August 28, 2007 by wilmington.

In the matter of Mr. Beckham…

PRO: The guy has played well, he’s showed as much heart as at any time in his career, and he’s clearly chosen to lead and has been accepted by his teammates as the leader! Witness the fight he showed when getting right up in the face of players who commit nasty fouls on him…and the way his teammates sprint to his aid and back him up. The L.A. Galaxy have a chance to win a tournament championship the SuperLiga Championship[vs. Pachuca, Wednesday night, 11pm EST, on TeleFutura] because of his play last week.
CON: The L.A. Galaxy are a bad team. Several good players, good guys, but it’s a bad team that plays badly and has bad, if not cursed, luck. See the usual soccer sites for a list of reasons (scheduling, playing Beckham injured, not sticking to a clear plan). Though it is highly, let’s put that in caps and bold it - HIGHLY unlikely that they can beat Pachuca…but if they do, I wonder if a championship in such a disastrous year will pull focus from the fact that just about everything else went wrong.

One hope - they did what every serious team in the world (whether England, Spain, Italy, etc) does when they recognize the chance to win something: they wrote off part of their season and focused on winning something, anything. The Galaxy played a reserve squad against Colorado and rested Donovan, Pavon, Beckham and others. It was a blatant sign that they’ve written off the MLS season and playoffs…and probably the only good decision they’ve made in months.

U.S. Under-17 World Cup team:
The coach made tough changes, the guys battled hard…beat Belgium and made it to the Quarterfinals of the World Cup. They play GERMANY at 6:45am EST on ESPNU.

Stuff to make your brain feel good:
Politics, Religion and Theology, Philosophy, Culture: www.firstthings.com

Posted in 2007 Archive | No Comments »

August 14, 2007 by wilmington.

OK - some self-study assignments for the interested and marginally motivated…

Major League Soccer (our top American professional league, for those of you who know only of the sports world presented by ESPN) is in the middle of its most interesting,and often exciting, year yet. All the Beckham drama has generated interest, media coverage, larger crowds and viewership, and merchandise sales - -  so people have no excuse NOT to be aware of the truly soccer-specific good things going on in MLS.

The Houston Dynamo, New England Revolution, and D.C. United (and a few others) play consistently exciting and often excellent soccer. With as much objectivity as I can muster as a Dynamo fan, I have to say that Houston has shown genuinely top class soccer for large stretches of its season. The SuperLiga game tonight (semi-finals in this new mini-tournament between top MLS and Mexican clubs) between Houston and Pachuca is the third time these in-form teams will meet within the last 6 months. It’s likely to be the best game played in this hemisphere this week. See it on Telemundo tonight at 9pm (central) and tell me what you think.

Finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this past weekend. It completes Rowling’s growth as a writer (or this stage, at least), and, though I won’t say yet that it’s my favorite or that it’s the best of the series - Goblet of Fire still has my vote for now - I will say that it is both satisfying and surprising. I think that’s rare for a series like this. If you haven’t already, see my previous note below for links to reviews and essays about the latest film and last 2 books (particularly the one by Thomas Hibbs).

Still letting the end of the Patrick O’Brian series sink in - but quite sure that I will never allow myself to finish two big series within a few weeks of each other. The surprising losses in the last 3 O’Brian books, reading the final book, plus finishing Harry Potter (and a graduate French class)….I’m pretty drained. Not quite verklempt, mind you, but talk amongst yourselves for a moment on a topic of your choosing.

Though it includes a “spoiler” about an important character (without mentioning the book in which the event happens), I’ll link here to an appreciation of “O’Brian by David Mamet (famous playwright, director, acting theorist, founding person in the Atlantic Theatre Company and its subsequent “movement”). http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/011700mamet-writing.html

Finally - no time for details, but I’m sending you to the Over the Rhine website to acquaint yourself with their music, writing, and attitude. You can listen to a decent bit of their stuff online, but I’m assigning a full album. Take a look and a listen at www.overtherhine.com    I haven’t been able to get the last 2 albums, but the newest seems to be something very special. I’ll suggest “Ohio,” and “Films For Radio” for a quick sense of the scope of their music and excellent writing. Often poetic and theologically interesting, great voice, great musicians, often moving.

To close with a prediction: Dynamo 2 - Pachuca 1.

Posted in 2007 Archive | No Comments »

August 8, 2007 by wilmington.

Six whirlwind weeks of wordy French later, I’m in a brief break before fall classes begin.

Finished the O’Brian series (see below) but will wait to comment on that. Have also managed to - more or less - maintain a cone of silence around myself regarding Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Since I’ve never re-read any of the series, I went back and re-read Azkaban, the last half of Order of the Phoenix, and Half-Blood Prince. Partially to remember the various clues and plot threads, but also to re-connect with the world of the books rather than the movies.

After only a few chapters into Azkaban, I realized how much funnier the books are - all the little throwaway bits about the portraits at Hogwarts, the absurd scenes of children in their magic classes, Rowling’s steadily improved dialogues.  She really hits her stride in Half-Blood Prince including a brilliant, long scene which manages to deliver the key moments in the Ron-Hermione relationship (for which readers have been waiting for at least 3 books at that point) all in the middle of a Herbology lesson in which the three friends are wrenching disgusting and dangerous pods out of murderous stumps…and then squeezing larvae out of them. The ridiculous situation does not take away from this dramatic payoff, and you have to marvel at how Rowling is able to balance the tone in such a loaded scene

I have my theories about what will finally happen to Harry and friends/enemies. So far - 200 pages into Hallows - I might still be right.

Some off-the-beaten-path (for Harry Potter stuff, anyway) links to Potter-related articles and reviews. Note that some should not be read until you’ve finished the books!

Some guesses BEFORE Hallows came out: http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/rumorsofglory/070625.html

Review of Order of the Phoenix movie: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzZmZTA5MzhhNzk1NzI4Zjk2ZDQzZGEyMWQwYzQyMTc=

Reviews of Hallows: http://article.nationalreview.com/?=ODkyNTkxZDlkNzljNjJmNzgzMmZlYzhhODJkYTJmN2Q=

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/julyweb-only/130-12.0.html

 And an article about Rowling and Christian themes:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/augustweb-only/131-43.0.html

During my farewell moments to Harry Potter and lingering thoughts about the many adventures of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin: Cicero! Nietzsche! Calvin! See…I really am in a Ph.D. program…

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »