Bulletin Board of Bad Behavior

the city has changed its color: 50 thousand dutch fans are here, and they are everywhere

Well I read an article in the Stranger about how the author tried and tried to get her friends to go down to the George & Dragon pub early in the AM for World Cup viewing and they all thought she was crazy. Finally she got her brother to go with her and when they got there the place was so full there were folks sitting out on the pavement drinking beers!

So I think I am going to go to the pub to catch the England game this Sunday morning. But this begs the question: should I attempt to remain sober Saturday night?

so, did you stay sober, mark?

i've got another question -- this one is for the people who've been to european football matches.

i'm part of a multicultural web ring thing. it was part of a class that i took on multicultural lit . . . etc. but there is a discussion about this incident in the uk where a mom is taking action against a school because her son, who is black, was asked to play a monkey in a play. so lots of interesting discussion has come up about this.

my question though. somebody said this:

"European, especially Italian, soccer fans are notorious at taunting black soccer players in the European soccer league. They (fans) do their monkey dance and jeer everytime a black player from the opposing team has the ball."

gross! assholes.

is this true? martino, have you seen any of this kind of stuff?

No, not entirely sober, but I didn't drink much. My main problem was I had a lot of trouble getting myself to go to bed at a reasonable time. So I am like not very awake right now. I am going to try to catch the bus now.

Not a very satisfying match, I must say, despite our win. England definitely could have played better, but to be fair I think Ecaudor gave it a pretty good fight. My enjoyment was also decreased by the fact that a man with an English accent was obviously already completely pissed by the time I arrived and was making a real arse of himself most of the time. His wife was trying to encourage him to tone it down. He was just being annoying. One of the things he said was "let Ecaudor get back to what they're good at - like drug dealing!" Uh...whatever. The weird thing was he was like the only one in the whole bar that was being annoying and there were plenty of people in there.

Now it's Portugal vs Netherlands in an hour and a half...so the annoying guy is coming back there for that match. I am probably going to go back down there for it too, just because I really feel like I got short shrift, this was not an outstanding game. I'm happy for Beckham though - I think they said he was the only English player to score a goal in two world cups?? Jesus! As for the Rooney guy I think he has a lot to learn.

I am going to bring my portable CD player this time though because I am trying to get some music listening into this day as much as I can. I really like the new Scritti Politti album, enough to buy it even and since it's an import it won't be cheap.

Those Dutch fans were sure dressed funny.

(hey mark, totally off the subject, but since you're listening to music today if you need to read it too, in between soccer matches or beers, my mom recommended a website for you. it's called parole.net. it's not former prison music as one might think. it's french lyrics. she said a lot of times you'll find the english version there, so fyi. have fun with the futbol. and earphones or whatever boys do on sundays. i'm planting freesia when this rain storm passes.)

Wow, what a day. Have you ever been in a situation where you felt like it was meant to be?

You see I decided to take the latest Durutti Column CD with me down to the pub instead of Scritti Politti. I didn't see yet how this was a rather coincidental choice.

Many years ago (1983), Anthony Wilson of Factory Records had suffered a bad business deal with some Portugese folks when he arranged to have them release a record by Vini Reilly (Durutti Column) entitled "Amigos em Portugal". The bastards totally fucked Tony over, and this LP remained very hard to find for many years, despite the fact that it is one of my favourite Durutti releases. Well, the way Portugal played today did nothing to improve this reputation for being down and dirty. I witnessed during the second half a very clear indication of it. The Portugese player was right behind the Holland guy and all of a sudden he grips his face in mock pain as though he had been struck by the other player when in fact, the guy hadn't even touched him. This caused a foul. There were numerous other instances of this kind of nastiness, although to be fair it seemed to me the Netherlands had every chance to score their goal and failed to do so. At the end of this brutal game, a man next to me said "I'm glad to see the end of that ugliness" and that summed it up. Definitely a more exciting game than the last, but like I said, brutal. Also the annoying guy didn't come back to the bar, so that helped.

So it's only as I'm leaving the place and putting on my CD again that I realize the irony that I'm listening to Durutti Column and the connection with Portugal. I shed a few tears at the beauty of the music. Morrissey would be proud to be this good. (it's called "Keep Breathing" by the way, released just this year)

Then an even more interesting thing occurs in this gorgeous sunshine we are having in Seattle. Two men in wheelchairs come up to the bus stop, obviously severely disabled, likely with cerebral palsy. They are both slim, but one is a good deal older than the other. Anyway, they start kissing. Yes, kissing full on the mouth, these two men in wheelchairs. I wish everyone in the world could have seen it I mean...how can you not be moved by such a sight? Well the gay pride parade is happening in downtown Seattle today but I was nowhere near downtown and neither man appeared to have either come from there or was going there. So go figure.

Then, to top it all off, I get to the end of this Durutti Column CD and the last song is in fact, a remake of my favourite song on Amigos Em Portugal - can you believe it?
I really felt like I was in the Twighlight Zone about then.

I'll just say this: are England ready for the brutality of Portugal? I mean...I just don't think they are. Yuck. To be continued...

Also I have seen two women in wheelchairs kissing before in a photo - it's the one that appears on the cover of the first album by Suede, if anyone remembers that, though the wheelchairs are not visible because they cut them out of the photo and did a zoom of it.

Also a lot of the time I watching the games, I kept hearing the rap part of New Order's football song (World Cup Theme) "World In Motion", which I shall now recite from memory and sounds much better with techno beats behind it:

"Catch me if you can/
cause I'm the England man/
something something...football star/
etc...
They always hit you and hurt you/
defend and attack/
there's only one way to beat them/
get around the back..
We're playing for ENGLAND!
We're playing the SONG!
We're singing for ENGLAND!
ARRiVA DERCI IT'S ONE ON ONE!
WE're PLaYING FOR ENGLAND
*shout shout shout" (whatever they shout here
I would like to know what they're saying)

etc....

still one of my all time fave New Order songs and
which must be played right now.

I've just realized I've made the error of buying a bottle of wine that has no cork. That's probably a really bad thing isn't it? Oh my god, I shouldn't drink this.

racist idiocies have happened too often. recently and in particular for this world cup, fifa (the organizer) banned racism; a team whos supporters chant racist slogans must be prepared to get serious fines or even a banishment. which however did not prevent the ukranian coach from saying some particularly evil things a week ago. i hope that will have consequences.

what is he saying?

mark makes me laugh -- outloud. all attempts to stay on the topic are now out the window (i think)

mark i gave you the wrong website. the correct one is paroles.net -- whoops

"I've just realized I've made the error of buying a bottle of wine that has no cork. That's probably a really bad thing isn't it? Oh my god, I shouldn't drink this."

that's not always a bad thing. one night i came home to find my neighbor sitting on her couch with a knife and a bottle of wine, i was like, no god no don't do it!

but she had already. there were peices of cork floating in the bottle, and she's like, fuck it, i'm in!

sometimes the screw top is worth it, i think it would depend on why you're drinking the wine.

martino, i'd never heard of such a thing, but i don't follow sports very well, usually i say something incredibly stupid about them that makes it obvious i have no idea what i'm talking about, BUT racist chanting! jeezus, that crap is like asking for a world wide brawl.

Sorry to mystify you Martino, please read between the lines if that helps matters.

The wine looks appealing because it is pink wine therefore refridgerated and you see it is rather warm here today. End of story.

Can we all enjoy the World Cup in peace? Thanks.