arse poetica

I Canna Help It

The man, I love him.

_________________

UPDATE: 12.12.07: Morrissey the most English person in the world?

The FA should look to Morrissey, not Mourinho.

England's new manager must be to England what Captain America is to America. He must be the very distillation of Englishness. And in all seriousness, there can be only one candidate. Cometh the crisis, cometh the man. Step forward Stephen Patrick Morrissey*.

[snip]

Morrissey should be the new England manager because, despite being Irish, he is the most English person alive apart from Mrs Thatcher, who is a woman. And like Mrs Thatcher he is of the opinion that real Englishness is under threat.

Morrissey is not only the most English Englishman alive, he's also the most northern (as revealed by an online poll carried out by Salford art gallery, The Lowry). And northerness is to Englishness what unicorns are to horses, what with being further away from France.

They should give awards for sentences like that last one.

 

[*ahem, that's Steven Patrick Morrissey, thank you.]

Better Red Than Dead

My fave pic from db's marathon TailgatePalooza w/ his college pals this past weekend. Not pictured: unholy amounts of fried chicken, 70,000 rednecks.

I ask you, really, what is an RV without a satellite dish on top?

[This one goes out to Dougie!]

Go Heels!!

Do not get us started on last week's loss to Georgetown. What. Ever. I'm trying to focus instead on how beautiful it is around here w/ the dogwoods and red buds and azaleas in bloom. Spring is a fiiiine time in Chapel Hill, NC, friends. These are the days I walk around campus and think how damn lucky I am to be in the midst of such beauty. That said, it is really difficult being inside slaving over deadlines when the Arboretum is just across the way!

Go, gals, go!!

This Is So Cool!

Have y'all seen the Times' interactive 2007 N.C.A.A. Basketball Tournament bracket? I love the interwebs!

For those of y'all who do not eat, sleep, and breathe basketball like we do in NC (Tar Heels #1 seeds for both men and women!), please feel free to ignore this. =)

UPDATE: The women's bracket here (PDF).

Whatevs.

You can take the record, but you can't fill the shoes of the man who held it.

Bob Knight Sets Record for Most Wins.

Bob Knight has been the game's orneriest coach forever. Now he's the winningest, too. Knight earned career victory No. 880 the hard way when his Texas Tech Red Raiders blew a 20-point lead but withstood a 3-point miss at the buzzer to beat New Mexico 70-68 on Monday in a game lacking the fanfare of his first attempt.

None of Knight's famous friends made it to West Texas to see him break the men's Division I record he shared with former North Carolina coach Dean Smith.

Dean Smith: a great man and a class act. A person who fought for civil rights in North Carolina, who graduated world-class basketball teams at a rate of 96%+, who never laid a hand on anybody and comported himself like a professional and a person of substance, who never had a pissy word to say (unlike his competitor down the road, protege of today's honoree, ahem), whose impact on the game is immeasurable, who instilled in his players self-respect and respect for others, who inspired countless people to forge a community of spirit. The day he announced his retirement, this Tar Heel teared up, and I wasn't the only one. Give me Dean Smith over some yelling, chair-throwing, player-hitting blowhard any day. He would have been much more gracious about this than I am being, but then that's because he is the great Dean Smith.

UPDATE: Move over boys, Sandy reminds me that the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history is Pat Summitt with 913 wins and counting. Way to kick ass, Pat! You've got many fans next-door in NC.

Lounge Life

A fun day yesterday. I slept late, lounged in the room while the power was out, and read the paper. The power outage didn't last long, and in a grand stone inn, a power outage just adds to the whole Agatha Christie-ness of it all anyway. The power was out just long enough to persuade us to head to City Bakery for breakfast. Yummy cranberry muffin.

Then off to downtown for what turned into a gallery walk. I'd wanted to check out the shopping downtown, seeing as there are lots of interesting, one-off shops, but general shopping bores me to tears. No worries, there was art every 4 steps, and I spent most of 4 hours downtown browsing really interesting metal work (including yard art!), less pottery than I thought, lots of nature photography (duh), and some great  portraits. There is one portrait painted by a person aided by an organization that works w/ developmentally disabled people that I may go back and get today. I love it. I spent so much time in galleries that I barely had any time to spend in the bookstore that was my destination.

I did finally make it to Malaprop's and spent my little time left before db picked me up reading Alison Bechdel's awesome Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which, like an ass, I did not buy for some reason, but I'll go back and get it today. It's a worthwhile addition to the home library. Y'all check this book out if you haven't already. Smart, beautifully rendered, rueful, damn clever.

A late lunch of the absolute best quesadilla I've ever had -- curried potato and spinach w/ homemade mole sauce -- from the Laughing Seed Cafe, the area's premier veggie joint. Do not even get me started on the East/West Quesadilla! One of the best things I've ever eaten. If you're heading to Asheville, you'll be happy you stopped in to Laughing Seed. It's like the nicest hippie vibe ever in nicely lit, soothing but swank digs.

Then we were back to the best.hotel.room.ever. for a little rest before heading out to a yoga class. We are so 100% the stereotype for our demographic! It's almost embarrassing. Peace, man. Now I have to run out to peek at more art, so I'll have to write about the adorable yoga teacher latre. Right out of Central Casting, in the "hottt" mode, that is. I feel so unkinked today though. db and I are like rubber bands.

And glory be! No one's writing me emails! I'm free! Thanks for the vacation, work peeps!

Woman As Exotic Other

The dumbass "Today Show" just realized that women play sports! Yes, it's true. Actual moms put on actual cleats and run around actual fields! Breaking news! And guess what, these moms feel like they're still "ladylike," even though "some people" feel like running around and sweating isn't "ladylike." And shockingly, some women valiantly go against the grain and participate in other exotic sports like softball and basketball, because it's not just for men anymore.

::checking calendar:: 

Yep, still 2006, just like I thought.

Maybe we can send a copy of Title IX to the idjits at the "Today Show." That legislation dates from 1972. I grew up playing all of the sports listed above, starting in 4th grade, almost 30-yrs-ago. Pray tell, why the report on women playing sports as if it is a strange new trend or bizarre outlier? Is it because some producer thought a twist on the rich, white "soccer mom" meme would be cute? Oh, those wacky producers and their double entendres! Further normalizing the idea that men and their pursuits are the norm and women are Exotics and Others! Put us in a zoo! Thanks, "Today Show"!

Ptooie.

[photo: ae | my aunt Lois's cat looking like I feel | RI, 06.10.06]

Maybe (the Goddess of) Love Doesn't Conquer All?

I really like this photo.

Venus Williams Loses at French Open.

I love Venus Williams' strength and skill on the court, and I guess I don't understand why frail and brittle half-dead-looking women are considered attractive (well, I do, but that's another post) when a woman like Venus Williams is out there. I prefer badass people, frankly, and watching an athlete with this level of skill is exhilarating.  She's beautiful.

Woohoo!

 

		1	2					T
#15 North Carolina		37	46					83
#1 Duke		38	38					76

Friends, I have no idea what y'all in non-basketball country do on March evenings when you may be enjoying yourself at a cookout w/ friends, say, like this evening, and around 8:30 p.m. all conversation turns to The Game and where one is going to watch it. Do you just yawn and reach for another plate of delicious food? Do you turn the conversation to topics less contentious like abortion, war, or religion? [Not a lot of contentiousness here, as all people in attendance have the good sense to be Tar Heels.] Do you vow never to let your children grow up to attend basketball dynasty schools where the words "Dean" and "Smith" must be uttered w/ a hushed reverence usually reserved for evening vespers?

Who are you people??

I did feel bad for the Volvo-driving, latte-sippin', NY Times-reading intellectuals among us who don't -- gasp! -- have cable* [cue: scream of horror] and therefore had to spend a long moment lamenting their deprived existence and lusting after others' capitalist excess. And it's not like the host of the cookout could help out at all as he does not even have a television, natch.

So, yeah, we won!

[*I learned tonight that some games are shown on cable rather than on the networks, especially if they have high revenue potential, which this game does. In fact, it is the game w/ the highest revenue potential and was shown on all 4 ESPN channels. When I suggested to some cable-less pals that they watch the livestream via their DSL line, which struck me as an ingenious solution, I was informed that there is a fee for this, too, which made me smack myself for momentarily forgetting that capitalism would've figured this out long before I would have.]

Is Anybody Else...

... as wrapped up in the Curling competition as db and I are? We are loving the Curling! We are not remotely understanding the Curling! No matter. Sheet? Skip? Hack? Tee? Blissfully ignorant are we. And that we watch it w/ the sound off helps to keep us in the dark about the particulars of this odd, ancient sport of the Scots.

It's fun just watching a sport for the athletes' intensity and focus and letting the drama come from their reactions than from our own aggrieved sense of misguided strategy.

Yesterday's women's match (?) against Japan was a barn burner. db and I would tense up, thinking, Ooooh! Too bad!, and then they'd cut to the audience cheering wildly, and we'd be like, Alright, nevermind! Good, good!