing warms you up on a cold day quite like a bikini model.
Wednesday
Time to light the tree at Rockefeller Center. Christmas season has arrived and every New Yorker knows what that means: Look out for bag-laden Europeans getting screamed at by cabbies for jaywalking on Fifth Avenue. A blessed season indeed.
Thursday
The Billboard Chart is one of those American institutions that gets referenced constantly despite widely being perceived of as completely irrelevant. No longer. On December 4, Billboard will release its first ever chart to include streaming plays on Spotify, Beats, Rdio and the like. This is good news for Taylor Swift. Everything is good news for Taylor Swift.
Friday
We’re not foreign movie buffs. If we want to read something emotionally fraught we can reach for one of the review copies of romance novels we’re constantly sent (publishers, please stop). Still, no one does suspense quite like the Scandinavians and “Pioneer,” an undersea action flick, looks like it could be the most frightening movie released in Oscar-bait season. That guy from “Avatar” is in it with that other guy from the first “Hunger Games.” Sold.
Weekend
There is nothing quite like watching a guy who goes by “King” get his ass whooped. David Lemieux (so handsome!) will be doing the whooping when he squares off with Gabriel Rosado for the Middleweight title at the Barclay Center. Think of the bruises as “artisanal, hand-made contusions.” Welcome to Brooklyn.