Tag Archives: UK

On to the Final

This is not a blog about sports. Its about things I observe and world events. But tonight its sports.. at least briefly. I’ve just returned from “Sport-Club Os Lusitanos” where an enclave of about 100 Portuguese people took over the street, spilling out of the club that as I walked in, reeked of celebration and yes-sweat. Both of those the bi-products of a 2-1 victory of over non other than the country where I now live – Netherlands.

I loved the energy at the club and on the street, especially in comparison to the utter sadness and silence from most of Amsterdam, where Dutch fans seemed either shocked or just wanting to forget. To their credit, they were quite civil. People on the street noticed my shirt, some smirked, most shouted “Portugal!” and waved as if to say – “yeah you’re ok.” Either that or… “If I could Id knock you off that bike right now.”

Anyway.. in the final Im predicting Czech-Portugal… and as much as I love the Czechs… I want Portugal to win that one… what a sweet story that would be.

Back real life, keeping in mind that football is a fantasy and our lives don’t actually improve if our favorite team wins. Transparency International has released their annual survey on corruption and corrupt nations. I’ve been reading the stats… overall corruption in political parties is the biggest frustration for citizens worldwide. YET- In the United States, people surveyed didn’t believe their parties were corrupt!? The Republican and Democratic parties aren’t corrupt? Imagine that. I also noted the high concern for corruption in utility companies, especially in the developing world. If you consider most of the countries have their utilities controlled by foreign multinationals, that may be a clue as to who brings corruption.

I may soon take Jeff Jarvis’s Buzz Machine off my primary blogroll. I grow tired of reading him daily.. especially when he spends his time badmouthing leftists and denouncing Michael Moore as the devil. I can understand being critical.. I’m in favor of that. But Jarvis is getting to damn conservative… I could stand to read that maybe only once a week instead of daily.

Today’s Music: Bill Frisell – The Intercontinentals (loving it)

Midsummer Spending

Well it happenned. I didn’t want it to happen… but a few hours ago… it became reality that the Netherlands will face Portugal in the next round of the Euro. I can still hear the beep-beeping outside. I’ve talked enought about football lately, so Ill stop there.

So Michael Moore’s new film is out in the states. I looked it up, won’t arrive in here until late July. Stupid American-European distribution gap…. why was the Matrix able to come out on the same day world wide? At any rate, I’m enjoying the initial reactions from people, my good buddy in Queens told me that opening night people were clapping throughout the film (which could make one go crazy I suspect). He also said that at the end the audience gave it a standing ovation. Interesting. Still, I must acknowledge the backlash against this film and Moore in general. It’s hard to tell if its growing or not, but I see it often in the blogosphere.

I noticed the insane shopping list from the US Senate for military spending. Majikthise highlights the:



*$25 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan

*$70 billion for planes, ships and weapons, “surpassing even the buildup of the 1980s”

*3.5% military pay raise along with increases in other benefits

*$10.2 billion for planned missile defense program, for which operational tests must begin in 2005

*Go-ahead for further research on 2 new nuclear weapons: a low-yield “mini-nuke” and a high-yield “bunker buster”



Any nation/group/individual that researches new nuclear weapons is insane. As usual I’m ashamed to be associated with such a government. Nevermind the overwhelming number of neglected children, elderly, and adults all over the US versus the money spent on “star wars”.. thats sort of a tradition. But seeking to produce the most destructive weapons the earth has ever seen, thats just baffling.

Today’s Music: Noir Desir – Des Visages des Figures

Stormy Interviews

This week I somehow got involved in someone at the Amsterdam City Government’s research project on international people living here. Apparently I qualify.. even though so often in this city I’m a clandestine apartment renter. It was a long interview, mostly because I talk too dam much.. and the guy just sent me a transcript of it which I might post on here next time. Basically the questions concerned how I ended up here, what the city means to me, troubles I have, and things I wish would be different. My favorite part was when he hands me paper and asks me to draw a map of Amsterdam. He may have underestimated my keen mapping abilities.. because I needed way more than one sheet.. and he got tedious details I’m sure he didn’t want. He may have enjoyed my responses, especially about what I love about the city. Of course I answered the bikes. But more specifically I talked about certain bikes.. the kinds with a box in front and two little tottlers peeking out at you. Or a bike with a basket and a dog inside looking horrified.. these are things I love. Add that to the pile of other things Ive already said about the dam in other posts. Somehow, I think I made a good contribution to this city and maybe they’ll learn from my wisdom.

The Voice published the annual “Queer Issue” this week. I’ve not yet gone completely through it, but the article on the Brief History of Christopher Street looks great. I’ve decided to have a greater knowledge of NYC and greenwich village, I will read “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the making of the Male Gay World 1890-1940” by George Chauncey.

Last night after attending a Broken Social Scene concert for Dutch public radio, (show is available online)I came home and caught a special on Ingrid Bettancourt the well-known Colombian politician, mainly from her daughter’s testimony. I can’t believe she’s still in captivity in Colombia. She was kidnapped by the FARC in 2002. It was a super-interesting documentary, I was capitivated by the old footage of Ingrid campaigning in Bogota. Apparently she is still alive because there have been video messages. As much as I dislike the Colombian government, I find the FARC is also quite ignorant and completely lost. There’s a movie somewhere called “The Kidnapping of Ingrid Bettancourt” but I couldn’t find it on the web.

Today’s Music: Neutral Milk Hotel

Ship Who into What?

Inspired by TPB esquire’s “Photo Envy”, I’m going to start some sort of photo series, this week, on my blog entitled “Amsterdam Summer Signs” where I can present different scenes I see during my day that scream summer. I thought of this as I was riding up the Marnixstraat today and there’s a woman on skates pushing a stroller faster than most bikes. To me, this is one of those signs… summertime. Of course there are others, insane amounts of joggers in Vondelpark for example. I notice this alot lately, and I’ve developed a new method of symbolic communication. You jog slightly next to one person as an almost even pace.. eventually they become like your pace car.. as you do for them. Without words, I had a running partner yesterday. Either that or the guy thought I was cute enough to run with. Next time I’ll see about getting a running-mate of the female persuasion.

I wanted to discuss the successful private space journey. As you should by now, it worked, and ultimately this company intends to send tourists into space. (obviously extremely wealthy ones) While I love space research and advances in that area, I get frustrated with these developments. While NASA gets virtually neglected by the government in the area of non-military space research, and has now haulted all human space flights, the already slow process of space exploration has seemingly haulted. That is, if it weren’t for the Russian, European, Chinese, Japanese, Canadian and Indian space programs which continue to move forward. (though only Europe, Canada, Japan and Russia work in cooperation with the US) But instead of encouraging private firms to persue research with the aim of learning more about the universe and space travel, these guys want to fly rich people into space. Space tourism…. the predecessor to space fast-food and space hotels I guess. It is not that I’m completely against it, I just wish if they must do private space work, make it beneficial for science and humankind.. instead of.. well.. tourists. At the very least their new spaceshuttle might help towards that goal.

I’m very pleased to announce, and I hope she doesn’t mind me doing so, BlondeButBright, my dear friend and UvA-ASCoR PhD student’s weblog. It’s sure to become one of my favorites, I’m adding it to the unfed pile now, and I encourage people to check it out in the coming days. Welcome to this kooky blog world!

Today’s Music: Rickie Lee Jones – The Evening of my day (get this now!)

Yes Sports Happen

Putting aside my huge distaste for Portugal’s hosting of the Euro2004 Cup Tournament, due to the huge amounts of money poured into new stadiums instead of actual important things like REAL hospitals and SERIOUS public transport. (Portugal lags bigtime in that dept.) So leaving all that aside, I’ve been watching the matches closely, and for the most part – enjoying. It has been super exciting. Last night’s Portugal victory was super-sweet and very nerve-racking. They will go on to the next round. Hopefull the photo that appears here will be Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal … 19 year old.. plays for Manchester U.. the boy is pure poetry. He makes me, a non-football fanatic, a believer. He flies! He leaps! He’s pure magic!

On a sadder note the Dutch lost last night, but it was one of the most exciting matches I have ever seen. The Czech team are insane… like a bunch of superheros.. the XMEN of football. (soccer.. I always mean soccer!)

Enough with the sportstalk. Relations between Pakistan and India continue to improve politically. This is good news. I dislike nuclear weapons, and these two nations are up to their proverbial necks in ’em. Slowly they’re taking steps to stop developing their nuc programs and ensure neither of them ever uses them. If only we could get rid of everybody’s.. especially the US and Russian ones. Oh yeah, this news led me to discover the Pakistani Perspective… a good blog on Pak news.

Browsing the latest from Tony Pierce, I decided to become a frequent reader of his co-worker Danielle. Its a very non-political blog as far as I can tell. But I appreciate the writing style, not mention that she hates wearing underwear. Who can blame her?

Today’s Music: Jobim-Morrelenbaum/Sakamoto – Casa

Radio Silence

Blogging from now on will be at random times, as I am now without net at the new place I will be calling home as of late this afternoon. I was unable to rent a bakfiets, which would be the bikes with the huge front loading capacity. I made a few phonecalls, called in a few favors, and I found a good friend with a car to drive me and my boxes across town… mental note: do even more favors than normal for people.

Washington Post is sporting a special interactive feature on Bush, his campaign donors, and key positions in his administration.(reg. required) It is cute. I would also qualify it as a bit too little too late. Apparently it has taken them four years to decide to do some investigative journalism. Careful now WP, don’t get all journalistic on us!

There’s much to say about European Elections. As you may have heard, something like 48% turned out, which I’m proud to say, I’m with the 52% non voters! That’s right! I’m fairly intellegent, very informed, and I excercise my right not to vote! Why? Because none of these candidates represent me, and I don’t much care for this type of western democracy. Well, on a more logistical note, I’m not registered to vote in the Netherlands yet. Next time I might get involved, but this year was my year of protest thru non-voting. Here’s an audio report on the elections results, for those who prefer their ears to their eyes.

Today’s Music: Jorge Palma – Ao Vivo (Portuguese.. good.)