Tuesday, November 23, 2010

If It Was Only Loss He Wore, He Wore It to Assert, with Fierce Devotion, Complicity and Nothing More

Hey!  Did you know Washington DC has a professional soccer team?


It's true!

MLS is expanding to Portland and Vancouver next season. Each current MLS team must make available for draft by Portland or Vancouver eleven players (though no current MLS team can lose more than two players). Here's who the shittiest team in MLS made available:

GK Troy Perkins, F Pablo Hernandez, D-MF Devon McTavish, MF Brandon Barklage, F Adam Cristman, D Jordan Graye, MF Kurt Morsink, D Barry Rice, MF Carlos Varela, D Juan Manuel Pena, F Danny Allsopp.

If I was Portland or Vancouver, I'd take Troy Perkins and his salary in a nanosecond. Watch. Perkins is behind Hamid here (which is fine) but was once in USMNT keeper pool. Maybe he sucks now, maybe the team in front of him sucked more, probably it's both, but a chance of a veteran keeper who was not long ago almost all that? Watch Perkins leave a bad situation and go out West and play himself into the pool for WC14. I like Perkins - he gets LOUD SIDE! I hope it happens, for good reasons.


Just a clarification: when I said
She (Palin) was offered the Sarah Palin Decade and said yes...
and then said both Palin and Obama were
offered roles of a lifetime, (and were) smart enough to say yes.
I didn't mean to imply I wouldn't have said yes too. You be the judge of you.


United protected:

D Dejan Jakovic, MF Branko Boskovic, MF-F Chris Pontius, D Marc Burch, D-MF Rodney Wallace, MF-F Santino Quaranta, MF Stephen King, MF-F Junior Carreiro, D Jed Zayner, MF Clyde Simms, D Julius James.

Burch! Relief floods Casa Satanica! Me? I've no arguments with who United protected versus who was left unprotected - I wouldn't swap an a-lister for a b-lister - which speaks volumes about the general suckitude of the talent.

Ideally, a team would have their new head coach in place so he could have input re: his system and the players he wants for that system, though in United's case, being forced to protect players they'd just as soon go away, it doesn't matter. Good thing our deposits are in for next year's season tickets.




    BLACK JACKETS

    Thom Gunn

       In the silence that prolongs the span
    Rawly of music when the record ends,
       The red-haired boy who drove a van
    In weekday overalls but, like his friends,
    
       Wore cycle boots and jacket here
    To suit the Sunday hangout he was in,
       Heard, as he stretched back from his beer,
    Leather creak softly round his neck and chin.
    
       Before him, on a coal-black sleeve
    Remote exertion had lined, scratched, and burned
       Insignia that could not revive
    The heroic fall or climb where they were earned.
    
       On the other drinkers bent together,
    Concocting selves for their impervious kit,
       He saw it as no more than leather
    Which, taut across the shoulders grown to it,
    
       Sent through the dimness of a bar
    As sudden and anonymous hints of light
       As those that shipping give, that are
    Now flickers in the Bay, now lost in night.
    
       He stretched out like a cat, and rolled
    The bitterish taste of beer upon his tongue,
       And listened to a joke being told:
    The present was the things he stayed among.
    
       If it was only loss he wore,
    He wore it to assert, with fierce devotion,
       Complicity and nothing more.
    He recollected his initiation,
    
       And one especially of the rites.
    For on his shoulders they had put tattoos:
       The group's name on the left, The Knights,
    And on the right the slogan Born To Lose.


    Woke up with that in my head. This too:

    13 comments:

    1. That Zen bit 'tis th'evolution of comedy, oh non-serious people who play them on teevee, how I enjoy nelsonmuntzing thee.

      ReplyDelete
    2. I could see Vancouver picking up Perkins, but since Portland have already signed Steve Cronin from their USL forebears I think they'll use him as their starter.

      I'd really like to see either of them get Dax McCarty from Dallas or Patrick Ianni from Seattle.

      All in, Portland and Vancouver have MUCH better options than Philly last season.

      ReplyDelete
    3. As for Philip K. Dick, I'd recommend The Man in the High Castle. It's actually more alternative history than SF and it's a bit more accessible than his later druggier stuff.

      ReplyDelete
    4. Thanks man, I'll check it out (literally). Good thing I have access to a university library's stacks.

      Yes Randal, the first sentence in this comment is a very old joke for very old librarians.

      ReplyDelete
    5. I'd second Man in the High Castle.

      I will say that Dick's ideas and style are less stunning than they used to be, largely because they've been aped and co-opted again and again.

      ReplyDelete
    6. I third Man in the High Castle. For a more definitively sci-fi but still potential "in" option, you could also try Martian Time-Slip, which is probably my favorite, at least today, at least of the ones I've read. Could be up your alley, it seems to me.

      Out of curiosity, do you understand why you're unable to read sci-fi, or is it too vague to pinpoint?

      ReplyDelete
    7. I fourth Man in the High Castle. I've been trying to work my way through the Library of America volumes of his work, and MitHC is still the only one of his books I like. But I like it a lot; I reread it every few years, still with pleasure.

      If you find you like it, you might have a look at John Okada's non-sf novel No-No Boy, which I wrote about here http://thisislikesogay.blogspot.com/2007/12/rapture.html , and if you haven't read Monica Sone's Nisei Daughter, you should just on general principles.

      ReplyDelete
    8. Thanks All, MItHC on my desk and will start tonight or tomorrow.

      Ethan, abbreviated answer is genre snobbery - I'm small that way - combined with having too much I want to read (and reread) that I'll never have time to get to.

      More than that, of course. I wrote about it a couple of years ago. I'll try (but not very hard) to find it. I'll let you know how MItHC works.

      ReplyDelete
    9. I exponentially endorse Man in the High Castle.

      Also: limited relief at Casa Satanica--while myffic hero Burchie is protected (but still slow and palsied), versatile dworkwad and considerably less myffic hillbilly D McT ain't.

      For reals? I'll judge Troy when he's got a defense in front of him.

      ReplyDelete
    10. I don't know if you'd classify "Dr. Rat" by William Kotzwinkle as science fiction, but I recommend it.

      I haven't read Man in the High Castle, but I'll put it on the reading list based on the rave reviews.

      ReplyDelete
    11. Ah, genre snobbery. I tend to have that in reverse, so I understand.

      ReplyDelete