Sports, music, arts, pop culture writer

I traveled to the Argentine capital for the homecoming of Sergio Martinez, the middleweight champion who hadn’t fought on home soil in more than decade. The fight, reportedly made possible by a $5 million guarantee from the government, took place at the Estadio José Amalfitani, the 50,000-seat home of Vélez Sársfield football club. I had a chance to spend time in Martinez’s penthouse suite two nights before the fight, which had commanded the attention of the city of three million, then covered the bout itself, which took place amid a violent thunderstorm.

I also wrote a feature for Boxing News magazine in the U.K., the iPad edition of which appears below.

I collaborated with the photographer Lauren Caulk for this multimedia piece on WrestleMania’s return to the New York area. It was my first time attending pro wrestling’s showcase event and the atmosphere, captured brilliantly with Lauren’s images, surpassed even my wildest expectations.

It took me a long time to corner Gucci Mane for an interview, but I finally caught up with the elusive, enigmatic Atlanta trap rapper and it was worth the chase. The Spring Breakers star talked about working with Harmony Korine, his unlikely friendship with NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin, his thoughts as a Falcons fan on the Michael Vick saga and why he thinks college athletes shouldn’t be paid.

I had the honor of sitting down with one of my creative idols: Shigeru Miyamoto, the visionary designer behind Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda who essentially invented the modern video game industry and seldom grants interviews. After our hour-long Q&A for Extra Mustard, SI.com’s new sports and pop culture microsite, Miyamoto invited me to take this photo.

Looking back at Andy Murray’s breakthrough at the U.S. Open in a video hit for SI.com to launch the 2012 Moments of Glory series.

Sports Illustrated asked a select group of people from outside the staff to offer nominations for Sportsman of the Year. I caught up with a range of artists and entertainers to find out their selections:

• Kendrick Lamar on Serena Williams

• Michael Vick on Gabrielle Douglas

• Bob Weir and Phil Lesh on Tim Flannery

• Tyler Perry on Oscar Pistorius

• Ricky Hatton on Manchester City F.C.

My prediction on the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight for HBO.

Spent nine days in London writing about Wimbledon for SI.com, filing stories on Venus Williams’ upset loss on Day 1, Francesca Schiavone’s shrewd opening-round victory over Laura Robson, Ryan Harrison’s ennobling defeat to Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer’s dramatic comeback from two sets down against Julien Benneteau. I wrote about watching the English national team’s deflating loss to Italy in the Euro 2012 quarterfinals at a pub in Wimbledon Village, and looked ahead to the Olympic tournament which takes place at the All England Lawn Tennis Club less than three weeks’ time.

There’s little than can be written about Watch The Throne itself that hasn’t already been shared, blogged or tweeted in the 11 months since the highly anticipated Jay-Z/Kanye West collab was released, properly, following perhaps the most miraculous non-leak of the post-Napster era. And nothing about Friday’s tour closer in Birmingham, U.K. — the final gig of a 57-date jaunt that spanned nearly eight months, 12 countries and two continents — was all that different from the string of much-buzzed-about performances that preceded it. Well, besides Beyonce and Kim Kardashian watching it from the floor, of course. (Encircled by a gaggle of linebacker-sized bodyguards, natch.)

Yet there was a sense of profundity, if not history, to the final recital of what could very well be remembered as the finest hour of arena hip-hop, since it’s hard to imagine where the genre, if that’s what we’re calling it, can possibly go from here. The dizzying floor-to-ceiling lasers during “All Of The Lights,” the pitch-perfect pyrotechnics during “Otis” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” the epileptic light-spasms during “N*****s in Paris”: all of it was informed with a greater sense of occasion for nearly two-and-a-half hours on a chilly night in the West Midlands, the tour’s fifth show in a U.K. market that’s helped propel overall receipts past the $50-million mark.

The LG Arena, a hip 16,000-seat multi-purpose venue with interiors that marry elements of A Clockwork Orange with Back To The Future Part II, was packed to the gills by the time Jay-Z and Kanye emerged from opposite ends of the space on hydraulic powered cubical platforms that slowly elevated more than 40 feet, making each performer a prototypical spectacle while prompting an arena-wide starscape of camera phones. The artsy visuals only built from there, from the Givenchy-designed American flag during “Otis,” to the provocative (yet knowingly meaningful) juxtaposition of Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World” against discomforting archival footage of prepubescent Ku Klux Klansmen.

[Read more →]

Formula 1 is coming to the New York area in June 2013 and I had a chance to drive the 3.2-mile course with Sebastian Vettel, the 24-year-old German who’s captured the past two championships.