Pbr!

[Nat(wasIxy)]

What am I missing? I don’t have a TV anymore…so no PBR. It was one of very few things I was bothered about watching, but it isn’t worth buying a TV, paying the license fee, paying for ‘Sky’ tv, and then paying the top-up to get the sports channels…just for one programme!!

[Berta]

heh, and here I was all excited to talk about beer.

You might be able to get it online – I haven’t checked into it for PBR but some programs can be be viewed real time over the net.

[Gabe Ayers]

Well I am so relieved to know that I am not the only PBR fanatic on DAP. Ok you didn’t admit you were a fanatic and I just did. I’ve been watching it and paying the same expensive fees you mentioned for years, just to see the boys ride bulls. It is expensive too, it is my one luxury to have that sport to watch for one simple reason. It is entertainment pure and simple. When I am watching bull riding I escape the rest of the world for about two hours at a time weekly, in season.

That is the whole point – to enjoy something that is distant and captivating just to “take a trip and not leave the farm” transcendental sort of experience. I know I could be doing yoga and meditating, been there, still do that, in a practical sort of way. Like when Carl describes the pleasure of contemplating moving a big log with his animals in an adverse situation. To envision the steps required and orchestrate the event in harmony with your animals in the natural world is a form of meditation to some. To flesh your will in the will of animals is a super rewarding ingredient in the soup of success when logging with animals. I think that experience is a mutually rewarding aspect of this animal powered life we share here.

But to simply watch these brave young men get on those super athletic bulls for a long eight seconds of pure animal powered explosion is pretty captivating and entertaining indeed. Since my family has been a part of this sport by knowing young men that are making their way up the ladder of this rapidly growing sport and having friends that raise and train the bulls we are quite immersed in this culture too. It is pure entertainment only. I have no immediate kin riding bulls thankfully and I don’t plan on putting up with the dangerous cows that raise these bulls or keeping the bulls themselves, I am content to be a spectator, a truly entertained one.

Now what is going on can be found at http://www.pbr.com. If you have high speed you may watch some of the highlights there and keep up with the current rankings, injury list and stories about stock contractors and bull of the year race.

The N.C. guy J.B. Mauney is back on top of the rankings at the moment. This event today in Dallas is the largest one time payment ever (250k) and it should be real interesting to see the same guys ride 4 bulls in one day, maybe five if the winner comes from the back of the pack.

On the TV scene, it is interesting that Directv just dropped Versus about three months ago and we switched to Dish to pick the channel back up and now Dish is thinking of dropping RFD-TV so these networks or satellite providers are constantly jockeying for more profit and the channels are in the same game. It stinks that they can change the channels they carry on the drop of a hat and you are supposed to stay
a customer although just like you I only have the service for these two channels and feel abused by their quick changes that are about more money, when we already are paying plenty…. So use the net to find some of the action. We have high speed connection and have watched one event over the net, but it is not the same quality for sure. The short
snippets are good on the pbr website though.

Enough rambling from a bull riding fan, glad I’m not alone though….

~not a HHFF post, ignore the signature, this is just a personal indulgence…captivated couch time…

Jason

[Nat(wasIxy)]

Yeah I’m a fanatic, although a very dwarfed one as there’s not much of a PBR ‘scene’ in the UK – animal rights activists would be all over it like a rash….

I love to see how athletic bovines can be, and I used to think it cruel without knowing anything about it, but american friends persuaded me to watch it and I saw how calm the bulls were in the chute, and how relaxed they are once the rider’s off and they run off out of the arena…or do a victory lap – you can see some are proud of themselves (or angry if they lose!). They also live long, pampered lives; I’d rather be a PBR bull than a feedlot animal!

If all goes wrong for me here in britain I’d love to run off to america and breed bucking bulls! LOL

[Gabe Ayers]

Well the new bracket format certainly kept us glued to the tube for the fast paced elimination style contest.

But we also experienced one of the most negative things in my adult life of paying for TV. We had recently switched satellite providers because Directv had dropped the Versus channel in a squabble over money (big surprise), so we switched to the other sky tv providers – Dish network. There are really only three channels I am willing to pay for as entertainment and education. They are Versus for PBR, RFD-TV for cultural programing such as animal powered stuff through the Rural Heritage show and the weather channel for obvious reasons being a farmer and person that works outdoors.

Here is the shocking story of what happened.

So in the beginning of the PBR biggest event in history that was unfolding rapidly in the bracket format, after 30 minutes of the three hours show, the screen goes blue and a note comes up that says your account will have to be upgraded to continue receiving this channel. In the middle of the one of the only shows that I bought the service to watch. The bill was paid up to date and there was not reason other than a manipulated effort targeted at viewers who choose the package just to watch this channel.

I was livid, angry beyond anything I could have thought of to piss me off. Talk about having you over a barrel, this was crazy. So on the phone after wadding through the robot answering system I finally get a human being on the phone and it was all I could do to not ask where he was physically and go hunt them down and let them know how a manipulated consumer feels. But seconds were ticking away and I was missing the very event that they knew I subscribed to watch. So I had no choice but to upgrade my package to see the rest of the event, right in the middle of the event. When I railed to the human at Dish about how mean this timing was the guy said it was just a random thing done by the computer.
How stupid do they think consumers are….there was nothing random about this at all, in fact it was the most strategic precise targeting I have ever seen. So despite how angry I was at this manipulation I folded and paid the extra.

Believe me I am researching any way to acquire this signal from other sources. I was happy with the Directv but them dropping a channel from my agreed package and still charging the same seemed unfair and reason enough to switch providers, and now this.

So we are either going to have adjust our appetite for this form of entertainment or find another provider. I don’t think either will be easy and the ladder probably impossible. It makes a person hate capitalism, profiteering and just generally being manipulated.

Meanwhile (Valdiron Oliverita) a Brazilian won the Iron Cowboy event and the event was a success. I just don’t think the sport will be advanced when the customers are manipulated in this fashion. We may just quit watching it altogether and go back to “free” tv, which has no more commercials than satellite tv, we just don’t have to pay to get manipulated in that setting….

So you may have missed some good bull riding, but at least you didn’t suffer the jerking around we did in the middle of the event.

~

not a HHFF post, just a mad farmer sharing the misery of choosing to be an entertainment consumer in the modern world…

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