Welcome to BigFlax.com!

May 31, 2005

   Guess who isn't very good at updating. It isn't entirely my fault, it must be said; while work is interesting enough to me personally to ensure that the days don't drag, that really only means that I'm being kept busy and not with stuff that would interest anyone else. I have thought today that it would probably make more sense to turn this into a blog of opinions, or at least feature way more of them, since plain ol' facts and the observational comments that surround them don't quite seem to be cutting it anymore. Not that you don't get opinions now, but more of them? I don't know. Would you rather I be more of a blowhard or more absent?
    Drew and I went to the England-US friendly on Saturday. Sort of figures my first live game (aside from all the ones in high school) would be this frustrating, doesn't it? It's not that the English team was effectively a B-squad, since the US (without DaMarcus Beasley and Eddie Johnson) wasn't at full strength either (and it was just a friendly, after all). It's that the US really controlled much of the game and, with a couple more breaks, could have won something like 5-2. Both England goals were great strikes from Kieran Richardson (I assume Man U is already in the process of yanking him back from West Brom after this game), so there's nothing to complain about there - Keller just wasn't going to stop the free kick, and the second was a great finish on Richardson's part. But the US were down 2-0 at halftime and it could easily have been at least 2-2, with Landon Donovan knocking one off the post that had James totally beaten, and pushing another one just wide left of a mostly open net.
    Those were just the most obvious misses, but there were any number of others. In most cases where the US fell short it resulted from a marked inability to finish - even when the passes were good (and they weren't always; this team needs to work on its ball control), the player they were intended for had held up for some reason, or they'd knock it right into an England defender, or various other things.
    Dempsey's goal at least salvaged some respectability in the score - getting blanked by a B-team and B-goalie (James has been first choice in the past so I hear, but apparently he only started today due to an injury to Erikson's current #1 - I guess it's neat that I got to see City's keeper, but whatever) isn't too cool, even in a friendly - though Glenn Johnson got away with an egregious handball in the box late in the game that could have tied things (hard to picture James stopping a penalty kick the way he played, though I guess who knows), which for some reason everyone in the stadium saw except the referee.
    Still, for my first real football game, it was a good time (apart from the result). The seats were better than I had expected, although we managed never to see a goal up close, as all three went into the net at the north end. The atmosphere was surprisingly lively, although packed with way too many wankers from across the pond. It's a shame I don't care as much about MLS, because I'd like to see more games in person... I may have to force myself to get into it and become a Chicago Fire fan, since I don't think Alma's going to be cool with me moving to Manchester.

May 23, 2005

   News from the past nine days:
    * My temp job ended. And then, after a week's interval, I got another one at the same company (though at a different building, much closer to me in distance if not in driving time). It starts at 8:30 in the morning and not 7! Woo! It also pays a dollar more per hour, and the hours are such that I can take a 45-minute lunch and still work a full eight-hour day. I'm not going to be retiring any time soon, but it's not a bad deal.
    * Man City missed qualifying for the UEFA Cup when Robbie Fowler had a penalty kick saved (saved!) in stoppage time, giving City a mere draw with Middlesbrough. West Brom stayed up thanks to a series of only somewhat unlikely events, which means Drew gets to be annoying about them for at least the next year.
    * I saw two movies, one in a theater and one on DVD. Neither was Star Wars, which I don't know when exactly I'll get to, so no spoilers. I haven't written either review yet, partly due to time concerns, and partly because I'm not all that sure what to say about either one, at least for the length of a full review.
    * Drew and I got tickets to the US-England friendly at Soldier Field on Saturday, which was a lot sweeter before we realized that a lot of top English players couldn't be bothered to show up. I understand this impulse to some degree - it's only a friendly, we've just finished (or in some cases are still finishing) a very long club season, and real World Cup qualifiers are a mere week later. Still, it would have been nice. I don't even get to see Man City striker Shaun Wright-Phillips, who actually wanted to play, as he was ruled out due to injury. The U.S. team is probably more impressive overall, featuring Landon Donovan, Brian McBride, Josh Wolff, and youth sensation Clint Dempsey, among others. If a weakened England team means the U.S. might win, maybe it's worth it. Though I bet a lot of people at the game are going to be disappointed when they can't find Beckham on the field.

May 14, 2005

The final day of the Premiership season is tomorrow. Huge game between Manchester City and Middlesbrough - the winner (assuming there is one) goes to the UEFA Cup. Go City! Sadly, FSC is only airing two games, and both are concerned in the relegation battle - Crystal Palace at Charlton and Norwich City at Fulham. Of the four teams that could still face relegation, Norwich has the lead - they need only win and they stay up. Fulham has looked a bit more impressive, however, since Steed Malbranque came back (and scored two goals last week). West Brom, playing at home against Portsmouth, probably has the most favorable matchup (Palace and Norwich both must go on the road, and while Southampton plays at home, they get a Man U team whose pride is wounded and so is probably more dangerous than usual), but they're also last on points right now.

    Exciting movie critic news. So eFilmCritic got screeners for films showing at the Tribeca Film Festival at the start of this month. I had sent to me a documentary called The Outsider. It's directed by Nicholas Jarecki (brother of Capturing the Friedmans director Andrew) and it's about indie film director James Toback. I wrote a four-star review (out of five, remember) of the film that you can read here, though I expect none of you will have seen it. Considering it's a documentary, though, that probably means less as far as getting the review.
    The point, however, is this. A few days after posting the review I got an e-mail from none other than... Nicholas Jarecki. The film's director freaking e-mailed me. And he said the following:
    "What a great review of The Outsider!!! You really got it. Thank you."
    Holy shit. I couldn't get the grin off my face for hours.

May 12, 2005

In case you're wondering, the lack of updates in the past week does not mean that I was unable to handle getting up at five every morning and euthanized myself. It does mean that I don't have a lot of free time and even less that happens in that free time, as I've been spending most of it on the couch either getting reacquainted with A Short History of Nearly Everything or watching soccer or movies. One such movie was Primer, which I watched last night. Baffling for much of the initial viewing, it slowly reveals its secrets upon further thought. I think I love this movie.

May 5, 2005

I got a job! I know, you're all surprised. I was surprised too, at how quickly the temp agency came through. (I was in there on Tuesday to take computer tests and such, and on Wednesday I got the offer - and I started today. Kaboom.) I worked from 9 to 5 today, but tomorrow I start my regular "first shift" hours of 7 to 3. Yeah, this means I'll be getting up around five. Yippee. The good news is, the place seems pretty laid-back. My boss wears a t-shirt, for crying out loud, and in general seems to be a cool guy. (I and the other new temp, a girl about my age who'll be taking second shift, felt seriously overdressed as the only people wearing anything dressier than a polo shirt. But at least I didn't wear a tie and feel like a total tool.) The other good news is that it's so far a pretty easy job for twelve bucks an hour - just data entry stuff. We know how I am with picking up new computer programs - I already figured out a way to cut one particular workload down by about twenty times. There will be more than just data-entry work coming, but that seems to be the bulk of it. The one other minor annoyance: I have to buy a pair of steel-toed shoes. (The place is a warehouse that receives and ships windows and doors, and you can't go onto the floor without safety glasses and safety shoes. I wouldn't need to go onto the floor except the vending machines are on the other side of the warehouse from my office, plus occasionally it couldn't hurt to be able to check discrepancies in the records myself rather than having to bug the manager.) But I hear you can get them cheap at Wal-Mart, which means you can presumably get them cheap at Target too. So it's a trip there tonight. And then into bed by ten. Oh yes. The Flax you knew once is dead.

May 3, 2005

Memo to Marc Hogan: a simile in every sentence does not make your writing cool. Moreover, your criticisms of Ben Folds' latest album are almost unanimously childish and facile. You're going to criticize an artist because a couple of his songs have similar lyrical themes? I suppose anyone who ever wrote more than a couple songs about girls - like, say, pretty much every artist in music history, including yourself - sucks, then, right? Also, we're not impressed that you've heard a bunch of other Folds songs and want to show how much you think this album is "ripping off" all his others - wait a second, an artist makes songs that have a similar sound? I thought every time someone put out an album it should sound totally different from all his previous ones, because even superficial similarities would make the new one derivative! So yeah, your review sucks ass. But I guess it's my fault - I didn't realize that because the site is called Pitchfork, I have to feel like I'm in hell when I read it.

In other news, I've gone with Manchester City as my Premiership team. They've got two games left against the two teams flanking them on the table right now, Aston Villa (10th) and Middlesbrough (8th). With Spurs only three points ahead in seventh, a UEFA Cup spot is not out of the question if City can win those last two - currently they're unbeaten in six (haven't lost since March 19), three of those six being wins. City already beat Aston Villa at home in November, but lost to Boro in December on the road. I'm thinking that beating Boro (currently three up in eighth, one behind Spurs in goal differential) is the key, but really City probably needs both wins, since otherwise Spurs only need two points to seal it up, and though they have to play Boro too, their last game is against a Blackburn squad who will have nothing to play for.
It'll be okay if City doesn't make the UEFA Cup, though, since I took them more for the Man U rivalry and the presence of American and New Jersey native Claudio Reyna. Still, a good finish right after I pick them up would be pretty sweet.

May 2, 2005

Alma and I finally sat down and watched Ray over the weekend. I'll say it right now: not only did Jamie Foxx not deserve the Oscar (Don Cheadle), but I would probably take him fifth out of the five nominees. And if I could bump him out, I would (Paul Giamatti - and, for that matter, Gael Garcia Bernal, but it's not like he really had much chance of being nominated). Is he bad? No. But he really, really isn't special. What, exactly, did everyone see in this role? Or the movie as a whole? This was nominated for Best Picture, and Hackford for Best Director? It seems like almost every year there's one really questionable choice - in ten years we're going to look back on this the same way I wonder how movies like Ghost, The Fugitive, and Four Weddings and a Funeral got BP nods. (Not that any of those movies are bad, per se, but to be in a final group of five that could win Best Picture? Whoa there.)
So, at this point I may not even need to link to the review. But here it is anyway.

May 1, 2005

So, I'm going to start following soccer.

    Let me clarify. I've always followed soccer to some degree, from playing (badly) in third grade to being the cameraman for the high school team for three years, to the point of producing year-end highlight reels, senior tapes, and getting invited to the team's awards banquets. Professionally, though, it's very difficult to follow anything in this country. You're confined to the occasional MLS game (and I struggle to care a whit about the MLS), US World Cup qualifiers, the World Cup games themselves (not like they're on in primetime, though)... and that's pretty much it. It actually has transpired that ESPN2 is showing the semifinals (and presumably finals) of the UEFA Champions League (pitting the top teams in each European league against each other in an extended competition). But by and large there isn't much. My biggest experience with English soccer in particular was probably confined to reading Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch.
    This changed with the introduction to our cable lineup of Fox Soccer Channel. Not only do we get English Premiership highlight shows (it's not like you're going to hear the results on SportsCenter) to keep track of the action, there are actual games. Not just from the English league either, but from all over the world - just today Drew and I watched both the second half of a French Ligue Un game (Monaco 2-0 Lille) and the entirety of a game from freaking Argentina (River Plate 1-1 Lanus). (Nothing against Argentinean football, by the way, but I could not have told you that either of those teams existed before today.)
    Here's the point: it turns out I really love watching soccer. More than even I suspected. And this is the guy who frequently stayed up all night his sophomore year during the World Cup, whether the US was playing or not. If you've been reading the site long enough, you may remember my match reports. (If you don't, I'm going to burden you with the following link, though it's your own fault if you click it.) But I mean, international competition, that's cool. Yet here I am watching literally any game that's on (yeah, it's Sunday and we're just kicking around and there's not much else on, but it's not like there's nothing else to do here - we just liked watching the games).
    With this in mind, I want to pick up the English Premiership. Why that league as opposed to any other? I don't know, I guess I just find it the most interesting top to bottom. I've actually been to England - several times - and never to the Continent; I speak English; it seems to get, overall, the most coverage. Anyway, this Premiership season actually ends in mid-May; most teams have only two or three games left. But it's nice to get a little taste now, and then pick up a whole season starting in August (hopefully wherever I end up after this lease ends still has a cable system that gets FSC).
    With the four major North American sports, my rooting interests were formed mostly by location and my dad - I rooted for Chicago and New Jersey teams. But with the Premiership, there's nothing built in. I've never had to go through this before, actually consciously picking a team with which to cast my lot. I'm a little worried, frankly. I don't want to pick a big-time team because I'll feel like a bandwagoner, but to pick some long-suffering team and then try to assume the real longing of their fans? As a Cubs fan, I know how annoying it is to see drunk losers in Cubs hats who only "root" for the team because they went to college around here or something, and they don't really care about baseball. The difference is I'll care about soccer, but still.
    At any rate, I narrowed my possible rooting interests to seven teams. I ruled out Manchester United and Arsenal right from the start (too successful, like rooting for the Yankees), as well as Chelsea (their win this year was the first in fifty years, but picking them up now would be like just becoming a Red Sox fan – it’s uncool to leap in and cast your lot with the winner) and Liverpool (like rooting for the Cardinals). That leaves the following seven:

Tottenham – I worry that they’re too good historically, or at least too prominent, but they haven’t won the league since 1961, which kind of makes it like rooting for the San Francisco Giants. They don’t have any American players, but the north London rivalry with Arsenal is nice, and “White Hart Lane” is probably the second best ground name in the Premiership (see below).

Manchester City – They’re not Man U, which is nice. They have American Claudio Reyna, which gives me a little more direct interest. And they’re at the middle of the table and haven’t done much of anything since 1970, so I don’t have to feel like a bandwagon jumper. They were also the only team to beat Chelsea in Premiership play this year, which is kind of awesome.

Bolton – They’re the oldest team in the Premiership (in terms of average player age), which has its good and bad aspects. They’ve got Jay-Jay Okocha (from Nigeria), who I like. I liked watching them play in the Chelsea game on Saturday (which is primarily responsible for their making this list), even though they didn’t win. They haven’t won anything since the 1958 FA Cup, and they’ve never won the top flight, so it’s sort of like rooting for... I don’t know, the White Sox maybe.

Everton – They may end up in the Champions League, which gives me pause, since as nice as it is to pull for a good team, it’s hard to feel right doing it when you’ve just shown up. I like the name, though, and the cross-town rivalry with Liverpool is a good thing to have.

Fulham – They’ve got Brian McBride, which gives me some direct interest. They’re guaranteed to stay in the top division for at least one more year, but they’re near the bottom of it. And they’ve never won a major trophy, so there’s no burdensome history to worry about. On the other hand, if you pick a team with a history of not winning, you almost feel like you’re cheaply latching onto a “long-suffering” dynamic that you haven’t earned. But does that mean you should pick a team that wins? I don’t think so. Also, this would make Chelsea inter-borough rivals, which is neat in the same way that Man City and Everton would be.

Newcastle – Their nickname is the Magpies, which I’ve enjoyed ever since I heard of the Australian NRL team called the Western Suburbs Magpies. That’s about the only reason they’re here, though; that and their status in the bottom half of the table.

West Brom – “The Hawthorns” is quite possibly the coolest name for a stadium that’s out there, in my opinion. But this team is almost certainly going to be relegated unless they can beat either Man U or Arsenal (they finish with Portsmouth, a much more likely possible win, but it’s quite conceivable that three points in the final three games won’t be enough), and if the point is to pick a team to follow in Premiership football, picking one that isn’t in the Premiership anymore is no way to start. Sure, taking a mid-to-bottom-table team (like Fulham or Newcastle) is just as dangerous in the long run, but at least I’d be guaranteed to get one year out of it.

So, assuming anyone besides Drew cares even the slightest bit about this, what's your opinion? Should I pick one of the seven? Should I just follow the games and determine individual rooting interests based on the particular match? Should I never make a post about soccer this long again?

There's more! View last month's updates.

Thanks to Verio for the domain and my parents for paying it off.

Want to send me mail? Here.

BigFlax.com is probably not legitimately copyrighted under the laws of any country. Just don't steal stuff and claim it was yours, please.

This page last updated: Wednesday, June 01, 2005 05:39:31 AM