Old Futbol Buffet--Rivalry Saturday

Saturday was a ridiculously busy day for me. I woke up early and met some teammates on my 30+ team for a little pre-season workout. Then it was home for a quick shower before taking my son to a Cub Scout activity. AFter that I dropped him off at his friend's house so I could head to the bar to watch the FA Cup semi between United and City.

Not too much to the game. Take away Berba's back to back chances, the first half was pretty stale. City were very muted and United could not take advantage. The second half had more incident, but not too exciting, and these moments favored City. Carrick undid his great performances against Chelsea in the Champions League with a turnover that led to Yaya's goal. The back and forth between the teams was suddenly interrupted by Scholes' ridiculous challenge on Zabaletya. Never the greatest tackler, his loss of a half a step created a red card circumstance. United bravely tried to rally but never found the equalizer. So City finally have a chance for silverware. God help them if they blow it Arsenal style against Stoke. The game wasn't that great. Pretty boring to be honest. Just showed that United missed Rooney more than City missed Tevez.

Then it was back home to clean for my poker party before going back to the bar for el clasico. No one could expect another 5-0 thrashing and that was far from the outcome. Real Madrid were much more organized, putting more pressure on the FCB players and fouling them at every opportunity. The addition of Pepe to the center of midfield was a major tactical shift, as he harried any Barca player who entered the space between the circles. I'm a little surprised Mou used it in this match. I would have thought he would have saved it and maybe used that wrinkle to steal the Cup or the Champions League semi.

Messi's PK was not the defining moment I had hoped for as Casillas almost got there. Then CR7 finally got on the el clasico scoresheet from a PK, the result of Alves getting caught out. So Real's title chances are officially dashed as the Copa del Rey looms tomorrow. My guess is that Real will somehow win. It will give them a piece of silverward and set everything up for the epic Champions League semi.

Rarely do rivalry games live up to the hype. Saturday was no exception. But my poker party went well and I cleaned up. I guess drinking all day and not caring is my new strategy.

Strip Club—ROB Edition

See here for definition: http://www.tuscl.net/b.php?AID=67

Usually I take this space to reflect on jerseys that I like and the personal history behind them. But in going back through some old notes and blog posts, I found a couple of jerseys that are absolutely hideous.

WARNING:

Be careful. I don’t want you to go blind from the ugliness. Here we go . . .

Racing hit a hat trick for this season.

My guess is that the designer hit a wall, purged any ideas, good and bad, as a way of cleansing the palate for the future. Start with the home kit, which is the least offensive. What is with the swirls and that ridiculous collar? Then the away kit is marred by the talon like intrusions of differing colors. Finally the third kit is just plain ugly. White with tan? Not regal, not dynamic, not anything. Just ugly.

www.footballfashion.org has a comprehensive review:

http://footballfashion.wordpress.com/2010/07/27/racing-de-santander-slam-201011-kit-collection/

Then there’s Getafe kit from last season.

The club’s shirt sponsor is Burger King, and while the kit is not necessarily ugly, it is a bit disturbing. On the underside of the kit is a screened image of the King of all Burgers, which a player can raise over his face to celebrate a goal. To be fair, it’s kinda innovative, getting big time logo recognition when the camera gets tight to celebrate a goal. But seeing the eerie grin of the Burger King is slightly surreal.

Finally, Athletic Bilbao really set the bar for horrendousness in 2004. I came across this beauty thanks to the interweb, and I physically got ill when I saw it.

Think about all the people who had to say yes to get this jersey produced and any belief you have in humanity will be extinguished. Truly horrific. Imagine being a player and having to put this monstrosity on. Has to be top 5 all time of worst kits.

Whoateallthepies.tv sums it up pretty well:

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/kits/43948/shit-football-kits-athletic-bilbao-2004.html

If you need to cleanse your palate, visit the Shirt Tournament of Champions from avoidingthedrop.com. I submitted the Barcelona jersey, which fell at the first hurdle, and the best jersey clearly did not win, but it was a fun process nonetheless.

http://avoidingthedrop.com/2011/03/29/the-greatest-shirt-of-all-time-euro-2008-holland-home/

In Your Ear-4.6.11

Yuck

So driving around town listening to NCAA basketball games, I switched to the Impact during commercial breaks. I usually never listen to the radio, but accidents happen. The song playing grabbed me so I stayed to the end to find out who it was. The track was The Wall by Yuck. Seriously, that’s the name of the band. A name like that takes some stones. Sort of like Shitty Beatles.

So I took a listen to their self-titled album on Grooveshark. Not too bad. Besides The Wall, the track Operation was pretty good. The band’s sound seems to recapture the alternative sound of 90’s. Think Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth.

I’ll probably give them a try.

Phoenix

During my early Pandora listening days, I fell in love with a track called Napoleon Says by Phoenix. There was another track that popped up but wasn’t nearly as good.

During the drive up to the church retreat, Ryan and I were talking about music that we were listening to and he mentioned Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I told him I hadn’t heard of them but had heard of Phoenix. When I got into the office the following Monday, I did a quick search. Turns out that was the album name so I checked it out of the library.

It was a decent album, especially good for having on the background while doing work. Really liked the track 1901. There is also an instrumental track—Love Like a Sunset Part I—which is great. Another song to check out is Lasso.

I think there is one more album that I haven’t heard, so I’m going to give that a listen.

Recent tracks on I’ve stumbled onto:

• A friend from high school and college replied to my last music post and suggested some songs which I checked out on Grooveshark.

• The Lonely Forest "Turn off this Song"
• Hypnotic guitar sucks you in and then track kicks off.
• The Joy Formidable "Whirring"
• Energetic song that drives along. Heard a little Arcade Fire vibe which is fine.

• Amanda at work suggested several bands to check, one of which was The xx.
• Intro
• Instrumental track that totally chills you out.
• Stars
• Dreamy track that would fit right into an indie movie.

In Your Ear-Ripped Book Review

Finished Ripped, which is a fascinating recap of the move of music from CD’s to mp3’s, from corporate control to artist control, from commercial radio determining the songs heard and the frequency played to individuals creating their own playlists and playing whatever, whenever. Hard to believe that 15 years ago, everything was SoundScan charts and programmed radio and TRL and marketing campaigns. Now almost every artist has a myspace page; tracks are swapped from fan to fan; and some big artists are choosing to release everything on their website.

In high school and college I followed several bands and was exposed to new music via the radio—89X out of Windsor, 92.1 The Edge out of Lansing, and Impact 89 FM at Michigan State. I would hear a new song, fall in love with it and either tape it off the radio (so 20^th century) or search out the CD at local music stores. Inevitably, I would love the one song and hate the rest of the album. So my CD collection would grow and grow, but there would tons of dead space and wasted money.

Think of the last album that was great from start to finish. For me, Definitely Maybe from Oasis, The Bends from Radiohead and Baby 81 from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club spring to mind. There are no tracks that you skip. Every song is great and builds to create an amazing 45 to 60 minutes of music. Most albums are a waste, filled with throwaway tracks because the artist has to meet a commitment of x amount of albums in x amount of years. It takes years to build a best of album because, out of 5 records, there might only be 6 or 7 decent tracks. I love Oasis but Standing on the Shoulder of Giants, Heathen Chemistry, and Don’t Believe the Truth have a lot of filler. They could have made an album approaching Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory had they been patient and really selected the choice songs. Of course, people have to eat and some tracks considered core songs I wouldn’t give a second listen to.

Now I find music through podcasts, Pandora and personal recommendations. I still hear a new song, fall in love with it and but find it either on limewire or from CD’s I check out of the library. I have several playlists on my iTunes that are simply labeled singles. Do I know any other song from Phoenix besides Napoleon Says or from The Wrens other than This Boy is Exhausted? No. The only bands that I have been exposed to that I have chased down more than a single track are Deerhunter, Thievery Corporation, Arcade Fire, Brian Jonestown Massacre and Stereophonics.

My core bands are Sloan, U2, Oasis, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Tragically Hip, Moby, and the Dandy Warhols. Years ago I would search for news and concert info about the bands. These days I don’t even pay attention. Oasis breaking up. That’s too bad. Bono brining attention to some new cause. Fine. I don’t need to go to concerts. I would much rather buy the live DVD and watch that. Sloan has got a new album coming out but I’m not counting down the days. Does that mean I like them any less? Maybe. But I’ll always give these bands a chance before all others.

The book makes several arguments for and against downloading music illegally. Have to admit that I have done so. In fact, I think the last CD I bought with my own money was Sloan’s Parallel Play sometime in 2008. I have not resolved the issue about paying or illegally downloading or ripping CD’s. I want to support artists and their product but I don’t want to pay for it. I really should use iTunes, especially for all the single tracks from the myriad bands that I come across. But I don’t. I have gotten better about using the library instead of limewire, but that only solves part of the problem. The artist is not seeing one dime from me. And since I really don’t buy merch or go to shows, I’m not financially supporting them at all. The only real support I give them is word of mouth. If I find a band or song I like I will not stop talking about it. Seems like that only goes so far.

Read the book. It’s a quick read that provides a great trip down memory lane and does provoke some thoughts about the future of music.