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Weblog:
May/June 2002
02.06.18:
A Rebuttal on the DaMarcus Beasley Issue
Upon reading my thoughts on the future of the US soccer team,
Paul Barrow, who I worked with when I lived in Boston, had
some snooty things to say. What are you gonna do? Whatever
else may be said of him, Paul is British.
So
Paul said:
You
play down the wildfire threat, but there's clearly something
bothering you, gnawing away at the underpinnings of your
rational mind, dangerously loosening your connection to
the real world. How else to explain your hallucination that
DaMarcus Beasley represents the bright future of US soccer?
I've
seen corner flags with more football sense than this kid.
Get ball, run at top speed into nearest defender, fall down,
repeat as necessary. I recollect only ever seeing one professional
with less aptitude than Run DMB, the breathtakingly inept
Darren Sawatsky of the first-season Revolution. We once
watched in disbelief as Sawatsky, earnestly mindful of his
coach's previous week tirade after the Revs conceded a late-stages
equalizer, veered away from a one-on-one with the keeper
to head for the corner flag with about fifteen minutes left.
Maybe
Beasley will prove me wrong with a hat trick against Germany,
but...
On
the bright side, looks like Agoos is out for the duration.
One of the English papers described him as "the poor man's
Laurent Blanc" and the US fans in Korea took to singing,
"He's scored more goals than France..."
To
which I reply:
We'll
see about Beasley. He's just 20, and for now sheer athletic
ability is compensating for soccer smarts.
But
when you say "run at top speed" in reference to him, you have
to understand his ability to make opposing players feel like
Wile E. Coyote trying to keep the ball away from the Road
Runner. He's so damned fast he can mark half the field.
I
didn't hear you yapping about Donovan, though. Think Chelsea
would like to have him? I think so, too. They better move
fast, though, because the rumor I'm hearing is that Man U
is sniffing around.
02.06.16:
The Colorado Wildfires An Open Letter to Our Damned Governor
My fiancιe, Angela, was talking about our genius governor
earlier today, and she made a really good point about his
widely reported comments on the current wildfires. Let me
elaborate on her thoughts in my own brief open letter to the
Honorable Bill Owens.
Dear Governor Owens,
On behalf of all the citizens of Colorado, I'd just like to
say thanks for your half-witted comments a few days ago that
"[a]ll of Colorado is burning today."
Let's face it, Bill despite September 11, despite
an idiotic airport security policy that seems designed to
harass the innocent traveler, despite a faltering economy
that has people around the country trimming their vacation
budgets already, some folks out there still need a
reason not to bring their tourism dollars to Colorado this
summer.
Congratulations on needlessly taking money out of Coloradans'
pockets, Bill. Or maybe I'm overreacting I mean, hey, tourism
isn't that important to the state. It's only a $7 billion
industry that accounts for 8% of our jobs and 8% of our total
economy, right?
The fact is that the entire state isn't on fire. Is
it a real problem that you need to be treating seriously?
Sure, no doubt about it. But there's a line that needs walking
here, and you might want to ask one of your PR-minded advisors
to help you find it.
It's hard to imagine a summer vacationer who couldn't find
something wonderful to do in Colorado over the next few months.
Of course, we would ask you not to start illegal fires on
high-risk days. (But then again, given the breaking news on
Channel 4, tourists probably aren't nearly the threat to our
forests that one Forest Service worker was....)
Ahem. Back to the point. Governor Owens, you're supposed to
be working in our best interests. If there were a legitimate
reason to warn people away, that would be one thing (and in
this vein, I strongly encourage visitors to our state to avoid
the wildfire areas). But that isn't the case, and your self-important
drive to be as dramatic as possible caused your mouth to thoughtlessly
write some checks that hardworking people in the already-besieged
tourism industry will now have to cash.
Thanks, thanks a lot. You better be careful, because if you
keep this up you might wind up as President.
Sincerely,
A man who feels very much vindicated in his decision not to
vote for you
02.06.15:
US Backs Into Second Round
There
were a lot of scenarios under which the US soccer team could
advance to the second round of the 2002 World Cup. Beating
Poland, tying Poland, either worked. Even if they lost there
were a few possibilities. If Portugal were to beat South Korea
by a couple more goals than Poland beat us, I think that did
it, and you had to like Portugal's chances, even against a
Korean side playing at home.
But what actually happened was pretty much the last thing
I expected Poland beats the US like a government mule (this
part actually didn't surprise me so much) and Korea beats
Portugal (which I didn't think they had a chance of doing),
barely, after the idiot Portugese manage to get two players
sent off. And even then, playing two men down, I have no idea
how Portugal didn't manage a tie in the closing minutes. They
had one beautiful play where the striker somehow just missed
the ball, and another great shot that hit the inside of the
post before bouncing away. Meanwhile, Korean counterattacks
generated three breakaways and they couldn't score
on any of them.
Frankly, I'm not sure the Koreans were trying their hardest
there at the end.
In any event, a few thoughts as the US now advances to face
Mexico, which should be a brutal game between two teams that
don't much like each other.
1. We might have to score 10 goals to beat the Mexicans
because our defense is a sieve (I can't imagine how bad we'd
be without God of Goaltending Brad Friedel back there he's
erased at least four or five certain goals, includig two penalty
kicks, in three games). Jeff Agoos has been a great player
for the US for several years now, but there hasn't been anybody
on the field he could mark this tournament (and Mexico will
be starting a whole stable of players he can't mark). Then
he gets a muscle pull, and I'm thinking that can't help a
guy who's slow to start with. Worse, Frankie Hejduk, who's
played well at an outside back, got his second yellow and
will be suspended for the Mexico game.
2. Claudio Reyna might be America's best player, but
he hasn't shown much in the last two games. He doesn't always
look like he meshes stylistically with the rest of the team,
although I'll trust coach Bruce Arena to know more about this
than I do. He's sort of a ball-control type, but he needs
to do a better job pushing the ball to the team's speed (we
may not be the best team in the world, but the US can damned
sure put one of the fastest groups out there). It's worth
noting that the one decent game we played the 3-2 win over
Portugal Reyna didn't play due to injury. I love Claudio
and wish him well, but if I'm Arena, I might sit him for Mexico.
3. By the way, what the hell was that Chinese ref thinking
in disallowing Landon Donovan's early goal? It was a clean
50-50 ball, shoulder to shoulder. I probably reffed over 1000
games in the 80s and 90s, and was known for calling a tight
game, but I'd have never looked twice at that one. I knew
we were in a trouble a minute earlier when, on our first corner
kick, a Polish defender clamped a headlock on one of our attackers
(he had the American so covered up I'm not even sure who it
was) and the ref calls us for a foul. I'm not going to engage
in too much what-iffing, but I guarantee you Poland wouldn't
have run down the field and scored moments later had that
goal not been taken away.
4. I'm already thinking ahead to World Cup 2010, which
stands a decent chance of being played in the US, I hear.
Most of the guys playing for us now will be gone in eight
years, but speed-burners DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan
will only be 28 or so, right in their physical prime, and
that has to just scare the pants off anybody whose job it
will be to mark them. Add the home-field advantage in to what
will hopefully be a solid team, and it might be our best chance
to advance deep into the tournament in years.
First things first, though Mexico is very beatable if we
play well, which we better, because we've now reached the
point you don't back into anything.
02.06.12:
Great New CDs on the Way
Verily, my cup runneth over. We've been promised an amazing
run of new CD releases for the second half of the year, and
if the bands that have produced "Best of" caliber work in
the past few years deliver anything like their past work,
the job of selecting a Best of 2k2 is going to a challenge.
For
instance, David Bowie's newest is on the way, and the buzz
surrounding it makes me think we're in for something special
(while I admire that Bowie is always pushing himself to grow
and innovate, I can't say I've thought much of the final results
of his recent techo noodling). Peter Gabriel has a new one
due, although I don't have the date in front of me.
And
these are just a couple of the big national names. I'm actually
more excited about new CDs from Space Team Electra, Jeff Foster
(formerly of The Pinetops), Leisure McCorkle, Fiction 8, Fluffy
Starr and Silverman, bands most folks don't know much about,
thanks to the goddamned wasteland that the music industry
has become.
If
I were king of the world, my first act would be to round up
everybody associated with Clear Channel Communications, strap
them down into really uncomfortable chairs, and make them
listen to their own godforsaken soulless prefabricated product
nonstop for months.
Oh,
wait. I guess this would be the second thing I'd do.
First I'd have to repeal the 8th Amendment...
Anyway,
back to the point. If you like music but have given up on
radio, stay tuned to the Lullaby Pit in the coming months,
and I'll make sure to keep you posted on what's new and worthy.
02.05.06:
If Adam Marsland Comes to Your Town
...don't
play "Stump the Band" with him for money, whatever you do.
Adam
Marsland, the lead singer for LA-based Cockeyed Ghost, played
Mead Street Station, a cool little bar in Denver's Highlands
neighborhood, Thursday evening. In addition to doing several
cuts from the new Ludlow 6:18 CD and treating us to
killer covers from The Beach Boys ("Surfer Girl"), BJ Thomas
("Hey Won't You Play Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong
Song"), and Elton John ("Better Off Dead" and "Take Me to
the Pilot," both of which were just awesome), he also devoted
an hour to taking requests from the crowd. He nailed 20 of
22 (he failed to deliver on the Staind request, and much to
his credit he didn't know Ween's incomprehensibly stupid "Push
Th' Little Daisies"), although the scoring was perhaps a bit
generous on Tom Petty's "Free Falling."
The
highlight of my musical year so far, though, was when he ripped
off a disturbingly accurate rendition of The Divinyls' "I
Touch Myself." I figured I had him stumped for sure with that
one....
Yes,
if Adam comes to your town, go see him. He puts on a very
entertaining show. And while you're there, nab yourself a
copy of Ludlow 6:18, especially if you like rock &
roll that echoes 70s-era Elton John and Todd Rundgren.
Visit
the Cockeyed Ghost Web site...
02.05.02:
NBA Owners are Stupid and Gutless
This just in from ESPN.com: Relocation
Committee approves Hornets' move.
Things
to remember:
- The
city of Charlotte wants the team, as long as they don't
have to take the owners along with it, and are willing to
build a state-of-the-art arena to keep them in Charlotte.
- New
Orleans is a less desirable city (from a sports ownership
perspective) in every conceivable way, including the value
of the TV market.
- Some
of the owners themselves point to Bugs' owners George Shinn
and Ray Wooldridge (collectively known as "Shinnridge")
as being the model of what you don't want an owner
to be.
- The
league has the power to force the owners to divest the team.
But
when push comes to shove, what do the gutless zillionaires
do? They fold. Yet another reason not care about the NBA....
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