WHO ARE THE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS?

PHENOMENAL

this week: a wrap up

Top to bottom: A free food/drink event sponsored by Yelp at Plant Warehouse in Noe Valley (thanks Teresa for inviting me!), Posey and Beardo hugging out a victory, Tuxedo-chocolate-covered strawberries at Cary Lane's 2nd Anniversary Party, Giants for World Series!!!

Betty Draper, meet Don Revie, your twin counterpart in real life

Starting in 2008, I've been keeping track of all the movies and books (sometimes television) that I watch/read in a year. And as of yet, 2010 has been the most representative of turtle-pace consumption of television/movies but the highest in literature reading. Anyhow, the case is that I haven't been watching many films because I find myself pretty much narcoleptic even more so nowadays compared to the time I could sit through the entirety of Gone with the Wind or Il Gatttopardo without going through a series of unconscious head bobs. Instead, I am back to the cycle of television series catching--and this time, in the form of Mad Men.

I love watching it, seeing references, reading on Slate/Guardian's commentaries, and then moving on with life because God knows how much time I actually have when I'm not conking/conked out. But I think my utter favourite pop cross-cultural reference to this date is the nifty article written by Christopher Mann called

"THE MUTUAL SUFFERENCE OF DON REVIE AND BETTY DRAPER"

I am not so keen though, on the physical attraction of Betty Draper in correlation to Don Revie's blotchy, skin-sagging, once-had-a-structure, face; it frankly makes me snort in response.

Mad Men meets football manager? What is this supposed crazy spewing of rhetoric, analytically thought out and sitting on the borderline of acceptance on my part? For those who don't know Don Revie, perhaps you've watched The Damned United. And if you haven't watched The Damned United, then in short, Revie is the infamous manager of Leeds United during the 60s and 70s, who, through argued-contradictory/hypocritical play, brought the team to top standing in the league, only to be brought down by his rival (probably because of his argued-contradictory/hypocritical mangement), Brian Clough. And Betty, is the psychologically-afflicted trophy wife of once-Draper and now-Francis, and still engaging in a furious love/hate debacle with her former husband.

Appearances aside, Mann comes to the conclusion that both of these personalities strive to appear and be more sophisticated than others when they are sadly deluded as they fall victim to the same cycle of moral corruption of those who they despise and criticize. (On the other hand, the analogy of Betty Draper-now-Francis/Don Draper antagonism and Don Revie/Brian Clough antagonism insinuates a sort of jealous homoerotic relationship between the latter group, which is half-disturbing and half-comical.) What also helps in concreting the comparison of unlikelihood is the fact that Don Revie's career pretty much teeters on the same time period of Betty's fictional existence. Brilliance right?

I'm not even German

But the sad part is I'm going to miss the semifinals because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to run into a bar by myself in Hong Kong at 2 in the morning. That's protocol for giving my aunts myocardial infarctions. Though I can insist. I think I know how to say World Cup in Cantonese. (For some reason, I don't know how to say football in Cantonese but got no problems in Mandarin. I predict epidemic fail for the next 6-7 weeks of my life. It doesn't help that I'm listening to BSB.)

thirty days of sharing: I skip and cheat all the way to the end

30. whatever tickles your fancy

First off, here were the following four after 'describe your day in detail':

day 26 → your week, in great detail
day 27 → this month, in great detail
day 28 → this year, in great detail
day 29 → hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days

ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS? I could not even write substantially for a day; can you imagine the horror a week/month would be and the complete failtasm FAIL a year would be? And I am not particularly in the mood to be expressing my hopes, dreams, and plans at this moment, particularly the idea of keyboard smashing it on blogspot is not exactly appealing, so I'm just going to let it fly by the radar.

But I will leave you all with this from Dirty Tackle, which never fails to make me guffaw to myself in the office; talk about unprofessional work etiquette! *Guffaws*

"The people who make Legos decided to get in on the World Cup spirit by recreating the goals scored in certain matches - in this case, Saturday's 1-1 draw between England and the U.S. - with their product. There really isn't too much you can say about this delightful bit of nonsense.

I do like how they interpret every person involved in the match as being so happy, even though almost all of them have the same exact hairstyle (Lego Heskey may want to get that gaping hole on top of his head looked at). I'm also not sure why they have the goalkeepers wearing caps - must be some form of Lego revisionist history. But Lego Clint Dempsey's ball control is just as amazing as real Clint Dempsey's. And I would definitely pay good money to see Lego Clint rap."

- Brooke Pecks

So that's it guys, no more of this ridiculous sharing meme. Does this mean I will disappear completely, leaving behind a follow-me trail to my wordpress, which is intended for China purposes? No, not really. I might finally find the guts to post that argh-I-got-a-cute-tumor-in-me-brains curtain fic without falling off my chair and rolling into the side of my bed.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-four

24. whatever tickles your fancy

I keep blogging about cupcakes but look at these marvelous little treats! WORLD CUP CUPCAKES! I want to order a whole complete batch for the final...that's how much I want them.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty-three

23. a YouTube video


The only thing I can say that will justify this is: I'm just in the mood.

thirty days of sharing: day twenty

20. a hobbie of yours

Hans van der Meer photography

To go along with the WC spirit (hurgh), been a football spectator for a very long time, well, not as long as my father but for a considerable length of time (at least longer than me and baseball). Despite what goes along with football, hooligan violence, business corruption, money-runs-the-game-conspiracies, knuckled-headed moronic footballers with the bod and no brains, it's still a game I enjoy a lot. And sometimes, at the end of 90+ minutes, you think to yourself, wow, what a game.

thirty days of sharing: day seven

07. a photo that makes you happy

There's just so many things in this picture that makes it win shining aces and stars across the galaxy.