Checkout my Dadafest performance!

DADAfest went fantastically well over the weekend! More on this hot issue soon, including a few mp3s of what I did for it.

Just a crazy little post about how DADAFEST is going on this weekend--I'm performing and I made collages which are up in the gallery. Also there's a play at The EXIT theater running this month which is based on the life of one of the only women in the original Dada scene Elsa von-Freytag Loringhoven
(whom I first discovered in an amazing anthology by Jerome Rothenberg which also included Jackson Mac Low and the cubist poems of Kenneth Rexroth amongst many others. an incredible anthology, I'll link it later). The play is a solo show performed by Christina who is the EXIT's artistic director. The show runs all month on Friday nights. Here's a review.

Wow. I just found out where the New York Dolls got their name!!! Thank you memepool!

yeah, you need more accounts of 9/11.

But it's impossible to resist reading them, isn't it? It's like pressing on the bruise, it's like listening to Smiths songs when your already depressed, reading her love letters after you've broken up, sticking your neck out the window golden retriever style to see the subject of the ambulance's flashing light. I'm not quite being flippant here, in fact I'm being a bit confessional--I have a post 9/11 condition myself, of news-addiction. I flinch briefly before checking the news sources several times each day. First thing in the morning is usually the worst, or when I've been away from it for a while. Checking multiple sources is almost requisite (one might be missing it, maybe it just happened). Things like the LAX shooting are darkly pleasing fulfillments of that wannabe psychic impulse that made me check the news just... THEN. Like hitting re-load to see if the headline has changed and something traumatic has occurred. NOW! no. NOW! no....

Anyway, it's not as bad as last fall. I was out of the country when it happened, so I was news-deprived and language-challenged as far as keeping up with developments. The International Herald Tribune was a godsend, btw. I believe that in the future they will call this nervous news-minding something and cite statistics on it. For now I'm just a dork.

mikl's socca madness is over

Okay, it's almost 2 weeks since my last post and nearly a week after the World Cup final, so I should give this some closure. The World Cup tournament has been held (almost) every four years since 1930. In 72 years and 17 tournaments only 7 nations have ever won the cup. This year after a tournament full of upsets and strong showings by teams with relatively little experience in the World Cup (South Korea had played in 5, including the last 4, but never made it past the first round; Turkey & Japan were in their second Cup ever; Senegal was in its first--all of them had very impressive showings), the final featured two of the biggest traditional football powers: Germany and Brazil.

Brazil defeated Germany 2-0. Brazil won (congrats to 6rady whose a 6razilofile) despite my enmity for them and the fact that I was doing that I'm crushing your head thing the entire time through all of there games. It really undermines my sense of omnipotence. drag.

Turkey & South Korea played a great game in the consolation match--one of the most enjoyable games to watch of the later rounds of the tournament in my opinion. It featured the fastest goal in World Cup history--Hakan Sukor scored for Turkey 11 seconds into the game. At the end the Korean & Turkish players linked arms and bowed to the 4 corners of the stadium, that was really something. The Korean & Japanese people were incredibly into the tournament, especially with the success of their teams. The Koreans, who made it all the way to the semi-finals developed a particular reputation. Anyway, I had a great month of watching it. The 2006 tournament will be held in Germany--the hours of the game will thus be a bit more manageable than the 11:30 and 4AM start times this year.

I've started kicking a soccer ball around myself again, for the first time in years. Though in the pickup game I was in on Sunday (after watching the new San Francisco Mime Troupe show in Dolores Park) I was schooled a bit; I guess if you don't play in 10 years or so it tends to affect your form.

mikl's socca madness con-tinues

...but frankly at a less intense pace. The US and England were elminated in one evening. And since Ireland was already knocked out, that means that I have gone from 4 of my favorites being in the final 16, to 3 in the last 8, to only 1 in the final 4. That last was Turkey who are out now as well. :(

The USA's other World Cup honor

Referee Brian Hall from Gilroy, CA officiated two games (Italy v. Ecuador and Nigeria v. England) as one of 36 referees who were chosen to do the job in this year's World Cup. That number was narrowed to 16 for the tournament's final 8 games, and Hall made the cut again--not certain that he will actually work any particular game yet, they announce the referee only shortly before match time. [Here's a brief interview with him] That is a signal of great respect, and a big boost to US soccer credibility (especially when a lot of the officiating has been coming under fire).

HOWEVER there are still some like, say, oh, I don't know, maybe THE BBC who lampoon us for playing soccer.
And this I guess is the equivalent of us doing a bad cockney write-up, eh wot?