Sport marketing, violence and the style of it

in my morning paper scanning today the notable stories are the faux-tour for western journalists in tibet that the monks so rightly 'interrupted' and Muqtada al-Sadr calling out the militia in Basra.

I'm going to speak on the latter, but maybe not about what you are expecting-I'm leaving the explicit politics out of this one because we are well aware of them, more or less.

Every picture i've seen of the protesting in Basra and Sadr City have had the ubiquitous young men wearing European football shirts. Again, we are quite sure of the universality of the sport and its followers, but where do they get the jerseys? Clearly they arent paying the 35 quid/50ish Euro (theyre the real currencies now arent they?) a pop for them, and certainly many are knock-offs, but many give every appearance of being authentic-patches, lettering and numbering all correct. So where do they get them? donations from the respective clubs? nike/adidas/kappa? unicef? BArring the last one, its quite effective advertising is it not? Mssrs. Beckham and Ronaldo can only sell so many, why not have the South target the North, simply through appearing in public, an inevitable something in a war zone, and certainly cheaper than a mega-endorsement deal to a footballer. The advertising cost is merely the price of the shirt.

Oh the charities of the great MNCs.

camus-sage

-One never says a quarter of what one knows. Otherwise, all would collapse. How little one says, and they are already screaming...

-He doesnt go with a prostitute who accosts him and appeals to him because he has nothing but a thousand-franc note on him and doesn't dare ask for change.

in situ

its good to be back.....

tout va bien

a few things to be noted.

1-uva is over rated, everyone visible is overtly preppy and what i would classify as the usual suspects at a dave matthews concert.

2-northern virginia has its ups. and its downs. everyone is blase and mcmansions abound.

3-natural bridge is good. how can the gift shop not carry prints by F.E. Church, and the other hudson river schoolers and those other early american guys no one thinks about, including myself? frightening.

4-monticello is small but tj fascinates me nonetheless.

5-virginia has great bookstores. i like the people who work them as well.

6-http://youtube.com/watch?v=KdLRCSOZ7wo

i apologise for my lateness

for i've been going








on everyones asses.



proper blog in the comings days i'd 'spect.

Oh to be young and idealistic

title has nothing to do with the post.

watched 'this is spinal tap' today. quite funny

reading wikipedia miscellany such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Castle

reading mcsweeneys miscellany such as http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/librarian/ which ive now completed

off to tennessee tomorrow, then jury duty wednesday, then richmond for the rest of the week.


listening to 'frontwards'-pavement
'the life pursuit'-belle and sebastian

all very fitting

oh my, its been quite some time hasnt it?

well snap, it has!

I should say im back now, eager to resume writing after a fitting one-week sabbatical to purgatory and sodom and back. nah, it hasnt been so bad. it was Lit Fest Season, the time of extra credit, sucking up and not paying attention when cool people talk. these are weak examples, i realise. but im distracted by hw(see m.e. de for a more fitting description o fth elike) today's hw-free market related hoop jumping, which is of course a blog entry or ten on its own... thursday-saw ron rash, the adopted son of clemson, and of the lit departments of every other institution in our southern highlands. A good speaker he was, with a voice that mirrors his text, no of course it doesnt, but we can think it cant we? at least in certain circumstances? debate follows. debate ends. resume blog. ah ok. ron rash. read from his upcoming book, serena i think its entitled, should be a good read, comes out october so youll hear about it then.... next was some woman who was shit and i cared not enough to remember her name. her poems were shit. her verse was shit. she read like shite. enough said. then brock clark read, funny guy, lighthearted woo woo thank you and good night. then lieberman. dunno what the fuck he said other than james dickey and i went skinny dipping at isle of palms and got sand and crabs in their uh ohs and dickey drowned or something after he and liebo went chickenfighting or some shit. left then.

then saw almond-the playboy guy. hilarious as all get out. good clean family fun. by'r lady were great. the velvet's they wree not, but enough of phoenix and the walkmen to keep me happy. interesting people as always to be seen.

friday was the day of eggers. well intentioned, too ingrained in the 'new journalism' of wolfe some would argue. the novelization of val. deng was not an attempt at trivialization i would say. was he high? nah. doing good things for mexican illiterates and other innercity types. you konw im not this crass, dont you?


STOP THE PRESSES

i've been known to multitask poorly. by that i mean i run alot of tasks, and i dont finish anything, and in the rare occasion i do finish something, its quite pisstaken.

http://mcsweeneys.net/books/bankruptcy.html

conspiracy? (val deng foundation losses)


START THE PRESSES


I am actually this crass, im actually more crass. i bleed crass. you squash abug, it goos. that goo is crass, and im made of it.



Friday-hung out with Biosystems kids. why are some 'conservative?' seems a bit off to me. maybe they just dont think.

saturday-paint party. probably goign in the book somehow. actually itll fit into the book easily. so, youll get a dose of htat then, when i publish. never.

so tahts about enough for now i think.

this blog brought to you by Liars-"Liars" available where all good music is found. interesting guys, see them live please. angus andrew=mentalist.

today's real post

its good to talk about hukyamington- you know who i mean. I lump them, its easier, simpler. always something to talk about , always something relevant, always a clear weakness in their theses...

recent poll by the atlantic monthly...

since 2000, the prospects of lib dems is 73%weaker/28% stronger, so say 'smart people'. tricky summations, throw this out. Why is this and what should we make of it...

well the why is obvious, but lets disconnect ourselves from our deep entrenched western bias to make something of it...

Why objectify something that doesnt exist. the 'liberal democracy' can only exist on paper, as with anything structural...

they say a lib dem lets the citizen choose to be free! free in what sense i wonder...

so were on this path (to reach lib dem), some would say we're within a fingers length of reaching it and that will mark the end of man's societal intellectual development-we will have settled on the absolute best form of governance possible...

Naivety and nearsightedness are the new in...

theres really no gain from believing this....an oversimplification of the international structure...

its as if to say the conclusion of the cold war brought some men together, they clasped their hands-thumbed their thumbs-and said 'thats it, pack it up and go home, weve proved the absolute...'

and there really are alot of rich white men who believe in this, and they get their way...

this isnt really a situation where the american right bears the guilt--our left is as guilty...

theres free trade, fair trade, 'fair trade' and 'free trade', 'free' trade...

when not faced with a faced enemy. we like to make up faces. and its 'semiotically fun.' for intellectuals. the world bank gets great data, it really does, i spent a semester pouring over it...

the great thing about alot of data is you can pick and choose things to support your thesis, because honestly, no one-no one, knows what to make of it. if you were to look at it all youd find the lineage to jesus' supposed children, conspiracy theories a la king, and the enigma code. well of course you wouldnt...

Kenya on the rise. of course it is look at this. kenya at an all time low-look at this. it goes on...

Is the economic system more or less reactionary than we think? a good question for someone who knows something. ask it to a dozen and keep track of the responses. youll think no one studied for the test....

so-dont study for the test, it doesnt matter...

and dont vote for any of the 3 who are running for the padded chair...

they dont speak for you...

I dont either...

Seasons and weather

everyone wants to be in the season that its not.

everyone wants the weather to be different.

if you jump up and down enough you might help yourself with this. just a word of advice. jump up and down folks.

NEver saying folks again.

I've got flu, rickets and parasites

www.kissthisguy.com
this is amusing

i had a post, and it said it saved, but it didnt and now its gone...lost to the little gopher creatures with big teeth and pointy feet that dig around in the interweb stealing your shit, postcards and bank numbers.

fiends they are.



ill leave you with this parting gem from this especially enlightening site-

clown control to mao tse-tung.