Sunday, July 18, 2010

Arts: Architecture: Frank Gehry's reputation continues to climb

Vanity Fair has just published it's annual survey of experts to pick "the most inportant piece of architecture built since 1980." Answer: Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao,Spain.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Sports: Soccer: WorldCup's German team includes 'bunch of gays' and immigrants, to make the team "multiculti'

Storm over 'bunch of gays' in Germany's World Cup team

Agent of injured captain Michael Ballack alleged to have sneered at 'bunch of gays' in national team

Kate Connolly in Berlin
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 July 2010 18.32 BST
Article history

German National Team Arrival — German national coach Joachim Löw arrives home from the World Cup. The elegant style of his players has been put down to some of them being gay. Photograph: Jan Huebner/Bongarts/Getty Images

German football was engulfed in controversy today over remarks by the agent of a top footballer, who allegedly referred to a "bunch of gays" in the national team.

Michael Becker, who has been the agent of German national football captain Michael Ballack for more than a decade, is reported to have made the comment in the latest edition of the news magazine Der Spiegel.
-------------------------------------------------------

Germans celebrate the diversity of their 'multiculti' World Cup team

Germany's football team is the most ethnically diverse in the country's history

- Kate Connolly in Berlin
- The Observer, Sunday 27 June 2010
- Article history

Germany's Mesut Ozil — As the son of Turkish immigrants Mesut Ozil is typical of Germany's 'multiculti' football team. Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP

Yagiz Dogan is hankering after a pair of orange and silver trainers similar to those worn by German footballer Mesut Ozil. "I'm saving up for them, after all he's my hero," says the 15-year-old, who lives in a flat in the Berlin district of Neukölln with his Turkish parents and grandparents.

Yagiz has hung a German flag from the window, much to the confusion of his mother. "Of course I want Germany to win the World Cup," he says.

He also thinks it's fine that Ozil, the German-born son of Turkish immigrants, has chosen to play for Germany rather than Turkey.

"What should be strange about that? He was born here, brought up here, he speaks the language, understands the culture – just like me. I can identify with him."

The boy could be speaking for Ozil himself. But what's clear from talking to him is how natural it is for a whole generation of young Germans – known as "Generation M" or "multiculti" – that their national football team comes from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Not only is this German team the youngest it has been since 1934 – half the squad are 24 or under – it is also the most ethnically diverse it has ever been. No fewer than half of the players were either born outside Germany, are the sons of immigrants, or have one non-German parent. And what's more, says national coach Joachim Löw, "they have a strong sense of identification with the eagle on their breasts and with the nation as a whole".

The effect of such a radical transition cannot be overstated in a country that for years did not consider itself a land of immigration, and where foreigners brought in to fill the skills gap were deliberately called "guest workers" on the understanding, or hope, that they would go home.

The change has come about thanks to a 1999 revamp of citizenship laws. Half the current team's players would not have been allowed in just over a decade ago.

Some bloggers on far-right websites railed in anger following Germany's swashbuckling 4-0 defeat of Australia a fortnight ago, insisting that the team was now "no longer German". But the team has won over the hearts of most Germans, who are delighted by the verve and fearlessness the new generation has injected into the game.

Ozil, arguably the star of this current team, who scored the winning goal in Wednesday's match against Ghana, said that he sees his "Turkish side" coming out in his technique and feel for the ball, "and the give-it-your-all attitude to my game is the German part of me".

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Sports: Soccer: Spain wins WorldCup, Netherlands gets #2 spot on the boards and in the records

Steven Goff, Sports W+ter for Washington Post, gives the most absorbing account of the Final Match of the FIFA WorldCup today, the most followed sports event in world history, playing in several cities in South Africa over the course of the last month, and around the world daily. Goff, a seasoned sports w+ter, wr+ts the story of the last game of this year's World Cup of the Federation of Football (FIFA, in French), he wr+ts in the breathtaking old fashioned way when there were no full-colour moving pictures to help visualize the story, vizualization was restricted to still photos mass reproduced in newspapers.

You'll want to read Goff's slendid 2-pager, "Spain vs. Netherlands: Spain is World Cup winner after 1-10 victory over the Netherlands" (July 12,2k10).

... Meanwhile, I've stumbled on a CBC TV replay of the entire Final match between Nederland and Espana, as the billboards announce the score in the background. Not much of a score, tho these WorldCup games, so many 0-0 and 1-1 final scores. Well, so far this is an 0-0 game.

Weird, knowing the ultimate goal in a Spain win over Netherlands, yet being surprized by the level of expertize the players on both s+ds are exhibiting. .... I'm musing ... how does my perception of a goaltender in soccer, and a goalie in hockey. For one thing, an ice hockey goalie is encased in a suit of armor, replete with mask. In Lacross there seems nowadays to be as much protective gear as in hockey.

Netherlands vs. Spain .... O-0, 0-0, 0-0 ....

'Til the game's over ...

-- Sportikos, a fan of the sport of soccer, football, futbol ...

MarketWatch's Christopher Noble wr+ts up the event, "World Cup final: Spain defeats Holland 1-0 in overt+m."

Sports: Soccer WorldCup: Steve Almond blasts FIFA referees

TOPIC:

World Cup

SATURDAY, JUL 10, 2010 19:01 ET

Referees suck! And other lessons

of the World Cup

As Spain and the Netherlands prepare to throw down, we offer lessons from a thousand hours spent on the couch

BY STEVE ALMOND in Salon.COM

Referees suck! And other lessons of the World Cup

YouTube screen shot

U.S. players protest a referee's call during their match against Slovenia at the World Cup on June 18.

I confess (rather joyfully) to being one of those annoying, hardcore soccer fans who loves the World Cup whether or not the United States is still playing.

Don't worry, though. I'm not going to bore you with another paean to the poetics of the Beautiful Game. If you can't see them, or don't care to, that just means more room on the couch for me. Read more ...

Arts: Fashions & Sewing Arts: The allure of InStyle.com's Look of the Day

European philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894-1977) stitched the theme of fashion in the framework of our h+ly differentiated society today (I coud add "industrialized under advanced capitalism in the Anglo and North American societal zones)," stitched latterday fashion into the overall thematics of his philosoical discourse and its historical narratives.

The idea that a specialized much-visited webs+t coud exist on the Internet, while blending its editorial approach into the notion of the 24-hour newscycle so dominant in television, radio, and print media nowadays.

TV: Dr Who: A really great episode last n+t, Jul 10,2k10

I thawt the Dr Who tradition of excellence was in full recovery, after a run of mediocre episodes and weak seasons. when I saw last n+t's finely-crafted episode on Bell's Skydish TV (via satellite, not cable).

Thursday, July 08, 2010

Entertainment: TV: Netflix to develop new movies, and maintain its repertoire for consumers, while launching new delivery trend

Hat Tip to (Jul 6,2k10).

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Sports: Soccer: It'll be Netherlands v Spain in the Final on Sunday

Kevin Freuters on Reuters s+t: "It'll be Netherlands v Spain in the Fnal and we'll have a new name on the World Cup." Go to the Reuters WorldCup webs+t for fantastic pictures (by Joachim Hermann) of the German goalie, Bastian Schweinsteiger, one of these pix shot in the goalie's abject desolation after the Spanish scorer, Poyal 73, heads-in a "football" from the corner in the game's 74th minute, his winning drive into the net succeeds and thereby Germany loses the game to Netherlands 1-0. A heartbreaker for the Germans, a godsend for the Dutch, altho now they face a formidable Spain in the Final on Sunday.

Hat Tip: Here's the FIFA pre-finals chart of the standings of the teams: