A Trip

What is it about "going for a ride"? What is it about "taking a trip"? It's sometimes not the destination but the journey itself. The road. The view. The conversations. The contemplation.
To contemplate life as is, to see the world, to smell the sky, emmbrace mountains, feel the rhythm of the humming engines and the cars as they zip by.

World Cup 2006

World Cup

I'm not much of a soccer fan. Ok, I'll call it football.
I've seen the world cup on TV since the 1994 tournament was played in the US. In 1998 I watched on tv from DR and I rooted for France. I was pretty much alone on that one as most of the people I knew and my relatives were rooting for Brazil. In 2002 I caught the game on tv while in Madrid. Needless to say, I wasn't going for Brazil. Germany lost.
I really got caught up in the emotions of this world cup, because this time around I was rooting for Spain. I really wanted them to do well. People are pretty hard on themselves here, and before the first game Spain played, most were writing them off. Yes, they didn't make it into the quarterfinals as many said they wouldn't but this time around people were really excited. That team might be great in the future.
Now, I saw many matches and some things always disappointed me. The prevalence of diving, faking out the referee, excessive cheap shots and yes, cheating, but I also appreciated the beauty of the sport. This sport is definetely a microcosm for life as Zidane proved with his last act on the field. No matter who you are, or how much people admire you, you have a threshold and the capacity to be pushed over it Materazzi, the Italian defender, received a vicious head butt in the chest from Zidane, France's star player. He apparently provoked the frenchman by hurling racial slurs and insults at him. It was Zidane's last game, and he was red carded and sent off. France was left with 10 men on the field and lost the final to Italy in penalties. ( Italy lost the final in 1994 to Brazil in penalties)
One of the most exciting games I watched was the Argentina-Mexico game. I caught that one on a big screen in a club in the center of Zaragoza (La Casa del Loco ) where argentinian band Bersuit Vergarabat was going to play. Of course they said not a single note would be played until the end of the match. It was really exciting to see and hear the argentines in the crowd backing their team with songs and chants. I felt a little uneasy at times cause I really wanted Mexico to get through to the next round. Man, that was a kick ass game, full of emotions. When Argentina scored the tie breaker, the crowd in the club went wild. I can only imagine in the stadium.
One channel in Spain, La Sexta had wall to wall coverage of all the matches and excellent commentary with ex-players from many countries, trainers, referees. They really did a great job. CUATRO the channel that also carried some of the main games had Diego Maradona. I finally appreciated the greatness of this man. Right before the World Cup CUATRO also ran some episodes of Maradona's very popular late night TV show from Argentina. He speaks with great candor, is very charismatic, and even though he's not really a good TV host, he is Maradona, and at that he is more than proficient. Highlights of his show include him explaining some of his most popular goals from his career. And yes, he admitted, he did put the ball in with his hand ( La Mano de Dios) in the Argentina-England quartefinal match from the 1986 World Cup and explained how and why he did it.

V.O.S.E.

It's amazing how difficult it is for spaniards to speak english. There's a reason for this. Most spaniards are not exposed to the language. Some can read it but are unable to pronounce it. Movies in Spain are dubbed into spanish, as are TV shows. If you want to see an american film in english you have to find a theater that offers V.O.S.E. What is this you ask? It's Version Original Subtilos Español. Of course, foreign movies aren't popular in the US because americans are also unwilling to read subtitles