Freddy Adu to Portugal, specifically Benfica. Paulo Wanchope to MLS, specifically the Chicago Fire. I think these are both good things for different reasons.

The time is right for Adu to start over. He’s been a non-factor in Major League Soccer, probably because he’s been pressured into trying to be a major factor every time he touches the ball. The Portugeezers won’t be easy on young Fred, but they won’t expect him to perform miracles either. The Portuguese league is decidedly second-tier and could very well be a good stepping stone to England, Italy, Germany, or Spain for Freddy. I wish him all the luck in the world.

Though I haven’t seen him play (except in a YouTube video against Celtic), reports on Cuauhtemoc Blanco say he was outstanding in Chicago’s 3-0 win over Toronto. MLS rosters are full of average to slightly above average players. The addition of one or two excellent players can have a massive impact on a team’s performance. Paulo Wanchope is another talented striker, and suddenly the Fire’s pathetic offense suddenly looks quite potent. Potent enough to make a last-gasp run for the play-offs? Watch this space.

Lots of comments on Bear Grylls and “Man vs. Wild.” Since posting, I watched the second half of the episode in the Rockies and have to say my opinion has changed somewhat, tipping more towards the show being a sham. An entertaining sham, but a sham nonetheless.

In the Rockies episode, Bear “floats” down the rapids using a plastic bag and a backpack. Before seeing this episode, I’d read online that you could clearly see he’s wearing a bulky PFD under his sweatshirt, and I couldn’t agree more. In the comments section, John says that Bear unnecessarily drinks his own wee in the Australian Outback episode. The show certainly tips towards the sensational rather than practical. Jumping 70 feet into a river of unknown depth, for instance, looks great on television but it’s suicidal in reality. You can’t tell me that Bear and the camera crew didn’t check the depth before the stunt.

At the end of the day, do I care? Not really. I’ve picked up some interesting tips here and there and am experienced enough to see the madness for what it is. Personally, it doesn’t bother me that Bear stayed in hotels a couple nights in some of the uglier climes. Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you need to prove it, and I don’t doubt Bear’s a genuine survivor. Call me jaded, but I don’t expect my “reality TV” to really be reality.

Closing out The Eye in the Door, the second volume in Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy in the next couple days. It’s been good and I look forward to continuing on to The Ghost Road, the final volume in the series.

I also have to give props to Ted Chiang for “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate” in this month’s F&SF. He hits all the right chords in aping the Arabian Nights, even borrowing the story-within-a-story-within-a-story format. It’s really well done.

Current Mood: Sure |
Currently Listening To - Elliott Smith - “Either/Or”

Last post for the day, promise. But I thought I would be remiss if I didn’t widely publicize the creation of a new drink: the Yooper Mimosa.

Exhibit A: Yooper Mimosa ingredients

* A “Yooper” is of course the nickname of the people of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, or U.P. If you live in the U.P., you’re a Yooper.

* A “mimosa” is three parts champagne with two parts orange juice and is considered high class.

* A “Yooper Mimosa” is three parts boxed Pinot Grigio and two parts Kool Aid Orange singles and is not considered high class. Or even drinkable for that matter.

Exhibit B: Yum?

Oh, I just found this out: ABC has a new show entitled “Masters of Science Fiction,” a four-episode series:
http://abc.go.com/specials/mastersofscifi.html

The only one I’ve read is the first show, John Kessel’s “A Clean Escape.” It’s a good one.

This weekend’s trip to the Porcupine Mountains on the shores of beautiful Lake Superior was far more “Boy Meets World” rather than “Man vs. Wild,” but a good time was had by all nonetheless. I’ve also posted a full set of pictures: trails, cabins, sunsets, and campfires. Who could ask for anything more? We’d been to the Porkies twice before and stayed at Mirror Lake, nestled back in the hills. This time we opted for a cabin right on the Superior shoreline and liked it a bit better because it was a bit more secluded.

We were treated to two gorgeous sunsets, sunny days, and fairly calm surf. Dips in Superior are invigorating to say the least, and you had to walk over fifty yards of submerged, moss-slicked rocks to get out far enough to properly swim, but that didn’t stop us. Whenever you felt the boxed wine creeping over you, making you sleepy, a dive into the lake was the perfect counter-measure.

The drive’s a drag though—about six hours straight north of Madison, which makes for a loooong Sunday. To top it off, I committed a first: losing the car key and not realizing it until reaching the trailhead. I’m pretty sure I know what happened; I collected driftwood for the campfire in my backpack, overturning it next to the fire ring at the cabin. The key is likely at the bottom of the pile of wood. When we started the hike, I realized I still had the key in my pocket. The little voice in my head told me not to be stupid, to take a minute to take off my pack and properly store the key. Well, I elected stupidity instead and promptly lost the key. Little voice, I’ll never doubt you again…

I’m back up the Superior way Thursday, driving another six hours up to Ashland to kick off UHR 2007 - Apostle Islands with the lads. I’m looking forward to the trip but not the drive.

Current Mood: Happy/Tired | /
Currently Listening To - The White Stripes - “Icky Thump”

Now that I’ve seen every MythBusters, Brother Troy turned me on to Discovery’s “Man vs. Wild,” a show where a former special forces British guy named Bear Grylls is dropped into the middle of nowhere and has to find his way back to civilization. I’ve seen episodes in the Everglades, the Scottish Highlands, Costa Rican rain forest, a deserted island in the Pacific, the Rockies, and the Sierra Nevadas. The guy is nuts and a complete survival machine, eating all sorts of nasty stuff and making shelters and rafts out of jungle junk.

It’s good entertainment and you can pick up a few good survival tips, like how to figure out the cardinal directions if you have no compass. Most of the show is stuff you should not do unless you’re a trained professional and would likely get you killed. For instance, Bear routinely soaks himself to the bone by jumping in rivers. In most climates, this is a ticket to hypothermia. He does some crazy tree and rock climbing that would be the end of most viewers finding themselves in the same situation. Like most things, it looks easy—but that’s because you’re watching a professional.

Good show though.

Man vs. Wild light. We’re heading up to a backcountry cabin in the Porcupine Mountains for the weekend, this time on Lake Superior. Which means no posts for the next couple days. Survive, if you can…

Current Mood: Excited |

The answer is probably no, but did you ever notice that clubs with one American on the books often go in for another? I just saw that U20 standout Sal Zizzo signed for Hannover 96, which happens to be the same team US international Steve Cherundolo plays for.

This seems to happen a lot. Man City went in for DaMarcus Beasley while Claudio Reyna was there. Fulham have dipped into the pot for Brian McBride, then Carlos Bocanegra, then Clint Dempsey. Players do have some pull and I think many European teams are still wary of American players because so few are standouts, but you’d have to think they also represent a good value since they make squat in MLS.

Current Mood: Tired |

Nary a whisper in the press about the inaugural SuperLiga, a competition between Major League Soccer and the Mexican First Division. The British press had a field day when David Beckham’s LA Galaxy lost 3-0 against Tigres in a friendly of no consequence and were quick to condemn the team as bush league; odd then, that they haven’t mentioned the Galaxy’s 2-1 win over Pachuca in a competitive match. Typical.

I’m disappointed that this tournament hasn’t gotten more (or any) headlines. It’s a big deal. For years, a problem plaguing MLS was a too-long season for too-inclusive play-offs. The SuperLiga has a decent lot of prize money and it’s only four teams from each country, meaning the top four teams from MLS get in, i.e. there’s incentive to finish fourth instead of eighth in the league. Before, there were eight play-off spots for ten teams. That’s now expanded to 13, thanks to the addition of Chivas, Salt Lake, and Toronto. With the addition of the San Jose Earthquakes next year, that makes 14 teams competing for eight spots. Not bad, but teams can still be below .500 and make the play-offs unless MLS would introduce a wild card play-offs to accommodate a 12 team bracket and give first round byes—which I think would be great. Relegation of the worst teams is never going to happen in MLS but more teams, fewer play-off spots, and a real incentive to finish in the top four is a great start to making the regular season more competitive.

If you think writing doesn’t pay, try being a pro soccer player in the US. Starters in this league are making $30K. Is it any wonder that teams start to mail in games once they have a lock on a play-off spot? Someone recently said it’s hard to play your socks off in front of 10K people with nothing at stake, and I have to agree.

Anyway, I too often read that the American sports fan doesn’t understand cup competitions that happen concurrently with the regular season, and that’s why the US Open Cup and things like the SuperLiga and CONCACAF Champions Cup don’t get any attention. Quite simply, that’s the stupidest excuse I’ve ever heard. It’s not rocket science. Maybe it’s time MLS and US Soccer invest in educating the American public if that’s the case.

* With the signings of Marlon Harewood and Nigel Reo-Coker, Aston Villa is the new West Ham.

* Having Jonathan Woodgate already and lining up Alan Smith, Middlesbrough wants to be the old Leeds United. I bet they could get Lee Boyer on the cheap, and must be sad fathead Mark Viduka signed for Newcastle.

* The recent signings of Birmingham City, Wigan, and Fulham have all but guaranteed that they’ll be in the thick of the relegation dogfight. I have a feeling that Bolton is going to nosedive to the bottom half of the table.

* I can’t figure out if Harry Redknapp knows what he’s doing with the flurry of activity at Portsmouth or if it’s all hand waving. That goes for Tottenham too. And I can’t figure out whether the big cash outlays by Man Ure and Liverpool are going to pay dividends or whether they’ll be more or less the same. And relative inactivity for Everton, Ars*nal, and Chelski makes me scratch my head too. When does the season start again?

Current Mood: A Summer Cold Pending |
Currently Listening To - The White Stripes - “Elephant”

I sold about a dozen books to Half Price books yesterday for a measly $19, which I turned around and bought Solaris, The Lathe of Heaven, The Years of Rice and Salt, and Dubliners. For the really super-attentive of you, you may have noted that three of the four are likely to appear in my fall reading list; the Kim Stanley Robinson doesn’t, but I’ve always been intrigued by the premise of TYoRaS and figured you can’t go wrong with a hardcover for $6.

I’m just shy of half-way done with Pat Barker’s The Eye in the Door, book two of the Regeneration trilogy. It’s good, but not as good as Regeneration, or maybe it’s just that I’m more interested in war neuroses than the War at Home. The first book has to do with soldiers sent from WWI in France due to mental breakdowns in the trenches; the second book is about the paranoia and constant surveillance British citizens face during wartime, and the persecution of conscientious objectors and homosexuals for not being patriotic enough in the face of a war that seems like it will have no end. Thank God Western civilization has gotten beyond those kinds of problems…

More book acquisitions: yesterday I received in the mail a pair of Larousse Mini Spanish/English Dictionaries (which are a bit smaller than a box of cereal you get in those six-packs) and a double-shot of the only marginally larger Red Pocket Book of 333 Spanish Verbs, both for our pending immersion school in Guatemala. In that same shipment was Susanna Clarke’s The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, which I’ve been looking forward to.

(sigh) My search for a 55+ degree sleeping bag/liner continues. I thought I had found the right thing yesterday at Fontana but it turns out no, they don’t pack well enough; the right ones scrunch down to the size of a Nerf football. Part of the problem is that I thought our friends got the bags that we’re envying for $40 and I didn’t know the brand; now I know they got them on sale down from $60 and the brand is REI. Which means this is the one I’m after after all.

A busy couple weeks for me: backpacking to a cabin in the Porkies this weekend, paddling the Apostle Islands next weekend, and Guatemala the week after and busy trying to prepare for each. The food dehydrator has been getting a workout.

Current Mood: Crabby, Actually |

Yeah, so that whole novel thing is now done. 81,333 words, 268 pages. Most of those words need a lot of work but at least it has beginning, middle, and end. The revisions begin, oh, tomorrow.

I started with an 8800-word short story and wrote about 10K words a week for eight weeks, averaging about 2K words per day. This was neither easy nor excruciating and tended to having bigger production days on Mondays and Tuesdays, lower production days on Thursdays and Fridays, and tended not to work too much on weekends; I often wrote but rarely on the novel. If pressed, I probably could have written faster but there are worse ways to go about your business.

Oh, Slushmaster Doug Cohen from Realms of Fantasy posted a piece on surviving the slush pile. He asked his survivors if he could share our opening paragraphs and why they made him keep reading; mine’s #10, “Black Jack Davy.”

Watched the non-event of the LA Galaxy vs. Chelski but I simply couldn’t not watch the first steps of David Beckham as an MLS player. I told myself, “You know, he’s going to play about ten minutes and won’t do a whole lot.” Which is pretty much what happened. His 60-yard pass was nice (even if not 100% effective) and yes the tackle that made everyone’s heart skip a skip made mine skip too.

And gawd, do Wynalda, Smyth, and O’Brien form a three-headed jackass in the commentary booth or what? They’re flat awful.

I finished the film version of A Scanner Darkly last week and forgot to comment on it. It was good but not great. It leaned a little too much toward slapstick for me. As Dick’s daughter said in the extra features, there’s no doubt the book has its funny parts but I thought Paul Giamatti did a better job evoking the general feeling of disorientation, where you have to laugh at the characters’ drug-addled antics because otherwise it’s just too damn depressing.

Still, I wasn’t sure how the director was going to be able to pull off such a complicated book, but he actually did far better than I expected. One of those movies where I’m not sure how people who hadn’t read the book first would feel about it.

I’m about a quarter through Jim Shepard’s Love and Hydrogen, a short story collection. I read the title story in one of my fiction workshops and was ga-ga over it. The others I’ve read so far haven’t wowed me nearly as much, I’m afraid. The stories are good but lack the sheer imagination of the story “Love and Hydrogen,” even they match its audacity. If that makes any sense.

I’ve also nearly finished Hemingway’s The Fifth Column and Four Stories of the Civil War. The play is crap. The stories are pretty good. On the back jacket, it’s called “unmistakable Hemingway” and I would have to agree—for all the good and bad connotations.

I tested out of the advanced level for my Spanish course Friday and begin the Expert level this week. At once, I’m fairly impressed with my reading comprehension and ability to hold a conversation in certain areas, but I’m also depressed with trying to comprehend a native speaker speaking at a normal pace and topics outside the narrow wedge of my vocabulary.

Geez, did you know they now make a see-thru bear can? Granted, you’d need to line it with a clear plastic bag, but it would be so much nicer than the black one, which was the only game in town for many a year.

Also, if I can vent: I’m not a fan of the Madison REI. It’s a small store that has an uncanny knack for never having what I want, meaning I should just cut out the middleman and order the stuff directly from the REI website and have it shipped to the store. I’m planning on getting an ENO Doublenest Hammock but, of course, they didn’t have it.

Worse, the workers are either clueless or assume you are. Most of the salespeople at the Seattle REI would ask a couple questions first to figure out who they’re talking to: a car camper, a day hiker, marathon backpacker, sherpa, etc. The workers at the REI assume that because they’ve been backpacking a half-dozen times, that’s more than you. I don’t like being told that my super-kickass all-time favorite piece of gear (the $135 featherweight bulletproof sil-tarp) that was tragically lost on a trip isn’t normally kept in stock because it’s “overkill.” If by overkill the guy actually meant “a bit pricey but often a friggin’ lifesaver” then I guess I would agree.

So when I tell the guy that I’m looking for a +55 degree sleeping bag to use for humid summer sleeping and for skeezy Central American hotels where the sheets can stand up and walk, don’t try to nudge me towards the +40 degree, $180 version because it’s more versatile. It’s also, erm, $120 more than I want to spend, considering I already have sleeping bags rated for both 20+ and 0 degrees. Thanks for the advice, but when someone walks in saying, “Yes, I want this exact product” you may wish to consider the fact that said person may not be a complete novice.

At the REI Seattle, the workers there were wilder mountaineers than I’ll ever be; at Rutabaga in Madison, the paddlers there know more about being on the water than your average duck. So it burns my cheese when some dope who has done a couple overnights in the Kettle Moraine thinks he’s a pro. Brutha, please, please, PLEASE!