World Cup Teams as US College Football Programs, Part 1

For today's "Countdown to the World Cup" entry, I'm going to look at some of the perennial World Cup national teams (sides) and how I would compare them to the panoply of American college football-- similarities, styles, histories, etc. Bear with me here and I think you'll see what I mean:

Mexico: Texas A&M Aggies
All the pieces are there, but they can't quite get to the next
level--and lately, the local rival's started beating them down, too.

Portugal: Georgia Bulldogs
Generations of great players, colorful and fun to watch, but they
never seem to win the big one. Upset by USA in 2002 was like South
Carolina knocking off the Dawgs at the start of several seasons.

Paraguay: Virginia Tech Hokies
No-name players playing great defense and special teams, and find away
to win (or at least draw).

Uruguay: Army Black Knights
Some great champions, but so far in the past that hardly anyone
remembers anymore.

South Korea: BYU Cougars
They run around and around and around and finally you're exhausted
just *watching* them...

Netherlands: Florida Gators
Came out of nowhere a while back, with some flashy players in a flashy
system. But not a whole lot of hardware to show for it, over the
years.

France: Colorado Buffaloes (or Georgia Tech Yellowjackets)

Sucked sucked sucked sucked CHAMPIONS aaaand back to sucking...

Saudi Arabia: SMU Mustangs
They get their teeth kicked in by everybody, but then they get to ride
back home in really expensive cars.

Costa Rica, Ecuador, Tunisia, Angola, etc: Division 1-AA
Can rise up and shock a 1-A team every now and then, but aren't
getting into the BCS.


So there's the bottom half of the list. Next time: The top half, including the top soccer teams on Earth-- and the USA!

COUNTDOWN to the World Cup is now ON!! 28 Days...

Just 28 days until the 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off! The Countdown starts here, now!

Join me in the days to come for my various articles, notes and lists (hopefully both informative and entertaining) about the World Cup, the countries and teams involved, and the cultural hoo-hah surrounding it.

Today's quick note: Watching the games on television in the US.

Because South Africa is a few hours ahead of the US, the first of each day's 1st Round matches will begin at 6 a.m. CST. Yikes!

For those without a DVR or a VCR, here's some important info from ESPN.com:


MATCH REAIRS ON ESPN CLASSIC AND ESPN2

ESPN Classic will reair all 64 FIFA World Cup matches. Each matchday, between at 6 p.m. and 12 a.m., the network will present all the matches played earlier that day.

ESPN and ESPN2 will air the best match of the day on select nights throughout the tournament.

Countdown2Countdown: A Few Rules of Thumb

A few rules of thumb when picking your World Cup brackets:

* Spain always chokes.

* Mexico rarely gets past the 2nd round, even though they're good.

* France either does GREAT (making it to two of the last three final games, and winning one) or TERRIBLE (failed to score a goal in the entire first round in 2002).

* The USA alternates good and bad showings every World Cup.
1990: Bad.
1994: Okay. Second round.
1998: Bad.
2002: Quarterfinals!
2006: Bad.
2010??
So we're due for a good showing. (But I don't really believe it.)

* Brazil played in the final game of three of the last four World Cups. They won the two that were NOT held in Europe. This one is in South Africa.

* African teams look flashy but seem to flame out. European teams tend to do very well in Cups held in Europe but not as well in non-European host countries.

* The host country has made it to the second round of every World Cup. Will that streak end this year?

* During the build-up to a Cup, some unexpected national teams will inevitably look better than expected. But when it comes down to it, the same old usual suspects are mostly there at the end: Brazil, Germany, Italy, France, Argentina.

Countdown 2 Countdown: WC BRACKETS COMPETITION!!

The World Cup bracket prediction competition has begun!

It works like the NCAA hoops tourney.
To participate, go to:

http://games.espn.go.com/bpredictor/en/group?groupID=12719

Group: World Cup Avengers
Password: ironman

Countdown 2 Countdown: Five Odd Things from the WC

Today's installment in our irregularly-timed "Countdown to the Countdown to the World Cup of Eating, 2010" (yes, I know it has a different title every time....):

FIVE ODD THINGS FROM RECENT WORLD CUPS

5. "Korea Team Fighting." This was (and is?) the South Korean team's slogan. Part of me loves it, and part of me thinks it sounds like the kind of bad translation from an Asian language that is usually reserved only for instruction manuals for electronics like big-screen TVs and DVD players.

4. The "German Mannschaft." In German, I am to understand that this means the equivalent of "The German National Soccer Team." But in English, it's just... disturbing.

3. The Australians and their %$#& inflatable yellow and green kangaroos.

2. Scotland's "Tartan Army" getting drunk in Paris. I would give quite a bit to hang out with my Scottish kin at a World Cup-- but Scotland has to actually qualify for another one first!

1. Ecuador's "Spider Man" celebrates a goal! I have no idea what this is all about. Truly. But--you're #1, dude!

Countdown to Countdown to 30 Days of World Cup Eating

JUNE 11 is Day One of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

It can't get here soon enough.

Each day of the Cup, I will be posting my thoughts -- not so much about the sports event as about the countries, the craziness, the food I'm eating while watching, the drinks I'm drinking while watching, and what Ami, Maddie, and Mira and I are doing.

If you were reading this space when I did this in 2006, you probably had a good time. (I certainly got lots of great comments from readers.) Highlights (and lowlights) included making fun of the trophy, discussing the walking pneumonia I had through most of the tourney, deciding which beer would be named Official Beer of the 2006 World Cup (the winner was DOS EQUIS), talking about the crazy English ex-pat fans I hung out with at the Irish pub in Atlanta, conducting a World Cup of Best Atlanta Venues to Eat and Watch the Games, and commenting on the psychedelic, drug-addled German mascot, among many other features. We also kept track of how much weight I was gaining each day-- though the pneumonia played havoc with that. (Fortunately??)

My partner in crime for part of the shenanigans was fellow Southerner and fellow soccer fan David Wright. I'm hoping to rope him back in for more fun this time around, if only remotely.

Thirty days prior to the beginning of the Cup (or on May 11, actually), I will begin posting my daily "Countdown to the Thirty Days of World Cup Eating." (Notice how the title keeps changing? Yeah, me too.)

But today, since I just can't wait any longer, I'm kicking things off officially-- with my "COUNTDOWN TO THE COUNTDOWN TO THIRTY DAYS OF WORLD CUP EATING."

Today's topic: Potential Eating & Drinking Venues for the 2010 Thirty Days.

Now that I'm relocated to St. Louis, all my old options are out the window. That means no La Cazuela (the 2006 champs), no Loafing Leprechaun, no Old Towne Tavern, and no hotel bar in Charlotte, NC.

This year we're probably looking at contenders that will include:

* Buffalo Wild Wings (Belleville, IL)
* The Irish pub in downtown Belleville whose name escapes me
* DiCarlo's in Red Bud (if they have a TV..! If only I'd been able to watch Italy win it all with them last time!)
* Tigin Irish Pub in St Louis
* ...
this area has a serious dearth of good sports bars, compared to Atlanta!! But we'll find more venues soon.

Good luck to all the contenders for this year's "Best Venue" competition!

See you next time with more Countdown to the Countdown.
Send in your comments!!

Ole, Ole Ole etc etc.
--Van

2010 World Cup (of Eating) coming soon!

I pretty much abandoned this blog when I joined Facebook in 2008. But it makes an ideal place to post my daily updates on the World Cup-- and what I'm eating and drinking and thinking about while watching it-- as I did in 2006.

Witty observations, odd photos, and updates on the craziness surrounding the month-long event: that's what you can expect.

The 2006 "Van's World Cup of Eating" blog appears to be lost forever, which is sad. (I worked hard on that thing-- and it was funny!) But I'll do my best to make this year's edition even better.

Stay tuned! We're just 2 1/2 months away from the start of my "Thirty Days' Countdown!"

Comics of 2008

I have posted my thoughts on the best and worst comics of 2008 on the AvengersAssemble! board:

http://vplexico.proboards60.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=jarvis08&thread=2245

25 Favorite Movies

I haven't done this in a while, so here we go:

Van's Top 25 Movies - Updated December 2008

1. Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
3. Star Wars
4. Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
5. Iron Man
6. Casablanca
7. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
8. The 13th Warrior
9. Serenity
10. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
11. V for Vendetta
12. Babe
13. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
14. The Crow
15. Die Hard
16. Gladiator
17. Dead Again
18. Ocean's 11 (2001)
19. Payback
20. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
21. LA Confidential
22. Return of the Jedi
23. The Empire Strikes Back
24. Henry V
25. Highlander

Recently pushed off Top 25 List:

Pulp Fiction
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Chocolat
X-Men 2
Goodfellas
Captain Blood

Secret New Project Coming...! (3 of 3)

Aaaaaannnnd finally-- picture #3.

Who is Raven?? What's this all about??

More to come...

Secret New Project Coming...! (2 of 3)

Another mystery figure... novels coming in 2009...!

Secret New Project Coming...! (1 of 3)

Who is this??

More coming tomorrow...

Kull and Solomon Kane

As much as I like the character of Solomon Kane-- the Puritan crusader who wanders the Earth, rapier and pistol at the ready -- better than any of R E Howard's other creations, I haven't enjoyed the Dark Horse comic as much as I'd hoped. It's seemed a bit muddled to me, and the pacing has been off. The art is close enough to what I'd want for the property, but it's not always clear enough as to what's going on.

Meanwhile, I've never cared much at all about Kull, the barbarian who stole a kingdom (and who mainly served as an early template for Conan's later career)...

But I picked up KULL #1 this week and found I really enjoyed it. It's a lot more in the style of what I expected the new/relaunched Howard properties from DH to be like. The writing is crisp and fast-paced and the art is perfectly suited to the character and the world.

If you like the classic Howard properties, give this one a try. Meanwhile, I hope SOLOMON KANE improves soon.

SENTINELS: ALTERNATE VISIONS

Here's a thumbnail of the preliminary cover for SENTINELS: ALTERNATE VISIONS.

The cover art is by Danny Wall (who was book designer for ASSEMBLED!), doing a riff (at my request) off of Don Heck's classic Avengers #45 cover.

This will be a regular-sized trade paperback that will contain all the short stories that have previously only appeared in the big Widescreen hardcover... plus two new Sentinels-related stories by Adrian Watts and David Wright... and two new Sentinels stories by me (Van) that bridge the gap between Sentinels volumes three and four.

That means you get stories by Ian Watson, Ron Fortier, Bobby Nash, Wayne Skiver, and more-- plus some of the great artwork that also appeared in the hardcover.

This book is tentatively scheduled for early 2009! More info as it becomes available, posted here and at the Sentinels site: http://www.whiterocketbooks.com/sentinels

HOW SOCCER EXPLAINS THE WORLD

If you're into European or world soccer, and are looking to choose a team to support, but you don't know much at all about the socio-political situations surrounding each team... and you care at all about history, or at least you care at all about the perceptions of those around you who *know* the history of these teams... Then you need to get a copy of Franklin Foer's HOW SOCCER EXPLAINS THE WORLD and read it cover to cover.

I wish I had before I chose the teams I'd follow!

Operating mostly on ignorance and what little I gathered from watching Setanta and FSC, reading a few FOUR FOUR TWO magazines and surfing the Web, I somewhat arbitrarily decided I liked the following clubs, among others: Chelsea (England), Real Madrid (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy), and Rangers (Scotland). Likewise I decided I did *not* like, among others, Barcelona.

Now that I have read most of Foer's book, I feel sort of foolish.

Because now I am mostly convinced that I should support Barcelona and hate Real Madrid... that I should stay as far away from Rangers (and Celtic, too, for that matter) as possible... and that I never, ever should have chosen Chelsea as my favorite club of all.
And this is not just because of Foer arguing in favor of his personal preferences--though he does, to a degree. It's because of the *history* of these clubs that he lays out in very clear and persuasive fashion.

England: Chelsea, as it turns out, were long the favored team of English neo-Nazis and crazy fascist bastards. Their squads of savage hooligans (such as the Chelsea Headhunters) left the other English teams' hooligans in the dust. The only saving grace for me is that this seems to have receded in recent years, and of course today the club is owned by a Russian Jew. So maybe I can keep my Chelsea jerseys and continue to support the Blues in good conscience, anyway.

Scotland: Rangers and Celtic, who were both appealing to me as a (part) Scotsman, turn out to have hordes of crazy fanatics on both sides, singing about being "up to their knees" in each other's blood and chanting horrendous things about the Pope, for example. After reading the chapter on Rangers and Celtic, my revulsion at their religious conflict was such that I want nothing to do with either of these Scottish league powers.

Italy: I'm not sure about Inter Milan, but Foer lays out a clear case that I did better choosing them than going with either of the more popular sides in Italy. Juventus essentially is owned by the Fiat car company and has been involved in corrupt government manipulation for decades. AC Milan has served mainly as a political platform for the apparently very corrupt Italian premier (Berlusconi). Neither comes off very well in the book.

Spain: And finally, and possibly worst of all, Real Madrid and Barcelona. I chose Real Madrid last year as my Liga team after watching replays of the previous season on Gol TV and watching them chase down Barcelona and win the title on the last day. They played with panache and their defense included the captain of the World Cup champions, Fabio Cannavaro--and Italy is my (non-US) national team. So I got a Madrid Cannavaro jersey.

Whoops.

First there's the history. Turns out that Madrid were the team of Franco and the Castillian fascists, while Barcelona have always been more sophisticated and cosmopolitan. Barca's team colors come from the French Revolutionary flag. By contrast, Madrid seems extremely unsavory. Yikes. Strike one on Madrid!

Also turns out that Madrid are the Yankees and Barcelona are the Red Sox. And since I'm an Auburn (not Alabama) fan and a Red Sox (not Yankees) fan, and thus tend to associate myself with the more "underdog" team in a rivalry... clearly I had no business going with Madrid. Strike two on Madrid.

And finally, Barcelona is the only side in Europe to not sell the front of their jerseys for money-- when they finally put something on the front, it was UNICEF. Now that's cool. They're cosmopolitan and proudly Catalan, but not violently so (unlike, say, the Basques). They have a team museum but it's filled with art, not just shoes and soccer balls and trophies. In fact, during the Spanish Civil War, Franco's guys bombed the Barcelona museum to destroy Barca's trophies. Strike three on Madrid!

I won't drop Chelsea, and Inter survived this book intact, but I won't be buying that Rangers jersey now... and the Madrid jersey may go in the trash. Certainly I'm switching to Barca and getting one of their red and blue jerseys asap.

Happy Breakaway Day!

Happy Breakaway Day, everyone!

Actually, we're at Breakaway + 9 years, but who's counting? :-)

Updated DragonCon Schedule

Now with a Reading added.

Fri 04:00 pm M301 - M304 Dragon*AutoGraph 1 Hour AUTO
Fri 05:30 pm International North Politics in SF 1 Hour SFLIT
Fri 08:30 pm Fairlie Communication from Beyond 1 Hour SFLIT

Sat 10:00 am Fairlie Tolkien & Lewis Breakfast Roundtable 1 Hour SFLIT
Sat 02:30 pm Greenbriar The Dark Tower 1 Hour SFLIT
Sat 04:00 pm Williams Dragon*Reading: Van Allen Plexico 1 Hour READ
Sat 05:30 pm L508 Marvel vs DC Jeopardy 1 Hour COMICS
Sat 10:00 pm Fairlie Attack of Dead Author's Society 1 Hour SFLIT

Sun 10:00 am Greenbriar Small Press & Self-Publishing 1 Hour SFLIT
Sun 01:00 pm A703 Planet of the Apes 40th Anniversary 1 Hour CLSF
Sun 02:30 pm A703 What happened to the Sci-Fi Channel? 1 Hour CLSF
Sun 04:00 pm Greenbriar SF & Fantasy Jeopardy 1 Hour SFLIT
Sun 05:30 pm A703 King Kong: 75th Anniversary 1 Hour CLSF
Sun 07:00 pm Fairlie Look at All the Purty Pictures 1 Hour SFLIT

Mon 10:00 am Fairlie Roger Zelazny: Face of the New Wave 1 Hour SFLIT
Mon 11:30 am Greenbriar Tales of Dragaera 1 Hour SFLIT

Last year's POLITICS IN SF panel-- me vs Ringo vs Kratman, et al

A blast from the (recent) past, to set the stage for this year's upcoming Round Three!

From the POLITICS IN SF panel at DragonCon 2007:

Dragon Con schedule 2008

Here's my tentative schedule for Dragon*Con:

http://permutedpress.com/smf/index.php?topic=3907.0

Charles Tan interviews Matt Staggs

Matt Staggs, my publicist for Swarm Press, gave me (and my stable-mates) a mention near the end of his interview with Charles Tan:

http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2008/08/feature-interview-with-matt-staggs.html

Thanks, Matt!