American Soccer is Competitive Now?

I'm aware that many people find the topic of American soccer to be dull at best, but that's not going to stop my pouring over it for hours on a computer, or for days inside the comfort of my own head. It's the one sport that shows both respect for its fans and the players exhibit (for the most part) more respect for each other than in any other sport. This tradition compounded with the fact that when FIFA says "World Champion", the teams competing are actually from places outside of the U.S.--an idea that many of America's favorite sports has yet to catch onto.

What's nice about soccer is that when club teams compete, they often compete outside of their own leagues, allowing teams to travel and play teams and styles of play that they might not find elsewhere. This has happened for years without much of anything to scream about, or even discuss in passing when teams from Europe come stateside. They come, they conquer, they steal our women and burn our villages. This is how it has always been, but the MLS is starting to show some backbone. Or possibly they're just so bad they've confounded recent traveling teams from abroad. In late July, the Premiership's reigning kings, Chelsea came to play the best the MLS had to offer for the All Star game. Chelsea, world renowned as having one of the greatest lineups in world soccer right now, must have seen the game has a walk. Nah, not so much. MLS shut down Didier Drogba, Shevchenko, Joe Cole, and John Terry--some of the best names in soccer, for the entire 90 minutes. MLS 1 and Chelsea 0.

Good times. Seeing this country's best take down some of the best in the world was amazing. They out-paced and out-played them for the entire match. It gets no better. It's like being a fan of the Redskins and watching them win a Super Bowl or watching...I don't know; whatever baseball that's really bad winning the World Series. Anyway, I know this isn't much, but it's late and I'm going to go to bed now.

I Come in Various Shades of Gray

Say it. It's like "closet door", but, you know, not.

Marc Bolan and the Best "Yeah" Ever.

I have two great musical icons. Lou Barlow is one. He was the first one, actually. I heard "Natural One" in a Buzz Clip commercial on MTV when I was in the 9th grade. Iwas at my friend's house after sneaking out (a weekend ritual at that age) and around 3 a.m. I heard maybe two seconds of that song and I was sold. I went and got the soundtrack very soon after that and probably listened to that song...I don't know, everyday for 3 years. The thing is, yeah, that soundtrack made me love Folk Implosion, but the song "Spoiled", that is right after "Natural One" blew my fucking mind. So, soon after THAT I went and bought what I still hold as one of the greatest albums of all time, "III". That record was everything I had ever wanted out of music even though I hadn't know I had wanted it. Does that make sense? Well, ever since then I've been into indie rock almost excluively as my musical genre of choice.

Ray Davies is the other musical man of my dreams. "Deadend Street" is the song that did it. It's a B-Side and all I had heard up until that point had been the early hits like "You Really Got Me". Those songs are good and some of them are great. Let that be said, BUT motherfucking "Arthur", "Village Green Preservation Society" and "Something Else by The Kinks"? Those are three of the best pop albums ever made. I can't remember which record "Deadend Street" is a B-Side of, but I'm sad it didn't make it onto the record. That song is mind-blowing. I remember hearing it for the first time and listening to it all the time after that. Although I had known the Kinks, that song is what made me realize the genius of Ray Davies. Ever since then, I steal ideas from the Kinks and consistently site them as the potential title holder of the greatest pop song ever written; "Waterloo Sunset".

As of last night I've added one more to that list. If you read the title of this, you know where I'm going with this. I may be jumping the gun here, it was only last night that this revelation hit me: Marc Bolan is a fucking genius of boogie and has the best "yeah" in rock and roll history (Roger Daltry is a dully noted second place). Now, I define "Boogie" here as plainly having a great time while playing bad ass, yet fun as hell riffs that show through on the recording. Rephrase; the riffs don't have to show though, the good times should show through...and they do...in this band. I guess that's why T-Rex is so appealing to me; they're as much fun to listen to as my favorite pop bands while rocking hard enough to make me do lots of air guitar leg kicks. Thank you Marc Bolan. Thank you.

And thus I now have 3.

I'm back!

so in case you didn't see me, i was in Virginia for the summer which was hot and awesome but now I'm back in New Hampshire working again as a wilderness education instructor. This means I have a lot more free time than I did before.

I brought my computer with me this time so I'm going to write more. It's going to be aweird pretty season. I'm going to start training for a marathon and find a grad school to apply to/take the GREs. pretty busy and i won't accomplish it all but it'll be fun to try.

i did a new zine. it was called "I'll be home for halloween" because I'm returning to va late october. if you didn't read a hard copy because you weren't one of the 20 people to receive a copy, you can read it in my myspace blog at www.myspace.com/flyonthewindsofpern.
i suggest you cut and paste it into a word document and print it out. it's about 25 pages and I'm really excited about it and hope people read it.

a split zine with chris terry of gullible fame is in the works.

peace
jeff

The Runaways.

This is the best comic book I've read in a long fucking time, dude. I don't know if you're into comics or whatever, but man, this shit is intense. It's all about these six kids who found out their fucking parents ARE FUCKING SUPER VILLAINS. Yeah, if that isn't enough they all have powers too. One dude is all "master of logic and stratagems", one girl is an alien, one girl pulls a fucking staff out of her chest whenever she bleeds, one dude has mad scientist parents and uses their kick ass inventions for good, which is awesome. One girl though, man, SHE CONTROLS A FUCKING VELOCIRAPTOR...WITH HER FUCKING MIND!!! Holy shit, it's crazy. Oh, and there's this little girl that's in their group, she's like 11 or something, and she's a mutant.

There's this one part where you just see her standing their, all 11 and shit, and some dude cracks her over the head with a shovel. The girl just stares at him, her eyes and glowing, and she punches across a fucking city block. Dude, that girl is intense. Oh man, there are so many good parts, but I don't wanna ruin it for you.

Man, all I'm gonna say is that one of them is a fucking traitor. They left a letter for their parents (oh yeah, their own parents are trying to kill them. What the fuck!?!) saying they would never betray them. Don't worry though, you find out who it is. It's not like fucking Alias or some bullshit where nothing ever happens and nothing ever gets resolved. I hate that fucking show.

Anyway, these kids are all on the run, basically because no one believes that their parents are really evil; not to mention the fact that their parents pretty much have disciples or whatever in every major part of the city structure. That shit sucks. Can you imagine being a kid, finding out your parents are evil incarnate and then having to figure out how to fucking mentally control a goddamn dinosaur. Shit's crazy.

Indie Rock.

I've already mentioned the fact that I'm musically stuck in the mid-nineties...so I guess this is redundant. Whatever. I've come to terms recently with the fact that I'll never appreciate any new music unless it sounds like something I listened to on the way to my tenth grade drama class, first thing in the morning. This would include, but not be limited to, Sebadoh or Pavement. Yeah, that's about it. Oh! Mazzy Star. That too.

Anyway, I don't think I've really advanced musically speaking. I still count Sebadoh, Pavement and Superchunk as three of my favoprite bands of all time and any new music I listen to is pretty much in the same vein if not a direct descendent of these bands. Broken Social Scene, Band of Horses and other bands emerging from the Great Indie Rock Lull of 1997-2003 or so, I allow these bands to pass my stringent requirements based on their obvioous ties to the previous generation and in the former's case, because they're Canadian and you often here the word "collective" used instead of "band" in regard to them. That's a nice change. "Oooohhh, it's a collective? Wow." I don't know. I guess that sounds about right for the anonymous person I just created.

I'm realizing now that there isn't a real point to any of this. Yeah, I like indie rock a lot. I like the Sebadoh song "Gimme Indie Rock" a WHOLE lot. I like the Pavement DVD and the Superchunk DVD even though the video's are shit. By the way, if you watch that DVD, check out the one's directed by Peyton Reed. He later did "Bring It On". Oh, and Sabrina Lloyd, who was later on the bomb ass show "Sports Night", is in the video for "Untied", which is the worst video I've ever seen.