the world cup is all about

Posted on June 27, 2006 by Hoover Dam

meeting random people

If anybody knows where to get that t-shirt, please let me know

Posted in goofy, how did I get here, nats, you should've been there |

pix plz kthx

Posted on June 23, 2006 by Hoover Dam


My stuff, way out of order in some places. Magpie’s are there.

Posted in how did I get here, nats, you should've been there |

after all the roads have led to nowhere

Posted on June 22, 2006 by Hoover Dam

Even still, I think of losing
Everything I think is sure
There’s no simple remedy
It’s something that we all endure
Be glad for what you’ve got
Don’t take anything for granted

Posted in finished projects, germany, how did I get here, nats, world cup, you should've been there |

straight outta naheland

Posted on June 19, 2006 by Hoover Dam

WHAT ULTRA PEANUT’S BEEN UP TO THE PAST COUPLE DAYS:

  • Spending the day on Friday in a sea of orange in Stuttgart, watching a suprisingly tight Netherlands-Ivory Coast game at the fan fest. Didier Drogba makes Carlos Ruiz look squeaky clean. All three goals in that game were the kind you can see coming a mile away. Somewhere in the same plaza, Magpie was running around with his Dutch pals, but we didn’t see each other, possibly because of the orange camoflage. Stuttgart has the best of the fan fest setups I’ve been to–Nuremburg is in a gravel field with nowhere to sit, and the screens on the river in Frankfurt are neat, but seem to be set up for people to watch one game, then leave, whereas Stuttgart is set up for you to spend the whole day camped out. Afterwards, we learned that if your train is late enough all your connections are missed, DB will front for a cab home; they sent us in a taxi from Mainz to Kirn, along with a dad and his daughter who were baffled as to why a couple of Americans would stay in a rural village. “Getting carsick on the autobahn,” btw, is something I honestly did expect to do at least once in my life, so that one’s checked off the list now.

  • Spent Saturday walking around Kaiserslautern until we found the rest of the New England brigade, then hung out at the Red, White, and Brew party organized by the fine fellows at Yanks Abroad. Kaiserslautern has a huge American community thanks to the military bases, and that was reflected in the crowd makeup along the streets of town that day–seemingly every group of Azzuri fans had a corresponding group of Yanks. I don’t think too highly of their players, but the Italian fans were fun, in that they were very happy to get into back and forth sing-offs with our guys. Had a singalong of “Country Roads” with a bunch of Germans and Italians, which, as a West Virginia native, was very strange. Postgame, we ran into Hahnemann’s family on the way back to the station (I gave his sister my scarf), got interviewed on live Italian TV, and shared a compartment on the train to Stuttgart with a German family who were eager to chat about the state of US soccer.

  • Originally, the idea for Sunday was to sleep on the train into town in the morning, then attend the fan fest to watch Croatia-Japan, but we didn’t get much sleep on the train, and by the time the game was on we had run out of patience for the day, so left at halftime to catch a train that wound up being wicked late anyway. Walking around Nuremburg in the morning was fun, though, and I wish they’d had the fan fest in the town square rather than the parking lot. I gotta say I was a little disappointed in the Japanese fans; they were strong in number but very quiet. Maybe they don’t really get into singing unless there’s a capo to lead? I don’t know, but there wasn’t much by the way of sing-offs like I’d seen at every other game. They also didn’t much grasp the “you can stick your Dado Prso up your ass” chant Mike and I tried to teach them. Had a couple of Aussies congratulate us on our game the previous night, sounding confident they’d make it through to the next round. (“Say hi to the missus!” “I’m the missus!”)

Has it really only been a little over a week?

Posted in germany, how did I get here, nats, you should've been there |

why we do this, vol. 2

Posted on June 19, 2006 by Hoover Dam

I’ll do another laundry list of random crap from the past couple days later, but first, the US-Italy game deserves its own post.

Before getting on the plane on Friday the 9th, among my soccer buddies I’d expressed a desire to see any or all of the following:

  • Gooch folding Luca Toni like a card table
  • Landycakes stepping it up specifically against Italy
  • Dempsey to show the world what the New Englanders have known since early 2004–that he’s going places

I got all three wishes. The official reports say 1-1 draw, but everyone in that stadium Saturday night knew damn well the US beat Italy. Within minutes of the opening whistle, we knew everything had changed from Monday night, on the field and in the stands. Magpie and I were up in the very last row of the US section, along with what wound up being most of the Fort regulars. Last row, first row, who cares, we were in the goddamned stadium, in a sea of US fans who stood and made as much noise as possible for 90 minutes straight (the second the final whistle blew, Keller turned around and made it clear they heard us on the field). That was the most amazing game I’ve ever seen, in person or on TV, and if you wanted a textbook moral victory, you had it. On the way out, all the Italian fans were quiet, but the US fans kept up the “you can stick your Luca Toni up your ass” chants ’till the last train out.

Nine men on the field and we held them to a draw. Everyone came out fighting, with Beasley subbed in and immediately showing penance for his awful play against the Czechs. Landycakes actually, y’know, doing the kinda thing that got him to be the face of US Soccer. Keller with some huge saves (brad woulda had the italy goal though). Gooch seeing to it that Toni could do nothing. Jimmy friggin’ Conrad holding his ground like he owned the place. Demps being, well, Demps.

I thought I wouldn’t see much to top the dogpile that happened at the July 16th Revs-Dallas game, the one where Twellman scored the w-hat trick to pull back a last gasp win and the Fort collapsed on itself when the third goal came through. Beasley’s non-goal, though, for the brief moment we thought it was the go-ahead, that one we all came out with bruises and scrapes from falling on each other. (“Hey, did I kiss you or that middle-aged Asian dude?” “Who the hell cares?”) There’s just no way to describe being at the game other than to say I spent spent the entire time thinking “omg omg omg omg this is so intense I can’t even believe I’m here.” This game was worth every single cent, every setback, every hurdle in getting there for the last four years. This game was everything that is right with US soccer.

Oh, yeah, and everything that is wrong with Italian soccer. “I haven’t seen that many pussies since the last time I went to a cat show.” “When your league is a mess ’cause you bought all the refs, you’re Azzuri.” It did not escape my attention that postgame, only a couple US players had blue jerseys from trading.

Going into the game, we had everything stacked against us; during the game, same story. Coming out of the game, we’re still here, we’re still in it, we still have a chance to pull through. We fans don’t have to spend the rest of the week with a cloud hanging over our heads.

I gotta believe.

Posted in germany, how did I get here, I can't believe we pulled this off, nats, why we do this, world cup, you should've been there |

grußgott

Posted on June 15, 2006 by Hoover Dam

SOME STUFF FROM THE FIRST COUPLE DAYS OF PRAIRIE’S WORLD CUP TRIP

  • I thought DFW sucked, but that was before I had to make a connection in Toronto
  • If you’re drinking every time you see Michael Ballack (hereafter referred to as “Baron von Ãœberbeiht”) in an ad, you’ve got your slant on but good for the whole tournament
  • Everyone here who’s been acting in an official capacity–stadium stewards, railway conductors, info desk people–has been super nice
  • Korea game viewing parties are a great place to watch hot Korean chicks, or rather, watch pasty white monkeys try embarrasingly to mack on hot Korean chicks
  • Hey Eddie, if you were really up for watching the ball, perhaps you coulda stayed at home
  • Each ICE train bound for a game venue city will discharge at every stop at least one German businessman who looks none too pleased to be on a party train
  • Keee-rist, they weren’t kidding about getting the nosebleed seats
  • Players’ parents spotted by me and/or Magpie: 2. (Gooch and Heydude)
  • The European outlet converter sold at Radio Shack is a waste of money when you arrive to discover all the outlets are recessed
  • Everyone, male or female, working at the Lufthansa lost baggage counter in Frankfurt is wicked hot
  • Dude, we’re at the motherfucking World Cup
  • Turns out the one Slovak profanity I know means the same in Czech
  • More from the “it’s just like anime fandom” files: managing to meet up with nearly everyone I needed to within about ten seconds of getting off the train in Gelsenkirchen (not dissimilar from the phenomenon at conventions where you’ll just run into your buddies if you circle the dealers’ room enough)
  • Up there with “picking underwear off floor of Meadowlands” for things I never expected to do in my life, let alone as a result of watching the 2002 World Cup: Sleeping on the floor of the Frankfurt airport, using the Sam’s Army New England Brigade banner as a mat
  • A short tour of German TV options: soccer, Spongebob, tits, Kim Possible, fourteen home shopping channels
  • Spongebob’s German dub sounds exactly like the English one.
  • Then there were these bloated, sunburnt English dudes in the next car over from us on the train from Gelsenkirchen to Dusseldorf after the game on Monday, guys came into the car insisting we sing. The car, full of Americans in none too good a mood and a couple of Czechs who just couldn’t be bothered, stared blankly until the English guys left.
  • Speaking of national stereotypes, 9 out of 10 Mexicans I’ve seen here has been pretty damn gordo
  • You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting either Brazilians or Aussies
  • All in all, we cannot stop singing, we cannot start sinking; we swim until it ends. They may kill, we may be parted, but we will never be broken hearted.
  • True to NE tradition, we did have mozzarella sticks after the game on Monday
  • “Hey, we just got a case of beer, and it was super cheap! What’s ‘alcoholischfrei’ mean?” “Y’all just bought a case of Malta Goya.”
  • Honestly, I’d have felt ripped off if this trip didn’t involve one completely pointless all-nighter
  • National stereotypes, part 3: The lady on the train with the “99 Luftballoons” ringtone, and the multiple guys blasting awful techno as only the Germans can make it
  • We also really did see the guy who has to get back to Tanzentrum in Stuttgart in time to see Kraftwerk, so macht schnell with ze artwork, funboys
  • And a Citroen 2CV covered in Astroturf (“MOW MY CAR!”)
  • “It’s the world’s biggest party, and I’ve got an invitation” on Monday became “It’s the world’s biggest party, and some creepy dude is hitting on me, and the music sucks, and the neighbors are threatening to call the cops, and we’re out of everything but Natty Ice, and someone just threw up on the dog.”

Party’s far from over, of course. I’m here for another ten days. Photos to come when I feel like batch processing the damn things.

Posted in germany, goofy, how did I get here, nats, world cup, you should've been there |

Join or Die

Posted on June 6, 2006 by Hoover Dam

Too much time to kill before boarding a plane to Germany, with some fabric and paint to spare, so I borrowed a design from Ben Franklin and got to work. Initially, I’d designed it with eleven pieces plus the head, but then decided the unity theme worked better with the entire WC roster.

Posted in finished projects, nats |

Americans All!

Posted on May 29, 2006 by Hoover Dam

This one has been in the works since the game in Hartford in August, 2005. The day after that game, I was at work, which, at the time, was the Mass Historical Society. A coworker was arranging World War I posters, and I noticed this one, done by Howard Chandler Christy in 1917. Liberty’s placing a wreath on an honor roll of names that are all very ethnic sounding, all different ethnicities. As I looked over the poster, “O’Brien” caught my eye. “O’Brien…O’Brien, Onyewu, Bocanegra, Keller…” and the lightbulb went off. In the spirit of the original poster, the names listed are all the most obvious ethnic ones from the US player pool this year, and, like the Ramones one before it, the names form a potential starting XI. This time, though, it’s a 3-5-2, with a full subs bench. I bet in 2010 I could redo this with even wackier ethnic names depending on how well guys like Guzan, Arvizu, Nguyen, and Nakazawa come along. Between this and the Ramones banner, I managed to name-check the entire World Cup roster minus Conrad, Olsen, and Wolff.

I’m terribly proud of how this came out, as it took sixteen hours of work to complete, and involved lots of color blending and washes to get the shading right. This one won’t be hung from the stands in Germany, for fear of theft, but I’ll be carrying it with me as it’s small enough to fit my arm span. I can’t believe I pulled this off.

Posted in finished projects, I can't believe we pulled this off, melonhead, nats, ww i posters |

Kikaider

Posted on May 29, 2006 by Hoover Dam

Romanized as Kikaida if you’re Hawaiian like Brian Ching. I really love the color blending in the eyes and head for this one. I did this at the suggestion of a dude from Hawaii on Big Soccer. Guy wanted to see some Hawaiian style up in the stands for Ching’s selection, and I said I’d bring my 48 star flag ’cause I’m a Revs fan who’s still all bitter about Ching going instead of Twellman. I then said nah, I’ll do something Hawaiian, like Stitch or Kikaida or such, and the guy said “KIKAIDA! YES!” and so that was that. What could be more American than a Japanese toksatsu character wearing a US kit?

Posted in finished projects, nats |

Run DMB

Posted on May 29, 2006 by Hoover Dam

All Magpie’s work, done because we’d long heard people making the Run-DMC joke and suggesting it as a banner, but never putting their money where their mouths are. Neat red straps with white snaps for contrast, and the color combo really stands out in the crowd. While all the rest of the new ones for Germany 2006 were done with fabric paint, this one had to take housepaint because the black fabric just sucked up all the color from the fabric paints.

Posted in finished projects, nats |