The Azzuri. The defending FIFA World Cup champions. The team Lino supports above all others. They're not doing too well in this year's World Cup, having played to 1-1 draws against both Paraguay and New Zealand. In a totally expected development, Lino had a two minute-long pity party about the Azzuri's sad state of affairs during yesterday's World Cup Update on TCGS. What we didn't expect were the comments our man Gus Lloyd made about the Italians on yesterday's Seize The Day... and let's just say that he wasn't holding anything back. Which is exactly why we're proud to showcase his comments on this site:
There is one good thing the Italian team can take out of all of this... they're not the French team.
Yep, we're still here. And there was much groaning out in Lino Land.
We know you've got questions, so here are some sorry attempts at answers…
Q: Your last posting was on May 6th. Your last posting that required any semblance of thought was way back on April 22nd. Where the hell have you guys been?
A: This is where we've been the past 10 days: St. Simon's Island, one of the barrier islands along the Georgia coast. Great places to eat, sandy beaches, laid-back atmosphere, and not a glob of crude oil in sight. The Lino Watch crew needed some time off… pontificating about Lino week after week is a tough job. So we bummed a condo off a friend-of-a-friend of ours over Memorial Day week, and away we went, lock-in or no lock-in.
Q: Okay, that explains where you were the past couple of weeks. What about before that, you jerks?
A: Whoa... take it easy, Sparky! Here's the deal: us Lino Watchers are family-oriented people. Which means kids. Which in the month of May meant a bunch of end-of-school activities that gave parents of said kids no free time to do anything as meaningful as blogging about Lino. Also, kids tend to attract illness like a rib roast attracts flies, which meant more time sticking thermometers in places last month and less time listening to TCGS. And to top it all off, said kids had birthdays in May. You can see where we're going with this.
Q: Okay, so now you're back. While you've been gone Lino's regaled us with stories about Peru, the show's gotten a new intern, they prank-called Greg Willits at 2:45 in the morning during the lock-in show, the folks at CatholicGuyShow.com have been busy giving us inside stuff that you guys could never possibly give us, and Lino's been promoting the bejeezus out of them. Why don't you just give it up?
A: Geez, you'd think Lino was asking these questions. Look, we know that Lino Watch hasn't exactly kept up with the evolution of TCGS over the past few months. In all honesty, we recognized back in December that we couldn't keep Lino Watch in the same format for much longer, or else it would slide into irrelevancy. Unfortunately that's exactly what's happened. We've created and recreated plans to take Lino Watch in different directions, and you may have seen us allude to coming changes several times on the site this year. And each time we tried to pull those changes off… well, life got in the way. That's about the best explanation we can give.
We still have big plans for the site, and we still feel that we can be a relevant source for things related to Lino and TCGS. Our friends at CatholicGuyShow.com have a big advantage in that department right now, what with Lino and the crew promoting them and giving them access to lots of good stuff (and it's really good stuff, too). But as we said on our first day online, we're here to complement other fan sites and not to compete with them. So while there'll be some content overlap between our sites, what you'll find on this site in the (hopefully) near future will be unique enough to warrant a visit now and again.
Q: We've heard this "big plan" schtick before. What's your plan this time?
A: Now that the frantic month of May is behind us, we can start concentrating on Lino Watch a bit more. July is looking like a very good target right now. Lino will be conducting his pilgrimage to Italy with the listeners from July 9-18, followed by a week of shows from Vatican Radio the week of July 19th, resulting in 2+ weeks of best-of's and pre-recorded shows... the perfect opportunity to get our collective act together. So our goal now is to roll out the new-and-improved site sometime between Friday, July 9th and Monday, July 26th… Lino's first stateside broadcast after his return from Italy. That gives us 4-7 weeks to figure this whole thing out.
Q: What about the site in the meantime?
A: It'll probably be pretty lean between now and mid-July. We'll post a bit more just to make sure people know that the site isn't dead, but unless something interesting comes up in Lino Land, we'll be laying a bit low for a while.
The Azzuri. The defending World Cup Champs. Lino's pride and joy.
