Major league baseball is in full-swing and Shysterball, a well-known blogger and serious baseball fan, is now hosting a Photo Contest! In an effort to build up Zvents’ image gallery for baseball park venues, teams, and players, he’s now generously hosting an independent photo contest for all of you baseball fanatics. Here’s the info you need to participate (for more details, check here):

Send me a photo that best represents your team’s home ballpark and/or a photo that best represents your home team without prominently including the team’s logo. It could be a field action shot, a team photo, a uniform shot, a picture of the team name that doesn’t include the actual logo, whatever. Examples that spring to mind: the ivy — or, I dunno, drunken Lincoln Park Trixies — at Wrigley. Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The McCovey cove at AT&T Park. General apathy at Rogers Centre. Adam Dunn eating a four way at Skyline. Something — anything — that defines your team and/or its stadium in a picture without actually showing the logo.

The only catches are (1) the photos must be 1MB or large JPG; and (2) must be taken yourself, not horked off the web.

The winning photos for each team/venue will have the pride of placement as the official photo of the stadium venue, and as the official photo of the team “performer” on Zvents (the photo will also show up on the Zvents-affiliated papers too, which means your picture of the Green Monster, for example will be in the Globe whenever people search for Sox events). One grand prize for best overall photo will get $100 and a Zvents t-shirt, and one almost-grand prize will get a t-shirt.

Please send Mr. Shysterball an email with your baseball pictures!

Play ball!

*Flickr Photo Credit: Wisdoc

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Two fiction bestsellers have made their way to the big screen. Atonement and The Kite Runner are currently featured in movie theaters and have arguably remained true to the books. Interestingly, both movies share the same deep sense of emotion (even though they differ significantly in plot) with underlying themes of childhood betrayal and redemption as an adult. A.O. Scott’s New York Times review captures the crux of both movies accurately with this description: “fundamentally about guilt and the attempt to overcome it, and about the tricky, tragically imperfect power of art to compensate for real-life crimes and misdemeanors.”

Atonement, based on the novel by Ian McEwan, is a British romance about how a 13-year-old, irreversibly changes the course of many people’s lives when she accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit. Following this act, the girl continues to seek forgiveness for her childhood wrongdoing over several dramatic decades, eventually leading to personal transformation.

The Kite Runner, based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, tells the story of an Afghan refugee who witnesses a horrible incident as a child, betrays his friend, and walks away. Throughout his life, he’s plagued with regret, which leads to his “epic quest for redemption.”

Of course, the challenge has always been whether or not the films can live up to their original sources. You be the judge…do they? We certainly welcome your comments!

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Can they open their own presents!? Watch Chloe Wong (aka Chewy) in action!

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A couple of days ago, Amy Klein shared her holiday experiences in America on NPR’s Morning Edition. Her commentary entitled, “Hanukkah Is in the Holiday Season, Too,” describes that “despite all the politically correct inclusiveness, the bland ‘Seasons Greetings’ messages on TV, holiday means “Christmas,” and Chanukah is relegated to being Not That Holiday.” After growing up surrounded by Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn and then moving to Israel, and finally back to the U.S., Amy found that during the holiday season in America - Christmas is everywhere - radio, tv, shopping, holiday parties, etc. True, it does seem like Christmas overshadows all of the other celebrations…but don’t let that stop you from enjoying your special traditions and attending cultural events. Search Zvents for things to do on your favorite holiday:

• Hanukkah
• Kwanzaa
• Winter Solstice
• Las Posadas
  

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It’s the Zvents Team!

In the spirit of Halloween, several of us got dressed up for the Zvents costume contest! Some costumes were ingenious while others…weren’t (sorry for the harsh reality check). Needless to say, we had a fun and interesting mix: a Smurf, werewolf, Robin Hood duo, clown, bloody rock climber, punk rocker, sleazy limo driver, kitty cat, mouse, king, sheriff, football player, devil girl, scary monster…and dapper businessman (yes, it was rather shocking to see our CTO, Gordon Rios, all suited up!).

Who do you think scored the prize for the winning costume?

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