Hey! Nothing like setting modest goals and instantly achieving them. I’ve become a huge fan of World Soccer Daily and resolved to get an email read on the air. After the first two losses by the US, I sent an email about Bradley’s record (which is largely summed up by the last bullet in this post) and was quite happy to receive a positive email back from co-host Kenny Hassan.
After the valiant defeat to Brazil, I sent a second (more inspirational) email to the guys about how the US needs to shake off this heartbreaking loss and focus on beating Mexico at the Azteca next month. Happily, Steven Cohen read it on air during Monday’s show. You can hear it around 1:24:45 on this MP3 version of the broadcast.
Pretty pleased about it.
In footie playing news, I broke my scoring streak at five goals in five matches. My touch left me at the worst possible time as our under-strength team went crashing out of the play-off semifinal two weeks ago against a team we’d beaten 3-0 twice during the season. I had an awful personal outing, but injuries and absences of key players really did us in. Having fewer subs on a scorching hot day (90+ humidity) did not help. So we won the league handily but in the end by a couple points plus a massive advantage in goals scored and goal differential, but all for naught.
In happier news, I scored a hat-trick the following Monday night but it wasn’t much to crow about considering we were playing against 8 men on the other team. Still, three decent finishes if I do say so myself. And two days ago I popped in a dandy of a goal off a corner in the first half, then recorded three saves in a 20 minute stint in goal in a second-half shut out. So four goals in two games? Again, I’ll take it.
I put down Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, the book I’ve been reading along with a bunch of graphic novels, because I was having a hard time reading it. I finished Ana Castillo’s So Far From God, which I really started enjoying about half-way through, and I’m midway through The Sand Child by Tahar Ben Jelloun. All of these are on my reading list for my preliminary exams.
A plurality of voices and abrupt shifts in time in the narrative (jumping from past, present, and future) are common traits of “magical realist” texts. I’m realizing now that while this technique can be interesting and provocative in a single work, it gets to be a bit much when you see it in book after book after book. I’m ready for a straight up beginning-middle-end novel, thank you.
I’m also trying to figure out the shape of the two courses I’ll be teaching in the fall, one of which is Intro to Creative Writing. After reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and a slew of graphic novels, I’ve decided to work “visual narratives” as part of the course.
I’ve also decided not to make it a separate unit but rather work it in as an option over the course of the semester. I wasn’t convinced about the idea until I started browsing through an examination copy of Creating Nonfiction: A Guide and Anthology I received, and noted that the authors use a number of graphic illustrations featuring nonfiction. By scouring the Internet, I’ve also found tons of PDF copies of graphic novels I admire both for their art and their storytelling, so it will be easy to excerpt sections and share them with the class. I’m excited for it, especially since a quick scan of the class roster revealed that nearly a third of the class are coming from the art school.
Current Mood: Fine, Thanks | 