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Friday, August 9, 2002
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And You Thought Faust Was a Fairy Tale?
Eric points out an opinion piece by Joe Eszterhas in the New York Times, wherein he calls on movie makers to stop portraying cigarette smoking as glamorous. It's a startling piece. I never thought much of Eszterhas morally or aesthetically, but it's inspiring to see someone renounce and take responsibility for their mistakes, whatever the motivation. As someone who has lost several loved ones (and may yet lose several more) to tobacco, I wish him all the luck in the world in his effort.
6:14:26 PM 
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Where Did All of These People Come From?
My wife and I went with Eric and Lisa to the Real Madrid - A. S. Roma football game at Giants Stadium last night. Getting there turned into something out of Orlando Furioso. There was an aborted attempt to take a bus, a difficult search for a cab, and a drive in heavy traffic out of New York and right up to the stadium--all of which culminated in my embarrassing myself by snapping at my wife for no good reason (and I had just been bragging about how well the medication was working). But the game started almost twenty-five minutes late, so we were in our seats just before kick-off.
After two years of watching MetroStars games (and the occasional international friendly), this was by far the best football that I have ever seen in person. Zinedine Zidane handles the ball as if he were the only one allowed to use his hands--I had never been able to see that on television. Roberto Carlos was also very impressive, at one point dribbling the ball in the air with one foot for twenty yards through the center of the Roma defense. And Iker Casillas is one of the great young goalkeepers. Gabriel Batistuta and Luis Figo were less impressive, as they were last season and during the World Cup.
As I said, I've been to several MetroStars games and the occasional international friendly at Giants Stadium. The MetroStars generally draw 10,000 to 25,000 people, and the friendlies may draw as many as 40,000. One of the friendlies that Eric and I went to that had drawn a crowd that large was between the national teams of two Latin American countries (I honestly don't remember which ones). We seemed to be the only two people there who spoke English as a first language. A man on the bus expressed amazement at our being there, asking if we were "100% American." For the life of me, I had no idea how to answer that question in that context. It was like wandering into an alternate world that I hadn't known was there, just around the next corner. Being among 70,000 people in Giants Stadium watching a football game was like that, only more so. But it was real football in front of a real crowd, and you can't beat that.
5:46:07 PM
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Parody as Critical Review?
Although I find Stephen Wolfram's New Kind of Science fascinating, I'll be the first to admit that his writing is often egregiously self-important. I find it an occasional annoyance, but others have, understandably, found it to be more of a problem. One such reader has decided to respond with a "New Kind of Review," which begins:
Why you are reading this review
I can only imagine how fortunate you must feel to be reading my review. This review is the product of my lifetime of experience in meeting important people and thinking deep thoughts. This is a new kind of review, and will no doubt influence the way you think about the world around you and the way you think of yourself...
It's a remarkably accurate parody.
8:22:55 AM
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Why Doesn't She Like Me?
It's kind of comforting to know that every year there are new songs that tell the same story of somehow sweet and innocent yet ultimately unrequited teenage lust--songs that in three minutes say more than a whole overwrought John Hughes movie, and say it more pithily than Proust. Last year, there was Wheatus's "Teenage Dirtbag". And this year, there's Bowling for Soup with "Girl All the Bad Guys Want," which brilliantly describes the object of the song's obsession thusly: "Her CD changer is full of singers who are mad at their dad."
8:20:13 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Morgan N. Sandquist.
Last update: 11/2/03; 10:25:32 AM.
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