Thursday, July 22, 2010

""I don’t know,” she said,

her bored tone suggesting that she was as untroubled by her ignorance as I was exasperated with it."


Frank Bruni on Altitude and Attitude on a summer's  day/night in NYC.



I don't know. I think Spencer & Tracy had it right in Desk Set.  They seemed to be having a most entertaining time up on the roof.  Then again, the two of them could have been at a congressional sub-committee meeting and they would have had the only scintillating conversation there.

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Thursday, July 22, 2010 0 comments

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Folks...

..such as,
Roberto Benigni
Bertrand Blier
Jim Jarmusch
John Cleese
Guy Ritchie
Nick Hornby
Gérard Depardieu
Bruce Springsteen

..who had NOT signed this petition nor this one.

Milan Kundera!  Mike Nichols! Wes Anderson!  Guillermo del Toro!  Terry Gilliam!  Jonathan Demme!   Shame on you.

Woody Allen?  Not a surprise, a signature of "empathy" (and self-deluded thinking).

A short piece here and here as commentary on Polanski's release from house-arrest and denial by the Swiss government on his extradtion back to the USA.

My opinion?  You did the crime.  You do the time.  And the crime involves an adult and a child?  No statutes of limitation on that one as far as I'm concerned.

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Wednesday, July 14, 2010 1 comments

When Words Fail

The photographer stands on a beach at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama

From The Atlantic's "Images BP Doesn't Want You to See".  Photogrpaher is Julie Dermansky.

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Wednesday, July 14, 2010 0 comments

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Just One More Recap on the World CUP, 2010 Version
 
 
 
(TOTH to The Guardian)
 
England v USA
England v Slovenia (We WUZ Robbed!!)

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Tuesday, July 13, 2010 0 comments

Thursday, July 08, 2010

It Depends How You Look At It: Slovenija Finishes..SECOND!!!

.....in the World Cup this year.  From the Guardina, this piece calculates the success of each country in this year's competition and judges that Uruguay won, Slovenija came in at second, with Paraguay in a very close third.

Go to the link and in the lower right hand side of the article,
click on View by Population >> and voila.....
Based on Slovenija's population of 2,053.269, and their (just out of 2nd place) third place finish in their group, Slovenija really was the 2nd best team in the competition.

Most dismal showing?  UHmmmmm, Nigeria and the USA.  Here in the States, person for person, we tied with Nigeria.  Even the French, with their self-immolatign performance came out higher.  UGhhhh!?!?

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Thursday, July 08, 2010 0 comments

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Today's Lesson: Don't Ever Bet Against An Octopus

Geez!!
That's SIX in a row for Paul the Octopus.
Germany lost to Spain, 1-0, just as predicted by that cephalopod mollusk.
With that intelligence, they better put an armed guard at the aquarium before Paul gets kidnapped by folks from Vegas.

So, Sunday in the World Cup Final FINAL, it'll be the Oranj v. Rioja (Netherlands v. Spain).  Nice color palate.

Saturday, for the third place position, it will be Germany v. Uruguay.  No mention yet how Paul has predicted this one.


And here I thought the only good combination between octopi and sports was Red Wing Hockey and Zamboni kill....

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Wednesday, July 07, 2010 3 comments

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Darn that Octopus

As noted in an earlier post and then updated today by Alcessa, it seems the dead-on predictor of all events Team Germany has made its fateful pick.  Paul the Octopus, correct in predicting the outcome of each of the previous results for the Mannschaft's games in this year's World Cup, has made its choice for tomorrow's game v. Spain.

I'm going against the mollusk on this choice and picking Germany 3 - 1 as victors tomorrow.  In today's Netherlands - Uruguay match, I'll be going the safe route.  Netherlands 2 - 0.

So...Sunday's final of neighbours Germany - Netherlands looks to be a treat.  I'll have to go with the taller quicker Germans as a 2 -1 World Cup champion.  They are quite a beautiful team to watch and their style this time around is quite appealing, not just efficient.

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Tuesday, July 06, 2010 0 comments

Football & Socialism

In discussing (some may call it proselytizing) the World Cup this summer, one of the specious arguments thrown up, especially when the dis-organized efforts in the first 15 minutes of each USA game is trolled up, was that World Football is too Socialist a game to ever catch on in the Land of the Brave Home of the Free. While I always agreed with the other party in the "conversation" that the USA team engaged in Chinese fire drill hysterics in the opening minutes of each game, I argued that lousy coaching and not a political theory advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production was the cause for the dismal play (Note: While I think Bob Bradley should remain as the coach of the team, I feel someone should be appointed as the Opening Quarter Hour Coach, say someone along the lines of Attila the Hun).    I knew that if the person I was arguing with or any of the folks within listening range latched onto the Socialist label, I'd never be able to persuade any of them to give the World Cup a glance or two.  My usual tact in these arguments is to steer comparisons to baseball, i.e., the low-score of games, the seemingly endless hours between Big Events, the Sargasso Sea of motion going nowhere, and the enjoyment of the whoel process.  I even braved the waters of point structure, asking my conversational buddies to divide NFL scores by 7 and see what numbers they come up with so that they can make comparison to the low-scroing 3-1 or 2-0 World Football scores.  I actually felt I was making headway.

Then, this article appears in the Guardian.  In the piece Simon Hattenstone quotes "football legend John Barnes, (as saying that) England will never win a World Cup until our footballers embrace their inner socialist. "Players from other nations when they play for their country are once again a socialist entity, all pulling in the same direction,"   Of course, there were disagreeing interpretations of what Mr. Barnes said, including "corrections" that what Mr. Barnes referred to as Socialism was really Conservatism.  I'm hoping no one at ESPN latches on to this piece (and if they do, I strongly believe no one would talk about it on air as it would be self-defeating since ESPN is so involved with this year's World Cup broadcasts.)

Reading the comments to the latter linked article is especially interesting, as one commenter, a Mr. Little Richardjohn, quotes George Orwell and here I quote both:
Orwell's definition in this essay strangely entitled 'Socialists Don't Believe in Fun':

"At the risk of saying something which the editors of Tribune may not endorse, I suggest that the real objective of Socialism is not happiness. Happiness hitherto has been a by-product, and for all we know it may always remain so. The real objective of Socialism is human brotherhood. This is widely felt to be the case, though it is not usually said, or not said loudly enough.
Men use up their lives in heart-breaking political struggles, or get themselves killed in civil wars, or tortured in the secret prisons of the Gestapo, not in order to establish some central-heated, air-conditioned, strip-lighted Paradise, but because they want a world in which human beings love one another instead of swindling and murdering one another. And they want that world as a first step. Where they go from there is not so certain, and the attempt to foresee it in detail merely confuses the issue."
All football (Soccer to USA-ers) might now consider applying socialist principles to its transfer system, like the American NFL.

I emphasized the latter, as I found it curious to read someone outside the USA comment on what we here in the States view as a pure example of Big Business (and possibly Monopoly gone wild).  The NFL, an example of an organization run on Socialist principles?  Ouch, time to call in the commish on this!

Labels:


// posted by DarkoV @ Tuesday, July 06, 2010 0 comments

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Click for Wilmington, Delaware Forecast Locations of visitors to this page eXTReMe Tracker
Loading
follow me on Twitter