USA 2 Brasil 3 : afterthoughts

The US side was impressive in just about all points of the game in the first 45 minutes. The Brasil side was frustrated by their inability to penetrate down the center and take players on 1 v 1, evidenced by a lot of shots from 25 ft out or more. While the US didn’t have much better results connecting passes and breaking down the Brasil defense in the middle, they took advantage of counter attacks and advantage of having one of the better keepers in the Premier League. What’s more, Kaka was totally out of the run of play.

Everyone expected Brasil to score in the 2nd half and they did not disappoint, getting one mad early. Brasil came alive and continued to pressure down the flanks and the US either caved or were just worn out from the hard defensive effort.

Jozy Altodore, who will be a very good striker for some team, seemed to be out of it at a time when the US really needed a goal. He looked tired. He didn’t seem to be making a lot of long runs in the first half so I don’t know what happened. I called on him to be subbed for earlier than he was but there was really no one to replace what he can do, provide some great athleticism as a striker, a big kid who can run and hold off defenders. I thought the midfield was looking for Dempsy too much. Maybe they didn’t have confidence in Altodore, and Davies was immediately surrounded by three Brasil defenders as soon as he got a touch. I guess those guys are kind of new and the team was looking to vets like Donovan and Dempsy for leadership.

Donovan was interviewed post-game and said that it’s time to stop with the moral victories for US soccer. The team has some pieces to end that trend of almost getting there, and they obviously have the desire (that’s one thing that’s always been a character of US soccer, grit, determination, etc). US needs to put it all together.

But Brasil showed desire too, you have to give them the fist tap, they really willed themselves back into the game and forced the issue. After that goal that was not a goal I think they knew they had a win in hand. The team really showed emotion at the end, not like other Brasil sides who really expected to win. I guess they’ve been under a lot of pressure at home for the way they’ve been playing lately and perhaps the US side was not the only one on the pitch with something to prove.

Tim Howard was man of the match.

What Don’t Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson Have in Common

Kleinheider asks us these questions:

Now, of course, I understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty. I do. But I thought that we all had come to the conclusion that Jacko was about as innocent of child molestation as O.J. was of killing Nicole.

Was I wrong?

Because if O.J. dies and I have to watch film of him playing football and people honoring and mourning his death, I’ll lose it. I’m gonna need a heads up on that one, so let me know. . .

What is the difference between O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson? Because I don’t see one. How can the charges of child molestation be the sidebar to a story about a gifted singer, dancer, marketer and producer?

One obvious difference is that hundreds of millions of people loved Michael Jackson and millions of those people thought, and still believe he was wrongly accused, likely set up for extortion. I would not argue that OJ Simpson enjoyed anywhere near that kind of adoration. Like Larry King said about Michael, this one someone who claimed to know him personally, “It was hard to like Michael and it was hard not to.”

But, OJ Simpson was accused of a crime with baggage that was in our ugly past punished publicly with mob justice. Simpson’s alleged violations of the social trust were something that some bragged about dealing with. Jackson’s alleged crime is something that becomes an ugly secret.

That said, it is ridiculous to expect people to behave about their beloved superstar in anyway other than they have, given that Jackson could be considered to have passed on a long time ago, the Jackson they loved seemed to no longer exist. So of course they’re looking back on halcyon days.

There will be plenty of time to get at the root of the crimes Jackson was accused of. I’m sure there are people dying to get on record now that he’s dead. But to wonder aloud why this is not the lede is grandstanding.

Childhood’s End

I was no more than four years old the first time I saw Michael Jackson, which would make him around, oh, 12 or 13 at the time. It was my first concert, The Commodores and The Jacksons, and there were probably never more afros in one place than there were that night. Well, okay, in a bigger venue than I saw him in, there probably were. I sat on my late brother’s shoulders as soon as “that other band” was finished. Michael wasn’t my favorite Jackson (Jermaine, until Janet made her appearance) but I did feel an affinity for this kid – he didn’t seem that much older than me – spinning and twirling with that boy’s choir soprano.

I’m not sure how long those Jackson boys remained a favorite, until I was six, seven? Was I even old enough to have a legitimate favorite in those days? By the time I was the same age as Michael was when I saw him live, I’d moved on. The Police. Queen. Gap Band. Cameo.

And girls.

Yeah, I watched “Charlie’s Angels.” I was partial to Kate Jackson myself. Or Jaclyn Smith. Not much into blondes. But eventually I succumbed to Farrah Fawcett’s charms. I think it was that iconic poster. Either that or the fact that she was married to the Six Million Dollar Man at one point. Like many other young men my age, Farrah took a place on my wall in between Donna Summer and Tony Dorsett.

But, I moved on. Farrah came down from the wall sometime during high school, likely replaced by Denise “Vanity” Mathews, which was kismet, since despite Michael’s massive success with Off the Wall and Thriller I considered Prince much more worthy of my time and money.

As much fun as it was in the midst of Michael mania in those days, being accused of looking like him (clearly in pre nose-job days), Michael’s music seemed to me trivial and fluff. It was fun to watch his videos, moonwalk for those people who believed it to be a skill innate in all Black kids, consider buying a “Thriller jacket.” I didn’t go any deeper with Mike. He was growing into the role prescribed him, a pop music superstar. I could not follow, for I too grew in a different direction.

I no longer put up posters of scantily clad celebutantes, and Michael Jordan replaced Michael Jackson. Oh, I still listened to his music, Jackson’s attempts to recreate Thriller’s success all – expectedly – missing the mark. Prince followed up his massive success from Purple Rain with a 180 degree turn, cementing that Prince was the man and Michael was a marionette on MTV. Even as Michael grew increasingly peculiar in the public eye and his fame grew, I defended him to his detractors but had long stopped spending money on his music.

It was more than mere taste change. What he did was no longer relevant other than watching MTV’s breathless anticipation over how much he would spend on his next video shoot. Michael seemed obsessed with record sales, something I had little interest in, and gravitated towards artists who seemed at least to be less interested at topping their last place on Billboard. That was always an argument in support of Jackson fandom, wasn’t it? “He makin’ money though!” I didn’t want my musical choices validated by others in that way.

And I haven’t even mentioned hip hop.

While Jackson’s career was always within my peripheral vision, Farrah Fawcett had dropped into the dustbin of history. I don’t think I thought about her at all in the years between that movie Saturn 3. I was glad for her work in The Apostle the same way you’re happy to see an old elementary school classmate had made it big.

I never saw Michael have that same kind of artistic renaissance. But as details about his childlike lifestyle surfaced I grew to empathize. I don’t have a giant Batman and Superman in my bed room and no time for games but I do covet my son’s super hero collection. I understand the yearning for those times when responsibilities were light and you had to be home before dark. And in that empathy lies a wish that Michael would have received what he hoped for.

I’m not mourning Jackson’s passing and I’m rarely motivated to write about celebrity deaths. Maybe there’s a little kid in me who is.

AW HELL NAW, etc. Notes on this Sherri Goforth/Kleinheider Kerfluffle

Apparently, this foolish Email with an old fashioned racist cartoon that Sherri Goforth forwarded has caught the attention of even the harpies at The View. And I mean harpies in the most respectful way I can.

I’ve been trying to recall Goforth from back in the day. I remember the name but I can’t place a face.

The local blogger/print columnist/right leaning libertarian Adam Kleinheider was taken to task by local bloggers and the alt.weakly (ha I kid you guys) for holding back on blogging about the Goforth Email until — gasp — LATE IN THE EVENING, a choice he addressed in a recent blog post.

When he says it’s not a story, I tend to agree. On the scale of racism @ War Memorial this rates about a 6. My sense of outrage was not tweaked a smidge. Stupid is as stupid does, as they say (said), and I tend to expect stupid coming from that side of the swamp these days.

BUT

ACK knows, there are no civilians in the legislature. You get hired by your connections. She’s not some impartial innocent babe among wolves, especially after two decades in the same spot? GEEETDAHFUGOUTTAHEAH. I expected more from the lad, frankly.

Here’s the other thing about it, an ancillary effect, that I don’t like. Look in the links to ACK’s response to the situation. So many are coming from right wing hacks who are looking for ANY reason to excuse Goforth’s stupidity, and they’re latching on to Goforth’s lower status position.

Is racism any less because it comes from a “secretary?”

If you’re going to ignore this Goforth thing, ignore it because you don’t expect any better from this lot. If you’re holding yourself out as one who covers this legislative body, your editorial judgment should tell you to type out a few lines about it.

I also thought about breaking my silence (taking time out from an overbearingly busy schedule) to comment on Carol Swain’s most recent wave of her handkerchief. But I’ll leave it to Jack and some of the astute commenters in the thread.

Star Trek Movie Review

(xposted to TIMC)

For better or worse, J.J. Abrams retooling/reboot/re-whatever of the seminal science fiction series revisited the Star Trek origins in a way that the writers of the various incarnations of Trek would have if pressed for time; some pseudo-scientific accident in the cosmos caused one of the characters to go back in time and thus altered history. That is about as Trek as you can get.

The plot, what there is of it, is a throw away version of one of the many Trek time travel episodes, and really irrelevant; there’s no great themes, no commentary on our day, just a hackneyed revenge story. What matters to Abrams is character, or the characters he has reinvented for the new decade.

Kirk is XXXtreme Kirk, a wild child rendered less responsible and serious by an unfortunate accident that killed his father at the time of Kirk’s birth. While Abrams would have us believe not having a father figure make Kirk wild out, he doesn’t explain how he retains the intelligence and leadership qualities Trek fans are familiar with. As portrayed by Chris Pine, Kirk 2.0 is a version of one of the young studs Chris Evans has made a career of. He’s all quips and bluster and fists, with little depth. Maybe Evans would have made a believer of me.

Zachary Quinto’s Spock is more in touch with his human side – eventually – thanks to history’s change causing his mother’s untimely death. As Leonard Nimoy (also present in the film as the spark that causes the events to unfold) has inhabited and defined the portrayal not only of Spock but of all Vulcans in the Trek universe, Quinto’s prissy take on Spock’s logic is oft putting. The thing about Spock that annoyed Dr. McCoy (played excellent comic timing by Robert Urich doppelganger Karl Urban ) so much was his absolute confidence in his intellect and his conclusions. I always got the feeling that Quinto’s Spock was . . . scared. Maybe that was Quinto’s intentional wrinkle, but I doubt it.

The other character to receive an upgrade is Zoe Saldana’s Uhura. She has more to do in the film in the first act than Nichelle Nichols had to do in an entire season. She’s also a bit of a mother figure to the boyish Kirk and Spock, a very serious career officer who let’s emotion cloud her judgment. Oh yeah, she’s also having an affair with Spock. Were it not for the joy Simon Pegg has in turning the gruff engineer Montgomery Scott into a droll, wise-cracking physics prodigy, Saldana would walk away with the film.

Okay, so Abrams is not completely consumed with character study; he’s as eager to fill seats as he is to reintroduce the Star Trek universe to a film going audience and to that end stuffs the film with well executed action set pieces; young Kirk being pursued cops after he stole a car, first officer Kirk being pursued by a hideous alien giant, and the inevitable starship battles. Aside from the Star Trek brand, the action scenes are the film’s selling point and its biggest success.

Fans of classic Trek can be assured they haven’t been forgotten; there are too many winks and nods to the old TV show that gives the movie a cornball tone at times. They’ll mostly go over the heads of the uninitiated, the Trekkies will guffaw uproariously, but Trekkers may find them distracting.

Though the film rides on an trifling rehash of old Star Trek tropes minus the substance and intellectualism (some may say pretentiousness), Abrams did well to make the film a fun piece of summer fluff, entertaining and visually arresting enough that you suffer if you wait for the DVD.

Hair Apparently

One question I get asked a lot by randoms is “how long have you been growing your hair (dreads, locs, etc)?”

Today I noticed that down near the end of one of my locs there is a rubber band, stuck there, twisted and gnarled. I’ve cut my hair several times since I started growing the locs, I’ve lost count how many times. I’d have knee length hair by now, I think, so I suppose I have failed at the Nazarite Vow. But that rubber band must have been there for at least three years, likely longer, stuck, acting now as only a ring inside a tree, long ago having its purpose usurped by the natural process of dreading.

Just a few minutes ago, and older dude stopped me in the bathroom and asked how did I sleep with my hair, which opened the floor for comments I suppose, as another professor whom I’ve seen regularly got the bozacks to ask a question or two. The first man shook my hand and told me I am an “Afrocentric brother.” Sigh.

Even at an HBCU my hair makes me stand out a bit, and the Chiaroscuro created by the locs and a jacket and tie probably strike many as odd, off putting or even dangerously counter culture. It’s really none of these, my hair. The statement is, I like locs, I like my hair long, and I don’t fancy a perm. Besides, anyone who watches TV knows, all the cool Black guys have shaven heads.

*Real Rastafarians believe locs to be part of the Nazarite Vow (see also Samson, John the Baptist)
The relevant part of the vow:
Second, the Nazarite could not cut his hair during the time of separation. If his vow was for a long time, his hair would grow long. But in the Bible, long hair on a man indicates shame (1 Corinthians 11:14). Someone who willingly takes upon himself that which causes shame has conquered his pride. The disciple must be willing to take upon himself that which causes the world to scorn and laugh at him.

These days, long hair on men doesn’t invite scorn or shame as much as funny looks or assumptions and admonitions from career counselors. Locs tend to invite a little more scorn, and are seen as a sign of “rebellion.”
It’s said that John the Baptist’s Nazarite Vow was in protest of the decadence of society. I feel that, sure. So maybe I’ll keep my locs for some time to come.

UNC Tar Heels Champions Again. Now On to 2011

Okay, now that destiny has been fulfilled . . .

This was an inevitable result. My four point prediction was all about college basketball, the tournament, the energy, the unpredictability, everything fans of the game love about the game and about college sports. Still, on paper no team was better than the Tar Heels this year. And like numerous prognosticators said, if they play the way they’re capable of, no one can defeat them. It would be great to end the paragraph with “and no one did,” but given the losses of focus that plagued the team last year and early this season you had to doubt that an undefeated season was going to happen.

The Hansbrough haters couldn’t wait to begin their predictions of his failure at the next level. That he won’t have ‘Sheed’s career doesn’t take a genius level sports analysis. He will make a team and he will contribute to some NBA team with rebounding and low double figures in scoring per game. And he is one of UNC’s greatest players, certainly one of the best big men ever to come out of the program (Can you name great Carolina big men who had a great pro career? Perkins? Daughterty? May? Injuries. Reid was kinda of a bust). How could a team pass on a kid with his work ethic, strength and free throw shooting?

The questions now begin for next year. Lawson was likely gone whether they won the tournament this year or not. Ellington, with his performance in the tournament this year, increased his NBA value and likely feels there’s nothing more to prove. I think Davis stays; he didn’t get enough touches and needs to put on some muscle. The team will be weak in the back court, at least for next year.

Roy Williams has two championships in the last four seasons, this most recent one with his own recruits. All he really needed to do, besides the tactics and strategy stuff, was get the kids to focus and play to the best of their abilities. It’s conceivable that there will be two coaching legends in the UNC basketball program.

It’s his job, or the job of any D-1 coach in today’s environment, to recruit players interested in the collegiate experience, or at least get players who see value in staying in school for more than a year. It’s fine for kids to skip college if professional sports is to be their avocation and they have the skills at 18 to apply to the profession. It won’t hurt any athlete to play a few years in college, though. For the few big time success stories of athletes who have become stars without college ball, or even with only a year of college experience, there are hundreds now who were wash-outs.

Now, which t-shirt do I pick?

GAME TIME: Tar Heels By Four

That’s my call, I’m making it public. Will President Obama be proven correct? (as well as me and the millions of others who picked this talent packed team as pre-season #1 lol)?Too nervous (and well busy) to say anything else. We’ll talk after.

UNC over LSU: The Return of Ty Lawson

I’ve developed a bad habit this NCAA season; I’m not making room in my schedule to watch games. Perhaps its a sign of my advanced age and jammed up schedule but I’ve watched less Tar Heel hoops than ever this year. I missed three quarters of today’s LSU game, all of Radford and the last Duke game. Perhaps I should keep missing games, as the jock rule of superstitions indicate that I am actually causing the team to win by not being there.

All I saw was a rejuvenated Ty Lawson taking kids to the cup and Ellington shooting the lights out. I didn’t see, but was aware, that a scant few minutes before I returned home the game was tied. I’ll check the box scores but if what I heard from Kellogg (it was Kellogg, wasn’t it?) that Hansbrough had a horrible game.

It seems that Lawson is the key. Point guards dictate tournament games, and fortunately it seems we have the best in college basketball this year. Question is, how will his body respond after his return? The first contest back from an injury is often easy. The second is harder.

I’m so out of touch I’m not even sure who’s up next, but I’m concerned.

Battlestar Galactica Series Finale: The Eulogy

“Daybreak pt 2″

And that’s that. Five years of sifting through false mythology and conflicting prophecies and in the end, we find out this was the lost episode of “Touched By An Angel.” Jeez.

It was no surprise to me that the series finale would strike me as much of the show did over its run as a mixed bag, some plot holes and slick FX and tiresome relationships made tolerable by fine acting.

The first half of the final episode brought the rain, the Galactica’s final mission to rescue Hera It was as well executed action scene as you’re going to get from a televised Sci-Fi series. The second, after the climax, was pretty damned tedious. Starbuck lived out her usefulness fulfilled her prophecized role and “lead the human race to its end,” the end meaning not death but the end of their journey. She found Earth . . . another Earth, our Earth, where humans have just learned to walk upright and bury their dead.

Okay, great! They found a new home. Then we’ll have a little catching up with them, perhaps a death scene for Roslin and then we all go home. Right? Noooooo. More flashbacks, more two shots of people talking to each other and not saying a lot. The last remnants of the colonies turns Luddite in some effort to try and stop the man vs. machine cycle.

I would have been just fine not knowing what happened to Tyrol (live out his existence in misery in the North on some island (Iceland? England? Greece?). His character got a proper send off when he killed Tori after the discovery of her murder of Callie. We all knew Tigh and Ellen were eternal lovers, we didn’t have to have Ellen tell us that, did we? Are we that stupid? Yes, Roslin had to have the death scene, her character deserved a final moment, as did Olmos and McDonnell for their performances over the series run (minus Olmos’ multiple collapsing in anguish scenes). It didn’t take an hour to do all that.

Oh, and Starbuck. She was actually an angel (or Jesus? daughter of God?) as were Baltar’s Six and Caprica Six’s Baltar. I was squarely in the Starbuck is Daniel’s daughter camp, and really there’s no reason to disbelieve that now given her vanishing act, despite Ron Moore saying she isn’t. Well, he offers us not much either way. Ah, the mysteries that will remain a mystery until the 2nd BSG movie.

For a show that constantly patted itself on the back for being risky and cutting edge, it went out on the most conventional of notions, and answered all the mysteries it raised by simply reconfirming a belief that most people, at least in this country, closely hold. It’s all a part of God’s plan and there are angels to guide us, show us the way.

If a show was going to go so far to create a universe with its own unique questions, those questions deserved a much better answer. Moore thinks the final “twist” of the show was that everything turned out OK. No, Ron, given the show’s trajectory we really didn’t think they would all die. Even if they did, there would be some sort of pseudo-mystical event, like the Five being resurrected or Starbuck and Adama surviving to become Adam and Eve. The final twist turned out to be completely conventional and really uninteresting. It’s pretty common for speculative fiction to punk out when dealing with religious issues and tell us, “There’s something out there guiding us, we don’t understand it, though, so it’s best we not try to explain and leave it up to the viewer.” Oh, take a stab at it, why don’t you?

Things I Hated about BSG:
Of least importance to many, but of a bit more significance to me was the inclusion of people of color in the cast and the way they were handled. Please note that the title of this post is NOT Ron Moore is a racist or anything so keep your powder dry. BUT, of those cast members of color with regular roles, all were women. Most all initially were sexual objects for the almost completely White male cast. They never began to express themselves as characters until they hooked up with one of the dudes or committed some act of violence. Yeah, I know, that was ALL Starbuck did, basically, until she “died.” Still, despite having a woman president (and gays in the military) I found this not very forward thinking.

It’s important to Sci-Fi because people of color generally have been handled rather poorly within the genre. The Star Trek generations have been the notable exceptions of course, but that seemed to be part of Rodenberry’s mission. Does Moore get a pass because he kicked it with Avery Brooks and Michael Dorn? Made Olmos, one of the hardest Latino brothers – politically at least – out there Admiral? I dunno. Maybe.

The Whole Starbuck/Lee Adama relationship. Bamber and Sackhoff never seemed to have strong chemistry. Nor did Sackhoff and Trucco. Nor did most of the other on-ship couples, really. It’s not easy to create on screen chemistry when people are getting together seemingly on the writer’s whims. But the Starbuck/Adama relationship was supposed to be part of the engine driving the damn thing.

The fake pretentiousness. We remember what the world was like pre-Obama don’t we? If you don’t, go and listen to The Roots – Game Theory, the last 4 tracks. You’ll feel it. Anyway, BSG came up when we were all in the thick of it, and even Limbaugh was depressed because he didn’t have anyone in the White House to really despise. NINE-ELEVEN was still an effective battle cry, and some were still thinking about placing Arabs in concentration camps.

The show was supposed to reflect OUR TIMES; dark, at war, on edge, broke as a joke. And at first it sorta did, then when they found New Caprica it kinda did, then as BSG seemed to become a Lost clone the thing started tipping over, getting away from character and into the NEXT SHOCKING TWIST. The only time when the series effectively spoke to OUR TIMES was Lee Adama’s speech at Baltar’s trial about justice. He pretty much summed up not only the attitude of the Bush administration but the attitude of a lot of people at the time.

Granted, most of the time the producers talked about the show being about character rather than plot (which mostly went out the window when the Final Five stuff began). Still, there was plenty of room for the show to be relevant.

Things I Will Remember:

The cast: Callis, Hogan, Olmos, McDonnell, and yes Bamber and Sackhoff were generally on point, perhaps those last two less so, which I think was a function of their character’s roles as the Mulder and Scully of the ship. Aaron Douglas (Tyrol) came on strong once the New Caprica episodes began. Stockwell’s appearances on the series were always welcome, especially his first episodes and his last. And can’t forget Mark Sheppard as Romo.

The ship: I loved that ship design as a kid, and the redesign was one of the improvements of the “reimagining.” The design, the effects, for a TV series it was all well done.

In the end, BSG doesn’t rate in best all time TV series. I wouldn’t place it in the top five sci-fi/speculative fiction series. But when it was good, Baltar’s trial, the first half of the final episode, it was really good.