Those of you that have been to the Blogs With Balls events have probably thought, “Yeah, these panels are great, but I wish I could just get silly without having to pay attention to all of these panels.” Well, guess what, sucka. Fellow podcaster Dan Levy is throwing a party for his 500th show, and you can consider yourself invited. It’s happening December 18th at Northbowl Philly on N. 2nd St., and I’m going to be there at 9 PM sharp. It’ll have all of the social ineptitude of a blogger meetup, with none of that pesky note-taking.

And Levy has told me that transportation is being organized from The District, so if you’re in the DC area without families or concerns about travel the week before Christmas, you definitely need to make the trip. Admission is free and I understand that it is open bar since Bulleit Bourbon and Captain Morgan are sponsoring this whole thing. And you can introduce Wharf to your family! Or not.

You won’t pay to get in, but you need to get a ticket here. For more details as they come in, you can email the blog at WithLeather@Gmail.com with the subject “Philly” or follow the #DL2DC hastag on Twitter. There will be no better precursor to you getting drunk with your parents, so get on it.

L to R: Josh Zerkle ("PUNTE"), Jonah Keri (Bloomberg Sports, et al.), Alana G (Yardbarker), Dr. Nicole LaVoi (University of Minnesota), Moderator Jason McIntyre (The Big Lead).

If you ever need proof of how wonderful the internet really is, just stop and take a look at real life for comparison. The internet caters to one’s every inquiry, curiosity, fetish or need. The world of actual people, places and things? Less so. And so it was with a bit of trepidation that I attempted to explain my success as a writer in the former realm in that of the latter in my first appearance as a panelist at the well-known Blogs With Balls conference in Chicago last weekend.

I understand that this event comes off as a low-end circle jerk to a lot of you. For those more interested in my day at the event, you can continue with me after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the next week or so, Josh will recap some of his adventures at Blogs With Balls 2.0, the new sports media conference held last weekend in Las Vegas, presented by FoxSports.com, Yardbarker.com, ESPN.com, SB Nation, Sports Illustrated, Diageo Liquors and CarbonPoker. This is one of those anecdotes. Actually, it’s a video recap of the parties that everyone threw for us.

The masterminds running the Blogs With Balls Technicolor Dreamcoat have released another video from the Vegas conference, and if you think I came off like an ignorant ass in text, wait until you see this. But honestly, if this is the worst video they have on me in Sin City, I got off easy…as far as anyone else knows. Kevin Blackistone is still undergoing therapy from the experience, and the psychiatrist encourages him in group by awarding him points for his stronger responses.

Over the next week or so, Josh will recap some of his adventures at Blogs With Balls 2.0, the new sports media conference held last weekend in Las Vegas, presented by FoxSports.com, Yardbarker.com, ESPN.com, SB Nation, Sports Illustrated, Diageo Liquors and CarbonPoker. This is one of those anecdotes, including a rundown of how Josh and Brandon hired a clown to drink with them on The Strip on Saturday night.

The Las Vegas experience is limited only by one’s budget and imagination, and what started as a humorous aside in a conversation between friends slowly gained momentum as a viable entertainment option. Wouldn’t it be funny if we got drunk with a clown? Why yes. Yes it would. And so, with three weeks left before our trip to Vegas, Brandon posted a Craigslist ad and the Great Clown Hunt was on.

Lots of people wanted to be our clown, including an enterprising young lady who replied to our ad:

hey fellas! i am a local clown/stripper, ill do you gig for gas money and drinks! for extra cash ill strip too! i make balloon dildos and erotic clown show, bring ping pong balls and you won’t be dissapointed! you can reach me at 702-xxx-xxxx i dont always check my email.

We have to bring our OWN ping-pong balls? That’s poor customer service, missy. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the next week or so, Josh will recap some of his adventures at Blogs With Balls 2.0, the new sports media conference held last weekend in Las Vegas, presented by FoxSports.com, Yardbarker.com, ESPN.com, SB Nation, Sports Illustrated, Diageo Liquors and CarbonPoker. This is one of those anecdotes, including a recap of the two days of panel discussion at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

I was expecting Blogs With Balls to be some sort of an in-Blogfrica circle jerk, where the panelists talk about how great they were, and then pretend to offer their “expertise” to the masses. Instead, I was treated to solid discussion and insight from a terrific blend of media people, from bloggers to journalists to a variety of other professional people that use media in any conceivable way. The HHR Media Group and its partners put on a terrific event. It was beautifully paced and well-attended, with the outstanding panels were the foundation for that event.

Some of the more notable people at the conference include:

Greg Wyshynski, Yahoo!’s “Puck Daddy.” Greg mentioned during his panel that he got his start in print media, but it was clear that he was displeased about how professional teams are treating bloggers. As Greg stated in his recap of the event:

9. While I don’t think it’s fair, bloggers providing free labor to massive media organizations is obviously a name-recognition, foot-in-the-door sort of thing. But for that organization to refuse to even attempt to credential a blogger providing free labor is unprofessional; and yet it’s the norm.

I argued that even though I write at the Washington Post’s NFL blog, that I’ve never asked for credentials, and honestly think they would serve no benefit to the quality of my work. This was just one of the many positive debates that transpired over the conference. Read the rest of this entry »