From the Vaults: Bad Ideas and Best Intentions

I found this the other day while unpacking some notebooks. It's a poem, and while there's no date on it, I remember writing it while at Weeds Cafe, a place I only started frequenting in 2006. There's no edits on the page, other than swapping 'best' for 'good' in the title and the removal of 'clear' after 'Blue eyes', so I probably jotted it down over a cup of coffee and promptly forgot about it.

Bad Ideas and Best Intentions

Lines I wish I'd written

Old friends lost and never seen

awash, adrift, away

a melody of damaged goods

blue eyes across a coffee shop

tussled hair leads tussled lives

the half-tucked shirt tails of unfinished plans

laughter, frowns, tears, regrets

stolen moments, cigarettes

a diary of best intentions

a scrapbook of wasted of time

my too-tight t-shirt hugs my shoulders

like the smoke of past deeds caught on my sleeves

Cadence Weapon Tron Legacy Mixtape

I would probably be remiss if I failed to mention that Cadence Weapon has released a pay-what-you can mixtape of him rapping over some beats and riffs of the moment, trading space with Buck 65, Shad, eating donairs and about hanging out with Daft Punk for Tron Legacy. It's pretty sweet and low key.

Get it here.

Song of the Day: Cadence Weapon, Real Estate

'cuz, I made a deal today. I sold some real estate.

Song of the Day: Crocodiles, "Hearts of Love"

Like the Beach Boys meeting up with the Jesus and Mary Chain at a Sonic Youth tribute show.

This Memory Brought To You By...

It's late and I'm trying to watch an early film by Akira Kurosawa. Generally, the famed Japanese director succeeds in taking me away to wonderful, fantastical places, but tonight his presentation of post-war Tokyo is doing little to conquer my own imagination and memories, spurred on by a cup of warm apple cider.

I suppose everyone has their own wonder food. Proust had his little madeleines, capable of taking him back to his childhood. For me, every sip of apple cider contains within it the memory of every other swallow. The initial taste, sweet on the tongue, is of my first trip to Calgary's Kensington District in the fall of my Grade 10 year. As a kid from Calgary's northeast, Kensington seemed otherworldly. I forget what movie I had gone to see with my friends, a mix of boys and girls thrown together. We barely knew each other and couples were still sorting themselves out. After the movie, we had stopped at a coffee shop. I ordered apple cider with a stick of cinnamon in it. I don't think I impressed anyone that night.

The next few sips bring wonderful memories of lying in bed, deep in winter, well past midnight, reading William T. Vollmann's excellent novel, The Atlas, with only my cider to keep me company as I ride Vollmann's vivid prose across snowy Japan and frigid Manitoba.

Then come phantom memories. Ice skating at Olympic Plaza. Snow forts. Things I'm pretty sure I never did.

Finally, as the cup cools, the satisfaction of sitting snowed-in at Lake Louise, writing happily as my wife knits nearby, drinking cider and watching the sun cross the lake, no one else in sight.

Escapist

I am pleased to say (if belatedly) that I managed to complete last weekend's goal of writing a new wedding scene for my novel. I estimate that the revision of the novel, as a whole, is at close to 80% finished. It took having a fairly miserable head cold and getting snowed in at a deserted hotel, listening to the new Girl Talk album on repeat to get the new chapter done, but boy does it feel good (or maybe it's the meds). Once the weather cleared, leaving behind only the -30 conditions outside, spending most of the day staring out of the window at this particular view also helped.

Of course, being holed up in a lonely hotel working on a novel as I was, made me think of this heartwarming little movie.

Song of the Day: Titus Andronicus, Richard II

"But there's only one dream that I keep close

and it's the one of my hand at your throat."

Deathly Hallows, Unreviewable

David Harris, the editor over at Spectrum Culture, has written a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One. In his introduction, he suggests that there will be countless reviews of the movie, and questions the need to review it at all. I would like to take this a step further and state that the movie is probably unreviewable.

Let's think about this for a second. Yes, it is still possible to issue a technical review of the movie, commenting on things like camera angles and sound editing, but my understanding is that this is still largely the same technical team that has been responsible for several of the other movies. Similarly, the director and writing team have already had a chance to express their views on a variety of themes and motifs in the Harry Potter universe. I think it would be a reasonable to assume that their work here will continue what they have already established elsewhere. Thus, every viewer of the past movies has the necessary experience to determine whether, based on the earlier movies, they want to see the new one.

Further, it is common practice for some to comment on the degree of faithfulness of the movie to books, or the creativity in the adapting or the sequencing of different parts for a movie audience, but the whole film-in-two-parts aspect of The Deathly Hallows suggest that we can only really evaluate Part One in the context of how well it works in conjunction with Part Two.

Finally, while there is a legitimate review to be written for the small segment of population who have not read the books nor viewed any of the movies but (for some strange reason) decided that Episode 7 of 8 is where they want to be introduced to the world of JK Rowling, those few people are in need of a review written expressly from the viewpoint, for that purpose. I would suggest that few of the writers reviewing The Deathly Hallows are capable of such a feat.

For most of us, if we have watched the previous movies, or read the books, then we have already either made a heavy emotional investment in the movies, or else dismissed them long ago. No rewiewer can adequately express the degree to which The Deathly Hallows will live up to our own expectations.

Goal For The Weekend

Revisions have sent my novel on a slight detour and I need to re-write the wedding scene. Luckily, I have plenty of good memories to draw upon, plus this nifty little image for my influence map.

Happy Birthday To You

When my wife and I first started dating, I was afraid that we didn't really have much in common. Sure, we grew up on the same side of town, had parents that came from almost identical cultural backgrounds, knew a lot of the same people, went to the same kinds of schools, etc. But really, we didn't like the same kind of music and I worried that this masked deeper aesthetic and political divisions.

It was a great relief then when we discovered that we both liked this song. She, being a fan of Sinatra and musicals, I being a fan of early punk. It turns out she also has a soft spot for Debbie Harry.

The track is from one of the earliest Red Hot & Blue releases and supposedly the video is directed by Alex Cox of Sid & Nancy, Repo Man, and Straight to Hell fame.

Fun trivia: I wanted to include the line "Next July We Collide With Mars" on our wedding invites.

Dan Vacon, All-Alberta Winner

Hey, big congratulations to my former school mate and Dudes frontman, Dan Vacon for winning the All-Alberta Songwriting Competition. Lots of my friends entered, so a round of applause for them too.

You can listen to "Gold and Green" (as well as the other top six finalists) by clicking here.

In the words of my wife, "Suck on that, Four Strong Winds!"

A Room Of One's Own

We're in the process of trying to move, so everything is packed up. It's not particularly ideal for trying to find time to do some writing, but I manage. Theoretically, any new house we're moving to will have an "office" space for me to work in. In the interest of researching layouts and room ideas, I stumbled across this series of photographs from The Guardian exploring the rooms of famous writers. I thought I'd add my own:

Yes, that's a table in the kitchen. I work there early in the mornings before everyone else gets up, and the typically sometime in then mid-afternoon after an espresso or two. Today I was working the sequence of the novel's middle part and needed the space to spread out chapters 6-8.

Song of the Day: I'll Be Seeing You

(The second revision is maybe 60% done and I'm starting to find it hard to remain true to the original vision I had for the novel. As things become more "streamlined," alternative plot points make themselves available -but are they better?)

The other day I had the chance to read a Paris Review Interview with French author Michel Houellebeq, whose novel Elementary Particles was seemingly on every bookstand in Paris when I was there in the summer of 1998. I regretted not buying it at the time because I fell in love with quantum mechanics in junior high and must admit that it has been very influential in my thinking. It even skewed my reading of philosophers like Nietzsche and allusions to it crop up in the character develop parts of Games of Chance. I was surprised when Houellebeq mentioned a similiar connection. You can read the interview here:

However, Houellebeq and I most recently crossed paths in interviews with Iggy Pop over his new album Preliminaires, something that reminded me of his previous collaboration with a French artist:

Classic genre tropes

Brief thoughts this afternoon about some classic plot devices and what they meant at one time or another:

Individual v. vampires: fear of the unknown, death, or foreigners

v. werewolves and mutants: fear of one's self, typically brought on by adolescence

v. mummies: fear of past burdens

v. Frankenstein's monster: fear of science

v. computers, robots: fear of the future and our own inhumanity to each other

v. zombies: fear of each other, plague

Forgotten Pieces

[Deep in the process of revising Games of Chance, amalgamating secondary characters and streamlining subplots, I stumbled across this stub of an article in the early pages of the journal I'm using to write this particular novel. It's unfinished, and I believe it's from August 2004, since I remember writing it at a cafe over breakfast in Montreal, a city I visited in 2001 and 2004. I still believe the problems addressed here are among the major problems facing Calgary, but I was struck by the recognition that I felt "aloof" in Calgary, as that feeling of "aloofness" is a major theme of Games of Chance.]

Another City, Not My Own

My wife and I had been planning a trip to Montreal for quite some time. It was the only place in Canada that we could agree on as interesting. We had been to Montreal once before and enjoyed it's streets and shops. It was the antithesis of my home town Calgary, in the West of Canada.

Please note that I have used the awkward phrase "West of Canada." I have picked my words deliberately here, avoiding the semi-republican separatist connotations of "Western Canada" and the historically colonialist implications of "Canadian West." I like "the West of Canada" as it alludes to the sprawling nature of our country while turning Western Canadian alienation into an amusing Elmer Fuddism.

I must admit, growing up in Calgary, I never felt alienated. Quite often aloof though, as if Canada was something that happened over there, somewhere else, but not around here in Calgary, with its new suburbs and wide open spaces. There was never anything that tied me to this thing called Canada and I often longed to be a part of something more than vast empty prairie.

To me, Montreal was where Canada happened. Maybe I'd viewed too many Expo posters in the childhood bedrooms of my aunts and uncles; but everything about Montreal whispered "Canada" to me. Quebecois separatistes might disagree and say that Montreal is an integral component of their "distinct society"apart from Canada. Historians too,might point to Montreal and say that is unique to all of Canada, with its blend of French and English, Europe and North America, but to me that's what the rest of Canada should have aspired to become - neither old world nor new, a phrase too often taken to imply our cousins below the 49th Parallel and their state of perpetual "now-ness."

This has been my problem with Calgary. Both Calgary and Montreal experienced tremendous periods of growth after the Second World War. Montreal, already sitting at close to a half million citizens, exploded with suburbs and then reinvented the inner city neighbourhoods, superimposing modernist structures, like office buildings and expressways on pre-modern urban landscapes. Calgary, on the other hand, had very little to build upon and so just built out with reckless abandon. there was nothing to preserve and so my hometown has preserved nothing. Forget trying to find a building that dates from Calgary's incorporation barely over a hundred years ago, it's hard to find something from before the Second World War. The downtown core has been completely worked over, save for two or three blocks and every year hundreds of pre-war homes are run into the ground to make way for in-fills and condominium complexes.

I am not against modernism, or the march of progress, and I know that some Montrealer's feel that the same processes of historical erasement is underway in their city too. Leonard Cohen complained that the construction of bland square box offices over top the Victorian houses on St. Laurent were destroying the soul of the street - over fifty years ago. I am sure there are those who say the same about the many condominium conversions going up all over the place now. What bothers me is that despite all of its modernization, Montreal as managed to maintain its identity and character whereas Calgary's identity and character is becoming synonymous with its sprawling soulless suburbs. The sprawl creates problems, many of which Calgarians want to ignore, such as the environmental resource mismanagement that results from having the lowest housing density in Canada with one of the lowest occupancy rates at 2.1 people per dwelling and 1.2 automobiles. This sparseness prevents small residential businesses from succeeding, keeps public transportation from having the necessary critical mass to become cheap, efficient, and allow for anything but rush hour delivery of workers to and from the city's core. The net result is the direct inhibiting of the type of great city character that Calgarians so desperately want.

What Naheed Nenshi's Victory Means

The tyranny of the baby boomers is over. But is generation X done as a political force too?

It was great to be part of a winning election campaign for the first time in my electoral life, but I can’t help wondering if it might just be the last time my demographic is considered part of the swing vote.

While Naheed Nenshi’s victory means different things to different people, as his ability to reach out to diverse communities was no doubt one of the reasons he was able to garner support across the city, the thing I will be watching closely is to see which political generation is now in the ascent.

It would be easy to suggest that the baby boomers are passing the torch to generation X, but that is not necessarily true. One of constant points of frustration for my generation has been the fact that we are outnumbered by both the boomers and the millennials. Thus, while it was clear throughout the campaign was that Naheed Nenshi dominated support among 18-35 year olds and a few reports even implied that anyone under 40 was part of the generic “youth” movement. The fact of the matter though is that there are two distinct generations throwing their weight behind Nenshi - the so-called generation X and millennials.

Over at The Daily Wenzel I’ve speculated that real political change could only occur once the millennials came of age, simply because of their numeric superiority. As with all generations, there may be lot of division over beliefs, but many of these beliefs are not being addressed in any meaningful fashion by the major parties, leading to their perceived disengagement in the political process. Nenshi has proven that they are ready and waiting. If I were a provincial or federal politician, I would be watching these results with a view to see where the support for Nenshi was coming from and comparing that with other elections happening today.

If the day really does belong to the millennials, then Stelmach and Harper have a lot to answer for.

Double Espresso Glory

This is the view of the cream swirling in my double espresso this morning.

(Ok, it's really from the Hubble.)

The Process, Pt.II

Growing up, I always thought that writing was a glamorous activity, something free of structures and the rhythms of nine-to-five work. Maybe that explains why my writing process is not the best. In writing this novel, I carried with me one my A9 Bluelines, jotting down a few paragraphs at a time whenever I had the chance or a good idea. Most of these early pieces are fragments, non-linear snippets, that I worked on over the summer trying to put them in order. I think I had forty to fifty pages worth of these pieces in my notebook. I spent much of the last year just transcribing these words and editing them on the fly.

Once the summer started I settled into an early morning groove, waking up at six o'clock every morning in an attempt to write a minimum of five hundred words before the other people in my house woke up. Within a few weeks I was doing a thousand or more words and appeared well on my way to achieving my goal of finishing the novel before September 1. However, as August approached the mid-way point, I began to suspect that I wasn't going to make it. My initial guess was that 65 - 70,000 words would suffice, and I believe I crossed the 65,000 word threshold going into the Labour Day weekend. The only problem was that my novel was going to be much longer than this. It took me another two weeks before finally completing the first draft at 83,000 words.

After taking a short break, I began the process of revising, which is almost complete. In the past, I used to hate revising, preferring to move on to my next project. This time has been different, though I can't imagine that I will continue to feel this way. What made it enjoyable has been watching the core of the narrative take shape, pruning and amalgamating minor characters and subplots, streamlining and strengthening the whole.

Pattern Recognition

In honour of completing the first full draft of my novel, Games of Chance, I celebrated by going and buying a paperback novel for the first time in years. Usually I get most of my books via Fast Forward or handed to me from my wife. When I do buy new books, it tends to be mostly non-fiction works, like the phenomenal Third Teacher. Buying a new paperback was a special treat.

So what did I buy?

I went up and do the aisles quite a bit, but ultimately chose William Gibson's 2005 Pattern Recognition. I quite enjoyed it's sequel, Spook Country, and especially the chance to interview Gibson about the book. There was a way that Spook Country conceptualized information-as-commodity that I found really intriguing. In Pattern Recognition it appears that part of the focus is on the relationship we share in the construction of meaning.

BTW, Gibson has a new book out, continuing to explore the ground laid out in these earlier two. It's called Zero History and Fast Forward has an interview (by someone else) here. At my current pace, I'll be reading it in 2015.

Fits and starts

I'm happy to announce that I've finished the first draft of my novel and am working my way through going over some initial revisions before turning it over to a couple of trusted proofreaders. In the meantime, as I work on cover letters, synopses, and other things associated with trying to figure out how to approach a publisher, I hope to be returning to some more regularly scheduled updates around these parts.

Works in Progress

I admit that things have been relatively quiet over here in the What Sister Ray Says corner of the Internet - what with the World Cup wrapping up, a sojourn out to the coast, and some long overdue home improvements, I think I can be forgiven for missing a few updates.

The real news though, as many of you know from past postings, is that I'm working on a novel. I've been haphazardly plodding my way through a couple of ideas over the last few years, but back in June I gave myself the challenge of committing to finishing one before September 1st.

This afternoon I broke through 50,000 words (or roughly 200 pages) my main work in progress. It's about success and alienation, family and identity, Vancouver and Calgary, while using the 2008 financial meltdown as a backdrop. It's got love, death, laughter, tears, and even a little violence. I think the only thing that's missing is a bit with a dog...

I've managed to double my total word count in the last month, figuring that I'm over the two-thirds hump. Unfortunately, I estimate that I've still got 15-20,000 words to go with just a little over two weeks left, making me a little nervous about meeting my self-imposed deadline.

Venom and Eternity

I am not a film historian, although I do have an acute interest in history and the history or subcultures in general. Lately, I've been working my way through various film vignettes in the Kino Avant Garde series of Experimental Cinema (1928-1954). Aside from a hyper-stylized adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher, and some experiments in stop-motion and sound effects, little has made an impression on me, most likely because I lack the understanding and appreciation of film history.

However, I was quite please to discover that the last film in the series was Isidore Isou's Venom and Eternity. Like a lot of fans of punk, I stumbled across Isou, a Parisian film maker from the early 1950s, in Griel Marcus' fanciful history on the origins of punk, Lipstick Traces. I say fanciful, because there is a lot of speculation involved in Marcus' linking of punk to past avant garde movements like dadaism, situationism, and Isou's own lettrism, something he described as a celebration of pure noise, freeing letters and sound from the tyranny of thousands of years of words.

Venom and Eternity was Isou's attempts to explore this idea in film, and just as he wanted a disconnect between sounds and words (meant, I think, more in the sense of narrative meaning) in poetry, Isou argued that the next phase in the evolution of film (following World War II), was the severing of the relationship between sound and images. He felt that both of these artistic avenues could be used to explore different, but complementary, themes simultaneously. The visual literacy of the audience was such that they didn't need a dialogue or film score to reinforce the images being presented, their audio faculties could be engaged along other lines.

What we see in Venom and Eternity then is a set of filmed sequences following the main character "Daniel" as he wanders around Paris. There is a narrative voice-over, but the two are not related in any direct way, other than perhaps to say that Daniel features in both. Isou has also scratched and drawn on the film stock, making the overall effect very similar to a lot of the films I've seen shown at punk rock and electronic shows as a visual backdrop to the music. In fact, it struck me that perhaps the punk shows represent an idealized manifestation of Isou's lettrism in film, and strengthening some of Marcus' claims.

Judge for yourself (here is a random selection from Venom and Eternity since Isou wasn't all that keen on narrative):

Watching Movies With Children

Like any young person, my daughter loves to watch movies, and like most fathers, I enjoy watching them with her. Granted, she watches her own fair share of Disney movies and similar films geared to children, but she also will watch a wide variety of other things and usually we'll all watch something together for the first time if it's a little outside her usual range. However, once we caught her watching twenty-minutes of Working Girl because, as she said, she was waiting for Han Solo to get in his spaceship.

Sometimes her impressions are the best part of the entire film, especially when they involve her trying to put new phenomena into her existing understanding of things. So, for example, last weekend TCM was showing a bunch of movies from the 1980s and my wife challenged me to identify a movie based on my daughter's description of what was happening:

"There is a boy trying to make orange juice in a funny machine and it's not working and he made a big mess and he got some on his dog. The boy's younger brother is the boy from Goonies."

My wife laughs in the background and asks my daughter for the name of his "dog."

Answer: "Gizmo."

Or, later, my daughter and I happen across a few minutes of Jaws. It's the scene where Richard Dreyfus is preparing to enter the water in the shark cage. My daughter has already seen the shark swimming past the boat a few moments earlier, so she knows what the movies about, and I explain what Dreyfus' character is trying to do. My daughter immediately becomes concerned for the safety . . . of his glasses. "He will lose them!" she cries. She breathes a huge sigh of relief when he hands them off to Roy Scheider and descends into the depths.

Love it.

Work-Related Graffiti

My office got tagged with this little piece of graffiti awhile back and I don't think anyone's noticed. I like the thought that maybe it's Banksy-inspired, but really, I think it's awesome that someone's stenciled a RAT on my building. Speaking in terms of how my superiors view my company, our work is related to the indoctrination, acculturation, and socialization of general population. Within this process, my colleagues and I are tasked with creating more efficient ways for our rank and file employees to indoctrinate better.

So I ask you, what better mascot than rat?

Final Thoughts on the World Cup 2010

It's taken a little while to put these thoughts together, mostly because I needed a day or so to calm down. It seems like the 2010 World Cup Final will be as controversial as that of 2006, except that Zidane's sending off was pretty much clear cut. Instead, the Spain v. Netherlands edition will prove to be divisive. Mostly for:

1. Accusations that the Dutch played "too ugly." This is different from claims that other teams in the tournament played "dirty," though I've been trying to think about what the difference between playing ugly and playing dirty might be and can only suggest that "playing dirty" might be what happens when a team aggressively tackles or attempts to deceive the referee in a haphazard, individual manner. When it is part of the game plan, I guess it's just strategy.

The Dutch strategy was clearly geared towards playing physical and attempting to wear down their opponents, leading to many aggressive tackles. The best description I heard was simply that the Netherlands played "like bullies," but I find this curious and problematic, since it suggests that there are limits that a particular team should push their natural advantage. For example, would we criticize Spain for running too fast? Should Peter Crouch be banned from jumping at headers during corner kicks?

To say that the Dutch were correct to press their physical advantage is not to say that they played perfectly, or to suggest that we are endorsing violent player behaviour during the match. The level of violence, or more specifically "contact," falls within the parameters of the officials to decide. It is incumbent on the officials to indicate what is, and what is not, acceptable contact. Once these parameters have been established, the Dutch ought to have kept their aggressive tactics within it. It is reasonable to expect that after the hyper-aggressive beginning, the game ought to have settled down, that it didn't suggests a failure on the part of the officials.

2. Spain dove too much. Diving is a problem. It's one of the ways that smaller teams attempt to counteract the physical play of larger teams. There are rules against diving, or "simulation", but it is up to the officials to determine what's what. I watched all but three games this World Cup and think I saw only one yellow card for diving.

3. The officiating. Both of the above mentioned issues involve players trying to push the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. Everyone, including Howard Webb, knew that this game was going to be a tough one to referee, and I feel sorry that Webb botched it so bad. Clearly he felt that he had a strategy in place, but obviously it only made things worse. Had Webb been more forceful (or more clear) early on, players might have got the message and held back. For example, de Jong might not have been so reckless in his attempt to battle Alonso in the air for the ball had Webb cracked down earlier. Players would have understood what would have been deemed acceptable, however reviewing Webb's carding decisions reveals little in terms of a pattern.

4. Inconsistent officiating. One can argue that even if Webb had cracked down earlier, de Jong might have still given Alonso that ninja kick. I believe that giving Alonso a yellow, instead of a straight red for a "studs up" high kick, sent the players a message that Webb, for all of his warnings, was reluctant to send players off. This was certainly the impression I had towards the end of regulation when Robben attempted to navigate past Puyol, forcing the Spanish defender to put two arms around his waist. Unfortunately for the Dutch, Robben refused to be taken down, and tried to make a go of it, but lost too much balance and momentum in the process. It was an odd moment. Puyol was the last defender and Robben failed to gain any playable advantage, this alone should have warranted a free kick. Since Puyol was the last defender however, a free kick would have meant an automatic card, and since Puyol already had one, he would have been sent off. That Webb called nothing, suggested his reluctance to send players off. However, later in the extra time, Heitinga executed a similar foul on Iniesta, and Webb didn't hesitate to show the Dutch player a second yellow card.

5. Missed Calls. There were arguably many others, but shortly after Heitinga's sending off, the Dutch won a free kick that ended up rolling out of play after being touched by Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas. Instead of awarding the Netherlands a corner kick, Webb grants Spain a goal kick, and the Spanish are able to use that play to build-up to their inevitable goal.

World Cup 2010 Finals Predictions

As much of the world gears up for the World Cup Final on Sunday, there appears to be no shortage of superstitions coming to the fore: apparently there is an octopus in Germany that is on quite a role and has predicted that Spain will win. A local TV station over here supposedly had a parakeet that picked the Netherlands, so who can say? But it does appear that live animals making sports wagers does seem to be a 21st century sporting superstition that has a bit of legs. Most Canadians would point to TSN's Maggie the Macaque's astonishing NHL Playoff predictions back in 2003.

Of course, here at What Sister Ray Said we've been musing about the death of 20th Century Superstitions, and so hold out the Spain-Netherlands Final as their last chance to hold any currency for this new century. Specifically, we are rooting for The Monkey Paw, a superstition based on a 1902 short story in which a stuffed monkey paw is said to grant wishes, but always with awful results. It's been the subject of close to a dozen movie adaptations, as well as numerous spoofs, most famously (to my generation) on The Simpsons. You can read an excerpt from the original short story at the bottom of this post.

So, in our case, the Monkey Paw refers to the fact that no defending European Champion has ever won the World Cup. Spain won the European Championships in 2008 and so, theoretically, are doomed to lose in this tournament -except of course, that they keep winning and look fantastic doing it. Further, no team has lost their opening game and gone on to win the World Cup, so in fact Spain has two 20th century superstitions against them.

What Will Happen

Spain will come out and play the same brand of possession football that has given them so much success. If the Dutch try to play their typical counter-attacking style, as the Germans tried to do, they will lose. As a fan of numerous counter-attacking Italian teams, the premise of the counter-attack is that the offensive team will eventually lose patience, commit a mistake that will allow you to gain possession, and then you run down the field and score. It presupposes that you are more talented than your opponent. At best, Holland and Spain are a dead draw, with most people easily willing to give Spain the edge.

If the Dutch are to win, and I want them too (because I want to believe in the Monkey Paw), then the Netherlands need to attack the Spanish in midfield. van Persie and van Bommel are taller than their Spanish counterparts, and I'm hard pressed to think of someone on the Spanish side as physically challenging as Arjen Robben. The only one who comes close is defender Carles Puyol, who the Dutch need to attack relentlessly on account of his age and lack of speed. Many commentators also feel that Capdevilla is attackable. Add in the fact that Sergio Ramos is keen to play out of position, and Holland ought to have every reason to take the ball to the Spanish net every chance they get.

Fernando Torres is out of form, and there's a rumour going around that David Villa is hurt or sick. Spain still has plenty of weapons though, especially when their ball handlers Xavi and Iniesta are given time to move players into position. Again, hoping to sponge up Spain's offensive pressure will only result in the Dutch losing. Attacking in midfield is the key. Netherlands ('cuz the Monkey Paw said so)

Tomorrow's Game

The only team that wants to play the Runner's Up Game tomorrow is Uruguay and therefore they'll win. Somehow. The Germans are already talking about the next World Cup and turning down offers for a parade in Berlin. Germany is the better team and ought to take it easily, but I doubt how many German players are going to show.

THE MONKEY'S PAW (1902)

from The lady of the barge (1906, 6th ed.)
London and New York
Harper & Brothers, Publishers

by W.W. Jacobs

---

I.

WITHOUT, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire.

"Hark at the wind," said Mr. White, who, having seen a fatal mistake after it was too late, was amiably desirous of preventing his son from seeing it.

"I'm listening," said the latter, grimly surveying the board as he stretched out his hand. "Check."

"I should hardly think that he'd come to-night," said his father, with his hand poised over the board.

"Mate," replied the son.

"That's the worst of living so far out," bawled Mr. White, with sudden and unlooked-for violence; "of all the beastly, slushy, out-of-the-way places to live in, this is the worst. Pathway's a bog, and the road's a torrent. I don't know what people are thinking about. I suppose because only two houses on the road are let, they think it doesn't matter."

"Never mind, dear," said his wife soothingly; "perhaps you'll win the next one."

Mr. White looked up sharply, just in time to intercept a knowing glance between mother and son. The words died away on his lips, and he hid a guilty grin in his thin grey beard.

"There he is," said Herbert White, as the gate banged to loudly and heavy footsteps came toward the door.

The old man rose with hospitable haste, and opening the door, was heard condoling with the new arrival. The new arrival also condoled with himself, so that Mrs. White said, "Tut, tut!" and coughed gently as her husband entered the room, followed by a tall burly man, beady of eye and rubicund of visage.

"Sergeant-Major Morris," he said, introducing him.

The sergeant-major shook hands, and taking the proffered seat by the fire, watched contentedly while his host got out whisky and tumblers and stood a small copper kettle on the fire.

At the third glass his eyes got brighter, and he began to talk, the little family circle regarding with eager interest this visitor from distant parts, as he squared his broad shoulders in the chair and spoke of strange scenes and doughty deeds; of wars and plagues and strange peoples.

"Twenty-one years of it," said Mr. White, nodding at his wife and son. "When he went away he was a slip of a youth in the warehouse. Now look at him."

"He don't look to have taken much harm," said Mrs. White, politely.

"I'd like to go to India myself," said the old man, "just to look round a bit, you know."

"Better where you are," said the sergeant-major, shaking his head. He put down the empty glass, and sighing softly, shook it again.

"I should like to see those old temples and fakirs and jugglers," said the old man. "What was that you started telling me the other day about a monkey's paw or something, Morris?"

"Nothing," said the soldier hastily. "Leastways, nothing worth hearing."

"Monkey's paw?" said Mrs. White curiously.

"Well, it's just a bit of what you might call magic, perhaps," said the sergeant-major off-handedly.

His three listeners leaned forward eagerly. The visitor absentmindedly put his empty glass to his lips and then set it down again. His host filled it for him.

"To look at," said the sergeant-major, fumbling in his pocket, "it's just an ordinary little paw, dried to a mummy."

He took something out of his pocket and proffered it. Mrs. White drew back with a grimace, but her son, taking it, examined it curiously.

"And what is there special about it?" inquired Mr. White, as he took it from his son and, having examined it, placed it upon the table.

"It had a spell put on it by an old fakir," said the sergeant-major, "a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it."

Click here to read the rest of the story, courtesy of Mount Royal University

How I Helped Defeat Germany In The World Cup

Alright, I accept that my track record in predicting winners during the World Cup has only been so-so (per round accuracy: 67%, 38%, 75%, 50% - yeah, I really took a dive in the second round), but what none of you understand is how I've been quietly undermining my predictions and influencing events.

Evidence:

France v. Uruguay - purchase of Boris beer (made in France) to support France

Result: Draw

England v. USA - purchase of Newcastle Ale

Result: Draw

Italy v. Paraguay - drinking of Italian pinot grigio

Result: Draw

Italy v. New Zealand - drinking of cappuccino

Result: Draw

Chile v. Switzerland - eating of Toblerone

Result: Swiss lose

By this point I was beginning to suspect that something was amiss, so with Italy v. Slovakia in the offing with Italy needing to at least match New Zealand with the prefeable result being an Italian victory and a New Zealand tie, I buy Steinlager, the New Zealand ale. The result: New Zealand ties. Unfortuntaley, some shoddy officiating and lackadaiscal Italian play ends with an Italian loss.

Germany v. England - not really caring who wins, I wear an England T-Shirt AND drink a Newcastle.

Result: England is shellacked and a nation stands stunned.

Netherlands v. Brazil - I make pancakes and realizing in horror what I've done, I (to the horror of my family) spend the rest of the morning pantless and in flip-flops in honour of the Brazillians.

Result: The Dutch win, despite going behind early.

Germany v. Spain - for all my vaunted talk about Spain's destined failure at this World Cup, I buy a case of Beck's.

Result: Germany loses.

What's on tap for the Final? Stella Artois.

World Cup 2010 Semi-Final Predictions

It is on. I think the week following Canada Day in World Cup years is among one of my favourite years going. Between Wimbledon, the Tour de France, and the knock-out rounds of the World Cup, it's possible to lose oneself totally in sports. My predictions for the quarter-finals came in at 75%, with only Argentina's shocking, nay soul-crushing, defeat at the hands of Germany, coming in as an upset. Uruguay, despite the tugging at my heartstrings, beat Ghana, though they needed penalty kicks to do it, and I am still at loss as to how Gian missed the net in the dying seconds of the game...

Having said that, Uruguay suffered a critical loss during the run of the match. In order to block a sure goal, Suarez was forced to handle the ball, earning Ghana the spot kick that Gian missed. However, in doing so, Suarez's red card means that he'll miss Uruguay's semi-final date with Holland. Despite all of their relatively unexpected success, Uruguay has yet to demonstrate anything that will give the Netherlands any degree of difficulty. The Dutch midfield ought to swallow up Diego Forlan, while keeping Robben free reign to terrorize the Uruguayan flanks. It might be tight, but it will never be close. Netherlands.

The Germany-Spanish match, on the otherhand, could go any number of ways but in all likelihood, Germany will will prevail. Puyol, the chief Spanish defender, demonstrated that his speed will be an exploitable issue for the Germans. Further, it remains to be seen whether Spain has anyone capable of shutting down Schwienstieger. Fernando Torres has been invisible so far, and the match-up between Villa and Mertesacker has all the hallmarks of a David v. Goliath showdown. Critically then, Germany gets the edge on things even before we factor in the double monkey paws: no defending European Champion has ever won the World Cup, and no team has ever won the World Cup after losing their opening match. The only omen that Spain has in their favour is that Rafael Nadal won Wimbledon this morning, just as he did prior to Spain's winning of the European Championship. Germany.

June Progress Report

Did I really miss a progress report for May? Hmm...I guess all this soccer is really taking it's toll on things.

May was mostly productive, but the bulk of it was taken up with trying to finish compiling notes from J. Lloyd Trump's A School For Everyone on a education reform project.

I also started a couple of pages for another side project involving my many years at the Stampede. It's a not-quite-ready for prime time idea - I haven't typed anything up yet, so nothing to count for towards the word count, but I'll give more details as they arrive.

Currently, I had an idea regarding Games of Chance that has thrown many things about the novel's potential ending that I'm trying to work out in my end. Towards that end, I've taken to reviewing the early pages for the first time since last fall, in the hopes that it will help me see more clearly how things are developing.

Short Stories:

"Of Light and Darkness" - in revision*

* this is part of my Twilight of the Idle short story series along with"Labellypock", "A Night on the Fronde" and "Out of Time (Ped Xing)"
"How My Uncle Faught The Spanish Civil War" - 1000 words
"Il Brute" - 700 words, a short story about living in Bridgeland

Novel Ideas (and working titles):
A Saturday Afternoon By The Slurpee Machine - 6516 words, growing up in NE Calgary, circa 1990
Games of Chance - 26156 words, quasi-related to the current economic downturn
The Last Days of the Daily Wenzel - 8154 words
Father Borsato di Sangi - notes only, about a priest in small town Alberta, circa 1910, - 127 words
Mt. Pilatus Calls My Name - notes only, a corporate satire- 3111 words

Sisyphus In Hell/I Was Misinformed - 2402 words

Good Ideas At The Time (Whole draft novels):
joculatores domini - in revision, a novel about parking attendants and the Calgary Stampede
The Liminal Trip - in revision, backpacking through Europe,

Trump Project: 9039 words

June's Total Word Count:55701

June Bookends

So, the World Cup transformed June into a big green blur. It seems like it was two months, divided into whatever came before June 11th, and then one extended soccer game afterwards.

I finished reading Nick Hornby's Slam! and look forward to his latest novel Juliet, Naked, since all my friends are basically saying that it nails myself and my CJSW friends and our musical/pop culture obsessions. Slam! was a surprisingly warm and endearing look at teenage pregnancy and coming of age story of a sixteen year old boy obsessed with Tony Hawk.

I also finished a broad overview of the history of educational thinking (in the United States) and it's kind of shocking that it essentially ended in the 1950s. Yes, there was a chapter on Paulo Friere and the merging of liberation theology and education, but nothing by anyone relative to the changes brought about by new technologies.

I also picked up a copy of The Bearded Gentleman, just in time to try and grow a beard during the hottest months of the year. The timing is perfect, n'est-ce pas?

Currently Reading

Douglas Coupland, The Gum Thief (2007)

Books Read

Nick Hornby, Slam! (2008)

Gerald Lee Gutek, Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education: A Biographical Introduction (2004)

Books Acquired

Allan Peterkin & Nick Burns, The Bearded Gentleman - The Art of Shaving Face (2010)

Evening Kino

Watching:

When what I really want to enjoy as I try to make my summer plans, is the introspection and beautiful cinematography offered by this:

World Cup 2010 Quarter-Final Predictions

Calamity! Disaster! I admit, only getting half the teams through the round is no great shake, especially when I think that simply betting the favourite (as per FIFA ranking) would have got you 100%.

I admit to being in a bit of a whirl as to who to pick going going forward. In the past round, I might have been blinded to much by personal preferences. For example, my heart really wanted Ghana to go forward so much that I thought it made me unable to evaluate them fairly, causing me to pick the US instead. With Uruguay, things went the other way. My dislike of Uruguayan officials, stemming from the South Korea v. Italy match fiasco of 2002, carried over (unfairly) to the team. Note to England fans: how you liking Uruguayan officials after that non-call goal?

So, to make picks this round, I've reviewed some of my earlier rationale:

Uruguay v. Ghana - my heart is all Ghana in this one, but Ghana doesn't seem to have anyone to match Forlan and Suarez, who are playing like stone killers. Still, Ghana has shown the capacity to rise to the occasion - they'll need to cut off the supply to Forlan and Suarez by really pressing in the midfield. Ghana's quick down the flanks and maybe they could be the first to test Uruguay's still unproven defense. Uruguay (sorry Ghana, but I'm still rooting for you)

Argentina v. Germany - It would be very odd indeed for this to be a low scoring game. The Germans looked extremely composed in the game against England, laying to rest my doubts that perhaps the nerves of the younger team members might play a role. Still, Germany has proven that they can, at times at least, be confused. Argentina will have to hope that their high pressure attack will cause such a momentary break. Argentina.

Netherlands v. Brazil - I don't think the Dutch have ever beaten Brazil. I don't think the Netherlands is the better team. In fact, I don't even think the Dutch have a player currently firing at the level of Brazil's Luis Fabiano. Fabiano is on pace to be a contender for the Golden Boot. What the Dutch have however, is Arjen Robben, easily the tournament's most intense player. If the game is still scoreless at half-time I wouldn't be surprised to hear Robben threatening and intimidating the rest of the team and then coming out in the second half and carrying them on his shoulders to victory. If Brazil can score early, I think it's over. Netherlands.

Spain v. Paraguay. Frankly, while I reluctantly predicted Paraguay would make it into the second round (even suggesting they might come in first), their play against Japan was as dismal as I anticipated and they were just a crossbar away from losing in regulation time, let alone penalty kicks. On the otherhand, no team celebrated beating their second-round opponent as much as Spain did against Portugal, because Spain is battling not just all the other teams in the tournament, but also the monkey paw of being defending European Champions. Portugal was the toughest competition they were going to face in their end of the bracket. Having already lost once to a much lower-ranked opponent, I can't believe they'd do it again. Spain.

Song of the Day: Straight to Hell

To find out more about the War Child benefit album, you can click here or for the Canadian group click here.

Clash version below.

Some real thoughts on the G20 protests

Protests are funny things and it's easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize how they unfold. It gets easier as one gets older, but I must admit that I am disillusioned with mass protest as any form of political dialogue.

In most cases, I think this is because protest organizers fail to integrate protests into a larger political strategy. It's easy for politicians to discount protests that involve thousands, even tens of thousands of people, when voter turnout levels are still low. Any protests aimed at political change need to be tied clearly to

In 1993 I helped organize one of the largest mass protests in Alberta history. Almost 8,000 high school students cut class to demonstrate against proposed budget cuts. Seeing thousands of students out on the streets was a very happy, albeit extremely short-lived, moment. Did things quickly spiral out of the control of the "central organizing committee"? Yes. Did the media hand-pick "student leaders" to interview? Yes. Did our message get articulated clearly in the media? Not at all. Were we represented in the press by a football player? Yes. Am I bitter? Not nearly as much now as I was then.

Protests are inherently Romantic things, with dreams of strolling down the streets, arm in arm, singing Pete Seeger songs, etc. But part of the mistake we made, and it's an easy one to make, is believing that everyone in the crowd is there for the same reason, and that those reasons align with yours. Crowds take on a life of their own and it's pretty arrogant to think that you can control what's going to happen, which paradoxically, is part of the problem. I think you should only protest when you have a reasonable chance of having your message or intent being communicated clearly. But if the sole purpose of the protest is just to show everyone else how angry you are, isn't that just vanity on the part of the protesters?

Again, a protest ought to be a part of a larger strategy, and part of the work of protesting is educating everyone on what the next step is, before it actually happens. Everyone needs to know that regardless of the actual outcome, tomorrow everyone is going to do X, whether it's join a political party, make YouTube statements, or plant a bunch of daisies. I wonder if part of the problem with these G8/G20 protests is that too many of the participants have already given up on the electoral process. If that's the case, then there's really no point in protesting anymore, is there? Isn't it time to do something else?

We know, since the Chicago 1968 riots and countless released FBI files, that security forces routinely plant double agents that act as instigators. Certainly, in the history of popular revolts there's a time and a place for violence, but it all needs to be part of the strategy. If the strategy is just to raise awareness, then protesting is a good tactic and violence doesn't have any role to play, since it distracts from the overall message. If the purpose is actually to prevent something from happening, like the G20, then quite frankly, a protest is the wrong tactic to use. If you're angry and you feel the electoral system has failed you, and tens of thousands of people in the street agree with you, then it's time for something other than a simple protest to get your message across.

Frankly, I'm tired of protesting and protests. I tired of the pointless violence that plays out like a cheap novel.

Initial Thoughts on G20 Violence in Toronto

Rioting—the unbeatable high
Adrenalin shoots your nerves to the sky
Everyone knows this town is gonna blow
And it's all gonna blow right now….

Now you can smash all the windows that you want
All you really need are some friends and a rock
Throwing a brick never felt so damn good
Smash more glass
Scream with a laugh
And wallow with the crowds
Watch them kicking peoples' ass

But you get to the place
Where the real slavedrivers live
It's walled off by the riot squad
Aiming guns right at your head
So you turn right around
And play right into their hands
And set your own neighbourhood
Burning to the ground instead

Chorus
Riot—the unbeatable high
Riot—shoots your nerves to the sky
Riot—playing into their hands
Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast

Get your kicks in quick
They're callin' the national guard
Now could be your only chance
To torch a police car

Climb the roof, kick the siren in
And jump and yelp for joy
Quickly—dive back in the crowd
Slip away, now don't get caught

Let's loot the spiffy hi-fi store
Grab as much as you can hold
Pray your full arms don't fall off
Here comes the owner with a gun

Chorus

The barricades spring up from nowhere
Cops in helmets line the lines
Shotguns prod into your bellies
The trigger fingers want an excuse
Now

The raging mob has lost its nerve
There's more of us but who goes first
No one dares to cross the line
The cops know that they've won

It's all over but not quite
The pigs have just begun to fight
They club your heads, kick your teeth
Police can riot all that they please

Chorus

Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast

Onward! Round Two Beckons!

Italian coaches are infamous for calling tournaments like the World Cup and the UEFA Champions League "two tournaments in one." As Carlo Ancelotti once explained, the first round is all about winning points, the second round is about winning games. In Italian minds, the second phase, which starts tomorrow, is the real tournament. Perhaps this why the Azzurri are sitting at home right now...

Again, for those keeping score at home, my own predictions for Round Two have come in at 69% while the FIFA rankings are also running at 69%.

Round Two Match-Ups And Predictions

Uruguay v. South Korea - One of the few cases where I predicted neither of teams. Given that Uruguay had South Africa and France in their pool, it's hard to get an accurate assessment of where they're at, but Diego Forlan is playing extremely well. Still, South Korea is playing a well-disciplined game that Uruguay will have difficulty exploiting. Korea.

USA v. Ghana - I think just about everyone not living in the USA wants to see Ghana advance, if only for an African team to go deep in the tournament. Ghana should give the Americans plenty of trouble, but this could be the chance Team USA has been waiting to show the rest of the world they're taking soccer seriously. USA

Argentina v. Mexico - Diego Maradona fielded four strikers in the match against Greece, and kept the Greeks, already a defense heavy team, bottled up for the better part of an hour. While Mexico is more likely to provide a stronger offensive threat, I don't think their defense is anywhere near the calibre of Greece. Argentina

England v. Germany - It's hard to decide which game will draw more viewers, this one or Spain v. Portugal. On paper, I think Germany has been playing better than England and ought to carry the day, but the psychological pressure of this particular match will be huge and the older, more experienced English players will prevail. England

Netherlands v. Slovakia - Arjen Robben is the kind of player that Italy lacked in their own game against Slovakia and ought to be able to help the Dutch dictate the pace of the game. While the Dutch have proven that they can be rattled and drawn into some technical fouls in the past, they should still prove more than a match for Slovakia. The only real question is whether they remain calm enough to keep enough of their players going forward. Netherlands

Brazil v. Chile - Chile have proven to be surprisingly resilient and stingy, even in their game against Spain. However, I think that match cost Chile too much in terms of yellow and red cards for the team to present much of a threat to a Brazil team that has admittedly only shown flashes of brilliance this World Cup. Regardless, it should still be enough to see Brazil through. Brazil

Paraguay v. Japan - Who knows? The Japanese are playing exciting, aggressive soccer and it would be fantastic to see them through. Other teams have admitted to being bewildered by the Japanese disregard for defense, so maybe it will surprise Paraguay too. Japan

Spain v. Portugal - This is the only match-up I called correctly. I stand by what I said. Portugal.

And yes, we're still on pace for a Brazil v. Argentina final.

Italy Loses and I Feel OK

It is surprising to me how comfortable I was with Italy's loss this morning. Yes, I was angry at the two disallowed goals, and the goal scored against them in the New Zealand game. Sure, there was a part of me that wished the referee had given the Slovakian goalie a yellow card instead of a just a caution, so that later in the game, after he had punched the Italian forward in the face, he would have been sent off, leaving Slovakia down to ten men and with their back-up goalie in net.

But, I knew going into this that Italy was highly unlikely to repeat as World Cup Champions and I knew that they would have to lose at some point. I think knowing that made a lot of their lacklustre play in the first round tolerable, as if I was participating in some kind of four-year hangover (making it to the 2008 European Championship Finals was kind of like dragging the party on through breakfast) but in that bright South African light we finally realized just how old everyone was; that everything had truly run its course.

The last fifteen minutes of the game was agonizingly wonderful. Italy presented the form and emotion that I often curse them for hiding. Yes, the one linesman, on Italy's right flank, is my scapegoat for the two disallowed goals, continuing my criticism of the linesmen at 2010. Regardless though, as always, Italy fell into the hole they dug, and despite it all, I'll look forward to seeing them in 2012.

Music Update: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings

A lot of people have been chatting up the new Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings album, I Learned The Hard Way. Metacritic says it's reached a level of universal acclaim. One of my friends stated that seeing Sharon Jones in concert was like seeing James Brown at the height of his powers. It's a daunting build up for any album.

But Jones and the Dap-Kings are smooth. There's nary a blip on the album filled with quintessential rhythm & blues riffs and horns zooming in and out at all the right moments, all filled with Sharon Jones' wonderful voice. My only complaint is that the songs are perhaps too good, too polished. Listening to the album from start to finish, it becomes hard to tell one song from another, they all share the same mid-tempo pacing (but then again, who listens to whole albums anymore anyways? Things sound great when mixed in with half a dozen other records to spice up the tempo).

Here they are, live in Vancouver, at the show that prompted the James Brown comment:

Song of the Day: Buck 65, "Who By Fire"

Buck 65 covers Leonard Cohen's "Who By Fire" on his latest EP, "The Lost Tapes".

Stunning.

The Fall of France

Ok, so I won't make any WWII jokes, because clearly the French loss yesterday marks the absolute collapse of French Football. Reading the reaction to the team's implosion through the French Press has been fascinating. On some levels, it's similar to what Canada went through when the men's hockey team underperformed at the 2006 Olympics - only ten times worse, since a) Canada at least won a match, b) no one got sent home, and c) the French have a peculiar love affair with drama. French media are already calling it "L'affaire Anelka", as if it were on par as the sordid Dreyfus Affair, but then again, this one has traitors too.

All the hoopla surrounding France did make me yearn for some kind of dramatic comeback wherein the team would find their missing esprit de corps in their must win final game of the round robin and then go on to reach the finals. Too bad, like the French, I'm a romantic at heart and love sporting events with good narrative arcs. I can always root for the English, I suppose.

For those of you keeping score at home, my predictions for the round are currently sitting at 50%. I predicted that France, Mexico, Argentina, and Nigeria would all advance. While the French were just miserable, Nigeria tried to make through by playing in what has arguably been one of the tournament's best games so far. Their match against South Korea found both teams needing to take something away; Nigeria needing a win, S. Korea needing at least a tie, and resulted in lots of end-to-end play, drama, penalty kicks, and near misses.

First Anniversary!

It's our anniversary! I'm happy to announce that What Sister Ray Said is officially one year old and in between all of these World Cup matches we found a few moments to celebrate the occasion with some friends.

I wanted to take a moment this morning, before things got all wrapped up in Father's Day, Italy's game against New Zealand, and then the titanic clash of Brazil and Cote d'Ivoire, to say thank-you to all of you who have ever stopped by to check us out or leave a comment. I might joke about the What Sister Ray Said audience numbering in the dozens, but Google Analytics tells me that there's actually over 800 of you, and while that number is going to land us in Techcrunch or Huffington Post territory, it has already resulted in accumulating half the site visits of The Daily Wenzel in just a quarter of the time. Since The Daily Wenzel is my only real yardstick, I feel really good about what we've accomplished here, and so again, thank-you everyone.

Speaking of The Daily Wenzel, I also wanted to take a moment to remember and say thank-you to everyone who was ever involved in that project, especially since it now appears to be taking on some kind of mythic status. Yes, we should have done more, and more things should have been done better, but man it was fun.

I'd love to hear any of your favourite posts from the last year, or memories of The Daily Wenzel.

If you have a moment, why don't you check out our post from last Father's Day?