Yes, I know that Spurs are a complete laughing stock, however I do spare some chuckles for the “elite” team of Norf London. The Arse, who some deluded morons still think have a chance at the title, allow poor, troubled Tottenham to muster a 4-4 draw, scoring two goals in the final two minutes.

Ars*nal fans, consider your team’s record: 6-2-2 over 10 games.

How many of those ten games have been against teams in the bottom half of the table? Give up? Yeah, eight. And the two teams in the top half of the table? That would be Sunderland (at #10) and Hull City (at #5). Points taken against those two teams? Yes, that’s right, one point. One. Earned as a late, late draw against Sunderland. No Man Ure yet. No Liverpool yet. No Chelski yet. Just thought I’d mention it.

And what I love about delusional Ars* fans (in addition to their failure to understand that both Portsmouth and Tottenham have won more trophies in the last few seasons) is that these are the same jackasses who call Fox Football Fone-In saying Tottenham are going down. Look kids, Spurs are now a whopping three points from safety and in case you haven’t noticed, Fulham, Bolton, West Brom, Stoke, Wigan, and Newcastle are all relative crap. Yes, they’re in the cellar now, and yes, they’ll probably be in the cellar for the next couple weeks, but let’s check in around New Year’s and see how they’re doing. The old cliche’ that the league is marathon not a sprint is just as true for the foot of the table as it is for the champions.

Current Mood: Chuffed |

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I finished Harry Matthew’s The Journalist yesterday and quite enjoyed it although, like many books in my restrictions and obstructions class, it wouldn’t appeal to a broad audience. The central idea is that the narrator has suffered a breakdown of some sort and has decided to write a journal to track the events of his life. He is having an affair with his brother-in-law’s wife, his son is acting strangely, and he’s stuck in a dull job. Early on, he stops taking his lorarzepan, and as the medication wears off, his paranoia increases and he begins obsessively detailing the minutia of his life in his journal and develops an impossibly complex categorization to track his thoughts, feelings, dreams, and “objective” statements. As I said in class, I liked the book’s strong database aesthetic.

I also picked up a number of books from Half-Price books last weekend, all of which will be on my Ph.D. preliminary exams: The Tin Drum, Dorderlands/La Frontera, The Death of Artemio Cruz, Song of Solomon, and House of Spirits. I also checked out from the library Magic(al) Realism: A New Critical Idiom by Maggie Bowers (which looks concise), and Magic Realism: Theory, History, and Community by Zaomra et al. (which looks comprehensive). These two critical books should help me flesh out my “major” area, which is mostly going to be classics of “magical realism” and contemporary fantasy/slipstream.

I also received my mid-term evaluations for the composition course I’m teaching and the results were very positive. There were a few blase’ responses, but the only sharp comments were directed at the assignments (which I have no control over) and the format of the course (small group discussion, large group discussion, and paper writing…is that really a fair criticism of a course entitled “Introduction to College Writing”?).

Otherwise, my semester works like this: busy Monday, crushed on Tuesday, recover Wednesday, suffer Thursday, work like hell Friday, recover Saturday/Sunday. All things being equal, I prefer a steady schedule that keeps me busy rather than this peak-valley-peak-valley routine, which absolutely exhausts me.

The ankle is feeling almost back to normal after rolling it Saturday—a four-day turnaround, about par for the course. I will probably give indoor a go on Monday, so wish me luck…

Current Mood: Sure |
Currently Listening To - The Hold Steady - “Almost Killed Me”

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So, Spurs ditched the magic Juande in favor of ‘Arry Redknapp. I think axing Ramos was the right move because he clearly did not command the respect of the players, winning a grand total of four league games while in charge. In one game, ‘Arry accumulated more points than Ramos did in eight. And as most sensible people realized, Spurs are now three points (one more win) from pulling out of the drop zone—provided other teams keep losing. I think three out of Bolton, Fulham, Stoke, and West Brom will get relegated. It’s early days, but I can see Newcastle and Spurs muscling out enough points over the long haul to get to the comfort zone before spring. (Speaking of which, can you believe Hull? You’d have to think 40 points would keep you safe, and they’re already half-way there in just 9 games with 29 more to play.)

I’m pretty excited about Liverpool beating Chelski today, and hope to high heaven that they’ll still be contenders come January. A certain Ars* lead the table for long periods last fall before falling apart in the New Year, so early results do not guarantee late returns. Still, it’s better to win than lose…

Back to ‘Arry Redknapp for a second, it’s an appointment that seems solid but doesn’t get the heart racing. He generally has had a galvanizing effect for the teams he’s managed, but he’s also been dodgy in the transfer market. Spurs savior? Not hardly. At least he should keep them up. Emphasis on should.

In good news, last weekend Man City United spanked the opposition 8-2 on a lovely, sunny afternoon. Yesterday however, we lost 1-0 on a cold, windy day on an abomination of a field that had a serious slant to it and a huge patch of mud in the center of the park. The conditions were almost unplayable and I figured it would either be 0-0 or someone would score on a fluke or mistake, and unfortunately that’s what happened. Our keeper slipped throwing the ball into play and it landed at the feet of one of their strikers, who popped it into the empty net and then celebrated like he’d actually done something incredible. We went on to miss about three chances that were nearly as easy, only to see our strikers get in each others way (twice) and blaze over the bar from a ridiculous position.

Worst of all, I rolled my ankle getting shoved over in a mud patch and will be hobbled for a week or so. (sigh) Titanium breakaway ankles…

You can say what you want about MLS’ two-conference system and the playoffs (I often say they’re dumb) but it does set the stage for some pretty good late-season drama. Colorado vs. Real Salt Lake was a perfect example. Because Amy trumped me on the remote, we ended up watching some real estate shows and, during the commercials, I’d seen that the Rapids went up 1-0. I figured that while we were watching Trading Spaces, two things would happen: either Colorado would score another goal and ice the game, or they wouldn’t. Turns out they wouldn’t, which led to frenetic last ten minutes that I did get to watch, including RSL’s dramatic and late, late equalizer that saw them go through to the playoffs for their very first time. Good stuff.

On the writing front, I was boosted by the news that a friend of mine who has a boatload of sales to highly respected literary mags says he sends out his stories to about twenty markets at the same time. In the same conversation, he said he was amazed that I had the publications I did from sending out my stories one at a time, due to the restriction most f/sf markets have on not accepting simultaneous subs.

This is certainly good news and helps me get my head around how to succeed in the lit mag world. I typically get very cordial, personal rejections from the f/sf mags I submit to and rarely, if ever, get so much as a hand-written “thanks” on the form rejections I get from lit mags. Rather than taking this personally, I’m guessing I just need to cast nets a little farther and a little wider.

Who has time for reading books in grad school? My reading list is way down this semester for a variety of reasons, mostly because my time is devoured by teaching and my admin position, and my reading time is dedicated to articles, not books. In a word, this sucks. I have a long list of stuff I want to read but it will have to wait.

Current Mood: Bleh |
Currently Listening To - The Hold Steady - “Almost Killed Me”

As part of UWM’s creative writing program, we do monthly (or close enough!) readings featuring our grad students and faculty. If you’re in the Milwaukee area tomorrow night (Thursday, Oct 23) then drop by and check it out!

WHAT: October’s Student/Faculty Reading

WHEN: Thursday, October 23 @ 6 pm

WHERE: Brocach Irish Pub, 1850 N. Water St.

WHY: Hear fiction and poetry read by your esteemed colleagues!

WHO:
* Maurice Kilwein-Guevara
* Karen Aschenbrenner
* Emilie Lindemann
* ..and special guest reader Joe Rein

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!!!

We finished another major project we’d had on the docket for awhile, and that was having a new driveway poured and redoing the front walk and stoop. All in all, it turned out to be a frustrating experience because the concrete contractor wanted to do the job quickly which meant some details got left in the concrete dust, but overall it turned out pretty nicely. Here’s what it looks like:

Right, so Tottenham lost again today, giving them their worst start to a season ever. That’s ever, as in “since 1882″ ever. I’ve been following Spurs since about 1990 and they’ve toyed with relegation a couple times but, unless things change quickly, this team could go down.

I’ve only watched them twice this season, against Sunderland and against Stoke, and it seems pretty clear that Ramos has got to go. He might be a fine manager and a wonderful fella, but the players looked sloppy and generally uninterested in playing. The idea was to get rid of the players who only wanted to collect their paychecks and make an earnest push for fourth, but that ain’t happening with this lot. Ramos clearly hasn’t inspired them, and they need to get inspired sharpish.

Over the years I’ve grown less and less fond of the club as business aspirations have trumped footballing decisions. One of the major blows was when Tottenham sold Michael Carrick after narrowly missing out on fourth; to me, that sent a signal that the club’s real goal was to be a broker for high-profile players, buying young and selling at great profit. The purchases made by the board in Jol’s last days were testaments to that, and I think they bought poorly heading into this season. They bought poorly but sold well, don’t you think? Shipping out their two highest goal scorers for wonga profits will look nice on the shareholders’ statements, but their failure to buy proven players in key positions may cost them dearly.

As much as I love the footie, the big boys have been working hard for the last decade or so to get a stranglehold on their domestic leagues, and it’s working. Sure, the season starts out a bit rocky but who rises to the top once again? Chelski, Liverpool, Man Ure and Ars*nal. Sure, Aston Villa looks like Spurs from a few seasons ago, but when they can’t break into the top five (and hence the Champions League) where will they be when Agbonlahor, Young, Barry, et al get lured away by clubs that can offer them that reward?

I would also say that the US’ display in Trinidad was not all that surprising and even though I’ve been barking for Bradley to give some of the younger players a chance, I didn’t necessarily mean he should give them a chance all at the same time. And for what it’s worth, I have yet to see Maurice Edu play a really good game, and the young man has a penchant for passing to the other team.

Current Mood: Feh |

I received some MP3 downloads from Amazon and decided to blow them on Bob Dylan’s newest, Tell Tell Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8. The early signs point to this being an album I’m glad I didn’t shell out any cold hard cash for. The one “tell tale sign” I can identify is that the music company is happy to slap together a bunch of songs and outtakes, put Dylan’s name on it, call it one of the bootleg series, and watch the money roll in.

It’s not that it’s bad per se, it’s just not something I can imagine coming back to. It’s much like The Vanilla Tapes CD that accompanied the re-release of London Calling. Interesting, yes. Worthy of repeated listens? No.

The first five volumes of the bootleg series were all great but volume 6, which was live in 1964 at the Philharmonic Hall, didn’t give me any new insights into Dylan as performer. I don’t know how they can call volume 7, which was the soundtrack to No Direction Home, one of the bootleg series with a straight face. It’s another greatest hits collection with a few rare tracks thrown in to make sure those of us with his entire collection have reason to shell out for it.

There are plenty of folks on Amazon who seem awfully satisfied with this release but I’m on the side of the two-star reviews, who say pretty the same as the above. Maybe I’m biased, but this feels more like “let’s make some more money by packaging up some old mediocre stuff” rather than “let’s give the Dylan fans yet another side of their favorite artist.” But maybe I’m just jaded…

Current Mood: Feh |
Currently Listening To - Bob Dylan - “Tell Tale Signs - The Bootleg Series Vol. 8″

Word on the street is that this site is under surveillance by the academic overlords. Watch yourselves, people!

Current Mood: Puckish |
Currently Listening To - Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - “Global A Go-Go”

I am more than ready for this friggin’ election to be over with and, my personal preferences aside, I think McCain is in trouble based on some of the ads I’ve seen running in southern Wisconsin. What I find interesting about these ads is that unless you look and listen closely, you’re not sure who the ads are for. For instance, I caught one out of the corner of my eye the other day and it ends with white text proclaiming “Change Is Coming.” Surprisingly (to me at least), it was an ad for John McCain.

As an undergrad I took a course on American History 1914-1945, and one part of the course I remember very clearly was something said regarding a presidential election during that time period. Of course, I can’t remember the candidates and I can’t remember the issues, but what I do remember is the professor saying that one candidate tried running on a “me too” platform, which basically meant that he was trying to outmaneuver his opponent using similar rhetoric on the issues. And I also remember the professor saying that in politics this almost never works, and that candidates are almost always better served trying to work diametrically opposed positions.

Regardless of your political bent, you have to admit that Obama’s got that whole “candidate of change” thing pretty well sewn up. Therefore you’d think McCain’s tactic would be more along the lines of “we need a strong, steady hand on the tiller.” You know, the opposite of change. For this armchair analyst, that’s a strategic goof from the McCain camp.

Again, trying suppress my own political convictions and give a neutral perspective, it seems like the problem for McCain is that if this election boils down to “change” vs. “no change” (which, substantive issues aside, I think it does), then “no change” is a tough position to take when all is not great with the state of the union. That leaves the other option of “me too” politics, where McCain has to also be the candidate of change, but a different kind of change. From a neutral perspective, that’s a tough sell coming down the home stretch.

From my wildly biased perspective, I don’t see how Obama can’t win. But I guess we’ll wait and see…

Current Mood: @#$#@% Tired of Politics |

The secret to watching the United States play some good attacking soccer? Have them face a tiny Caribbean nation playing with one man down. The US whipped up on Cuba to the tune of 6-1 last night and featured some pretty decent attack play. I was really happy to see DaMarcus Beasley bang in two well-taken goals and Heath Pearce, who I have been moaning about for the last several months, had a really good game, serving in great balls from the wing.

Still, I can’t be all positive. The US started with essentially the same lineup that’s been boring us to tears since qualification began. I was excited to see Altidore, Adu, and Torres in the squad, disappointed that none of them got the start. I thought Altidore and Adu played quite well in the minutes they did get, scoring and getting an assist respectively, and Torres looks like he could be handy too. But I don’t want to draw too many conclusions as Cuba was well-beaten and exhausted at that point. My sincere hope is that these fellas don’t step off the field for the next two irrelevant games and force their way into the starting lineup for the final round of qualifiers.

I watched portions of England’s win over Kazakhstan and was fairly unimpressed. The first couple goals game off set pieces and the team looked awfully plodding until the goals finally started dropping in late in the second half. So a big scoreline, yes, but watching England reminds me a lot of the current US squad and I find myself asking this question: what happens when these teams play somebody good?

Like Spain. 3-0 against Estonia might not have been a devastating performance by the Spaniards, but they sure do look tasty all the same. Iniesta and Xavi are ridiculous in the midfield. During the Euros I said you couldn’t get the ball off them if you had a pool cue to help trip them up; I’m raising that to a shotgun. If you want to criticize (and I don’t) you could accuse them of trying to walk the ball in the net, but it’s still fun to watch, and they still won handily—away, on a rain-slicked pitch. I wish the World Cup was this summer…

The less said the better. My prediction was that it would be ugly so I watched the US national team instead. It turned out to be uglier than I ever would have dreamed. Pure awful. After the Michigan loss I said that this team tends to lose in streaks, and boy, have I been proven right.

Mad City FC won again yesterday, 5-1, and I had nothing to do with it since I wasn’t in town. I should make the next two games though and hopefully close out the season with a pair of wins.

Current Mood: Fine |
Currently Listening To - Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - “Global A Go-Go”

Before going forward with anything positive, I do want to say that I am generally displeased with the performance of my 80 GB iPod classic. I had some initial negative things to say, and there are more. I found out that you can indeed use Media Monkey to manage your iPod and that helped sort the cover art problems considerably, except now there are more problems. The correct cover art comes up in Media Monkey but the wrong cover art appears in the iPod. Annoying, but not show-stopping. What’s worse is that some songs (much of Paul Simon’s Graceland and the Goats Tricks of the Shade) play for about 30 seconds before skipping to the next track. Googling reveals this problem is not unique to me, and solutions are few and far between. And these are just the skipping tracks I’ve discovered. They play fine on the computer but deleting them off the iPod and uploading again does no good. Not what I paid $250 for, that’s for sure.

Having said that, I do appreciate the extra space. Audio books don’t keep me awake behind the wheel like music does, and I’ve been delving deep into the archives recently and I have happily discovered that a lot of stuff really holds up over time. Sugar’s Copper Blue for example. I bought this album at the end of high school and it brings back memories of my first year at college, and it’s really quite good. And though it should come as no surprise, Jane’s Addiction’s first three albums sound just as strange and gripping today as they did back in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They still merit multiple relistens.

I’ve made some headway in figuring some things out regarding future schooling. It looks like I will be finishing my coursework next semester and taking my preliminary exams next fall. The major area looks like it’s finally going to be something along the lines of “Unstable Realities: Global Literature Since WWII” and will basically be magical realism, slipstream, and some postmodern novels that sort of fit in with this. The minor areas will be “Native American Literature” and, for the new minor, “Visual Narratives, Hypertext, and Textuality” along with a strong dose of the rhetoric of technology. If it’s not exactly this, it’ll be damn close.

Otherwise, the ceaseless pounding of work continues apace and, for the first time in my graduate career, I’m actually a little behind in one class. ‘Tis no big deal and will be set straight in the next few days, but I ought to have reworked one of my pieces for my obstructions/restrictions fiction workshop by now.

On the brighter side, it’s my turn to write a summary piece on the composition theory articles we’re reading and one of them deals with bringing a punk rock ethos to teaching composition, and it liberally quotes from Sex Pistols songs and quite a bit from the Clash. My response will focus on Joe Strummer and his journey from being the front man of 101ers (not just Strummer’s first band, but also the UWM course number for freshman composition) to angry punk, to experimental musician, to globally conscious artist—all tied back to comp theory. Should be fun.

Current Mood: Are You Friggin’ Kidding Me? |