Archive for June 2010

World Cup Football: Paraguay vs Slovakia

Holy Smokes, the definition on this Univision stream is really great.

7:34am and they're off.

3:05 corner kick for Paraguay. let's do it guys.

5:57 both Univision announcers are Argentine. "paraguashos"

13:22 I know that Roque Santa Cruz is supposed to be awesome and he's paid a lot, but I haven't seen him do anything really special or useful yet except look like an Argentine football model and fall on the ground.

16:56 A Slovakian player takes off and adjusts his boot, slowly... Strategically placed viral Nike marketing if you ask me.

19:43 I like that the announcer knows to call Paraguay's coach "Tata" Martino. (Fire in Guaraní)

26:59 GOLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Erique Vera (number 13) makes it. Okay, guys. Let's keep it like this.

32:08 loves that Univision just took a little moment to slo-mo all the headers of Paraguay in this half, eyes fluttering, hair bouncing around.

36:26 corner kick for Slovakia... whew! It's way over the goal box.

41:07 the camera/mic is so close to the action that you can hear the ball hit the shin guards as the
Paraguayan player kicks the ball against his opponents.
yellow card for #16 in Slovakia!!!

42:36 the announcers keep saying "watch out, this looks dangerous. We've got Roque Santa Cruz in the penalty box." But, really?

44:46 yellow card for Enrique Vera, arguably the most useful player on Py's side today.

Half Time!

1:45 yellow card for #9 in Slovakia and the Py player roles around on the ground. I'm, in general, unconvinced by falling.

9:05 shirtless Pyan fan, jumping up and down. The pace of the game has changed drastically. Py isn't pushing as much for a goal as it had been in the first half.

20:22 Roque Santa Cruz, again on the ground?

36:24 Oscar "Tacuara" Cardozo comes in and Barrios is on the bench now. Tacuara means bamboo and I guess the dude is tall and skinny. This is another dude who gets a lot of praise but I don't know/see why.

Yellow card on #7 in Slovakia, the pushy fouly dude.

39:45 Now Tacuara is complaining about a hurt head? Why?

GOL!!!!!!!!!!!! (#16) Riveros did it!!!!

42:22 #13 Enrique Vera is off, replaced by #12 Barreta comes in. More Pyos take off their shirts (in the stands) as they're celebrating the favorable game.

44:20 Slovakia looks grumpy.
Four additional minutes.

Compared to the recent US games and those Australia games, especially, the refereeing has been pretty solid.

FINAL PARAGUAY GANA!!!!!!!!!! 2-0

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Eating Where the Cooks Eat: Critiquing Food Writing in New York

"Do you have to be white to be a food critic?"-- question I wish I had asked.
"What's the relationship food critics have to producing food? Do they cook, too?"-- question I actually asked.

The most excellent gentlemen of Gelf magazine hosted a Media Circus on Food Writers, with three of New York's (employed) food writers presenting their thoughts on a range of issues from food blogging ("Print is dead!" cried one) to food porn ("I love it!") to anonymity ("If you're made, pretend anyway!"). The man in the audience wearing a devil mask (and wig), who initially creeped me out, turned out to be the quite charming, and determinedly anonymous, Village Voice food critic Robert Sietsema, who was joined by Time Out New York's Gabriella Gershenson and NBC's Alex Vallis.

It was fun, but raised the question of "the new foodism"-- our attitudes about food and what food critique is. Sietsema is, apparently, unusual in the field because he reviews what one of the other critics called "authentic, fresh-off-the-boat, ethnic food." Though it's easy to criticize that unfortunate characterization, I want to make a stronger argument about why those kinds of restaurants are very much worth reviewing and eating at. The stronger argument is not about politics, it's about the practical. The people who eat there are the people who are cooking the food at the fancier restaurants being reviewed.

The people who are making the fine dining, culinary fashion-forward cuisine of New York City, the restaurants that are being reviewed and noticed by taste-making critics are not the celebrity chefs. The people who are actually doing the cooking, pulling together the recipes in the kitchens, the ones who are crafting the food of New York are the working class immigrants who eat at these local unassuming ethnic restaurants. They are bringing their sense of spices and flavorings, of how to prepare dishes. And so, to understand what's happening in the upscale restaurants that lead the way in food in the US, we need to sit at the tables of the people who cook it.

And so, my part in this endeavor will be unveiled in the near future.

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World Cup Football: Paraguay vs Italy

(Note, Puma City, where I was, didn't have free wireless, so I used Word and have later uploaded this.

Summary: Paraguay has a great defense. Puma City could be better executed, not where I'll be watching future games.)


2:30
National anthem… pajaro campana shows his true colors. Annoying subtitles on the screen.

2:32
Barrios is playing… the new Pyan is playing instead of Roque Santa Cruz

2:34
game starts

some Italian has fallen for no reason. Boo hoo. Oh, okay. There were cleats involved.

2:44
another Italian falls,

2:46
the Italians are putting a lot of pressure, even on Villar… this is a beautiful game and, yes, I’m scared.

2:50
These Italians are floppy. They’re almost Portuguese. Offsides.

2:56
this looks dangerous. But it’s okay… Maybe?

Best subtitle mistake: "...for the parg wantans."

3:05
At Red in Puma City… the beer is small and the service a little confused by the situation, I think. I.e., we want to watch the game and drink beer. The beer is overpriced for not very much, but they’ve at last turned off the annoying subtitles.

3:10
I miss Cabañas

Number 21 SCORREEESSS!!!!!!! GOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

3:20
Paraguay is ahead 1 point!!! There are, like, 2 or 3 people in this bar complex who are in Py gear. Including me. But lots of non-Italyans cheered at the goal.

“To take nothing away from Paraguay. They’re very lucky to be playing Italy in the first game. Italy always loses the first game,” says my pro-Italy friend. “Check the history. How many times has Italy won their first game in the world cup? And how many times have they won the world cup? They’ve gotten this thing down to a bad science.”

Second Half, Christine is scared.
3:35.

3:43
yikes!!!!.. but the grass is slippery and whew.

3:51
Victor Caceres yellow card.

Alert. Red has a $10 minimum, but it doesn’t say it anywhere in writing.

Italy scores. 1:1.

Final. Sigh

Post-Game
Lots of people ask me about the tereré I'm carrying.

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