i don't know what to title this: blog challenge nine

THE RULES:
You have to choose one footballer to do each of the following activities with.
You can't choose the same person for more than two answers.
You have to explain your reasons behind each answer.
Bonus lolz for being specific with certain questions!

Who would you choose to...

1) Go backpacking across Europe with?
Roque Santa Cruz. I think I heard somewhere that he could speak lots of languages, so that would probably come in handy. And if people still couldn't understand us, they'd be nice to us anyways because he's too pretty to say no to.

2) Teach you their language?
Eduardo da Silva. Bonus because I get to learn both Croatian and Portuguese!

3) Go on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with?
I tried to think of a witty answer for this one but came up short. I can't seem to come up with any smart (sounding) footballers other than Niko Kranjcar. At least with him on my team we'll be set on the questions about the economic situation in Nigeria!

4) Bake a chocolate carrot cake with?
Xabi Alonso. Then I'd force him to eat it Miss Trunchbull style, because that boy is too skinny.

5) Get drunk and sing karaoke with?
Pepe Reina. No explanation other than this necessary:


6) Go on an extreme sports holiday with?
Kun. I don't know why, but he seems the type to like rock climbing and white-water rafting and all that. And by the way, that would be such a fun vacation.

7) Raise money for underprivileged kids with?
Iker Casillas. Remember those pictures of him with the Peruvian children?

8) Marry and have lots of sex and babies with?
Cesc Fabregas. Starting to sound like a broken record with this one...

9) Play an embarrassingly tabloid-worthy prank on?
Benny Feilhaber. And I'd recruit Sacha Kljestan to help. They'd both find it hilarious.

10) Have a short but wholly satisfying sordid affair with?
Yoann Gourcuff. He seems to have an aversion to wearing clothes, so it probably wouldn't be that difficult to convince him.

11) Go to a fancy dress event with?
Others have already said it, but you really can't do better than Fernando Torres in the fancy dress category.

12) Have a drunken hook up that you may regret with?
Vicente Rodriguez. But I'd only regret it because Gina would kill me afterwords.

13) Go ballroom dancing with?
Roque. No idea if he can dance, but he's the perfect partnering height for me in my ballroom heels.

14) Pull off an Ocean's Eleven style heist with?
Thierry Henry. He looks fab in a suit, plus he's great at being sneaky.


15) Go on a secret mission with?
Cesc. We'd get walkie-talkies and wear all black and hide behind doors and stuff. It would be fun.

britpop: blog challenge eight

The return of the blog challenge saw all of us assigned a specific era in music. Vanilla Bear first suggested that I do Britpop, because well, we are talking about me here. But I didn't know if I could do the 90s English music scene justice, seeing as I knew nothing about it at the time it was going on. And I'm actually not as big a fan of Britpop as I seem to be; I know little if anything about some of the smaller bands and one-hit-wonders of the time, and I don't really like Suede. However, I decided to come up with a list anyways, and it ended up being a lot longer than I had anticipated.

Create a playlist at MixPod.com

I was going to comment on all of them, but I'm getting lazy so you're just going to get a list.

1) Teenage Fanclub - Your Love is the Place Where I Come From. Songs From Northern Britain, 1997.

2) Blur - The Universal. The Great Escape, 1995.

[I'm adding the video to this one because I love it. Damon Albarn does a pretty darn good Alex DeLarge.]

3) Pulp - Disco 2000. Different Class, 1995.

4) Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life. Everything Must Go, 1996.

5) James - Laid. Laid, 1993.

6) Echobelly - Great Things. On, 1995.

7) Super Furry Animals - God! Show Me Magic. Moog Droog, 1995.

8) The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony. Urban Hymns, 1997.

9) Ash - A Life Less Ordinary. A Life Less Ordinary (Single), 1997.

10) Oasis - Live Forever. Definitely Maybe, 1994.

Well that was fun. I now have the urge to drape myself in the Union Jack and go hang out in Camden Town.

my happy music: blog challenge seven

This blog challenge was really difficult for me--not because I don't have music that cheers me up, but rather because I have far too much of it. When trying to gain inspiration for this post, I went through my iTunes and made a playlist of all of the songs I could think of that fit the description. I ended up with 45 or so songs. This is because I am music obsessed, and my specific taste in music is largely based on how happy it makes me. Of course, many of my favorite bands aren't exactly the cheeriest (i.e. Radiohead) but they still make me happy because the music is so good, and listening to good music in general makes me happy.

But this isn't about my favorite bands, it's about the (many) songs that cheer me up. So here goes (and again, sorry for the length).

1. American Pie - Don McLean. Simply a classic.
2. Undone (The Sweater Song) - Weezer. This song is just really funny to me. Plus it reminds me of my awesome ninth grade PE class, because they used to play it in the weight room all the time.
3. Chihuahua - DJ Bobo. This one is more of an inside joke. It's a camp thing (as in summer camp, not the English slang word); we have a dance to go with it and everything.
4. Go Cubs Go - Steve Goodman. They play this song after every Cubs home win, so naturally it makes me smile.
5. We Can Work It Out - The Beatles. Possibly my favorite song of theirs.
6. Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
7. Let It Go - The Clarks
8. MK Ultra - Exit Clov
9. In The Morning - The Coral
10. A-Punk - Vampire Weekend. I'm not a massive Vampire Weekend fan, but I heard this in Au Bon Pain this morning when I was getting coffee, and it put a smile on my face.
11. Decent Days and Nights - The Futureheads
12. Digital - Joy Division
13. Don't Ask Me - OK Go
14. Lola - The Kinks
15. Apply Some Pressure - Maximo Park
16. Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
17. Do The Panic - Phantom Planet. Brings me back to sunny summer vacations out of high school.
18. This Charming Man - The Smiths
19. She Bangs The Drums - The Stone Roses
20. Chelsea Dagger - The Fratellis. Two years ago on New Years Eve in the Waterloo tube station in London, I saw a group of about 20 guys (clearly inebriated) dancing around and singing this song, and it made me laugh because it struck me as so quintessentially British. Well, the funniest part of the whole sitch was all the tourists on the other side of the station taking pictures of the drunk guys, but still. The song makes me happy.

So clearly I have a type when it comes to music. Yes, there's a whole lot of Britpoppy stuff, but that's not really surprising; I'm a big fan of British music because it's so upbeat and catchy, and it makes me dance around my room like a lunatic.

more pretty people: blog challenge six

This week, it's all about the ladies.

First up, tennis player Ana Ivanovic. Super jealous of her. Her boyfriend is also quite attractive. (Side note: He just helped Espana win the Davis Cup--and he's a lefty!)

Sylvie van der Vaart. Another one that I'm jealous of for both looks and romantic affiliations. Rafa is adorable and they're adorable together.

Eva Green. Her eyes are totally mesmerizing.
Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power. Gorgeous girl with a gorgeous voice.

Keira Knightley; not my favorite actress by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think she's beautiful.

Finally, Diane Lane. Hard to believe she's 43. No way I'll look that good when I'm 43. I don't even look that good now.

favorite words: blog challenge four

1) clearly - this has kind of become my word. I'm not sure why, but I say it all the time. Clearly.

2) facetious - totally fun to say. Try it if you don't believe me!

3) ignominy - a word that surprisingly enough comes up quite often in my vocabulary. I'm not gonna say why, but it makes me laugh every time I say it.

4) quandary - I am in a quandary as to why I like the word quandary so much. I also really like the word "perplexed", which is usually used to define quandary. Maybe I'm just confused often, so words to describe my confusion are comforting? Yeah I dunno.

5) foodstuffs - my 12th grade World Topics teacher used to say this all the time and it cracked us up. She also pronounced "experiment" like "ex-spearmint" and said "drug" instead of "dragged". She was a great teacher though. Fun times in high school...

we all have our fangirl moments, right?

So I've written on the legit reasons I became a footie fan. Now I'm hopping to the shallower side of the pond: the eye candy. Because really, who doesn't love looking at hot guys? Settle down and grab some popcorn, 'cause this is probably going to be a long post.

First up, the Spaniards. No surprises here, they are beautiful boys who play beautiful football.

1) Cesc Fàbregas, the love of my life. He's a bit of a dork, but then again so am I. And he sure threads a mean pass. So amazing, he deserves two pictures.
2) Iker Casillas, a.k.a. God. I am a devoted member of the Church of San Iker.
3) Raul Gonzalez, the other Spanish God of football. Also sometimes known as The Original Hottie.
4) Fernando Torres, the waxing, bleaching, swearing-in-English, goal-scoring genius himself.
5) Xabi Alonso. I'm still lamenting the fact that we couldn't sign him. He is exactly the kind of player Arsenal need at the moment. Plus he'd look pretty in a Gunners kit--we already know red suits him! (Don't worry Liverpool fans, I'm just kidding!

...kind of.)
6) Vicente Rodriguez. Best legs in the biz. Also makes getting punched in the face look damn fine. (Of course, next to him is David Villa--that's Dahveed Veeyah--of Euro 2008 high scoring fame.)And now on to the non-Spaniards.

7) Robin van Persie. I mean, who doesn't love a guy who gets so into table tennis? If nothing else, he'd probably be a great beer pong partner.

8) Roque Santa Cruz. Coolest footballer's name ever. Well, second coolest; I still love saying Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite. But Roque is prettier than Kaka. See?
9) Vedran Corluka. Congratulations Charlie, you are the first Tottenham player I have ever admitted to being attracted to. Quite an achievement. (In my defense, I found him attractive before he sold his soul to the devils.) I can't help it though, he is very much my type: tall, dark hair, amazing green eyes, tall, lean, foreign, did I mention tall? It could never work out between us, me hating his club and all, but that might not stop me stalking him in London...
10) Niko Kranjcar, the other tall beautiful Croatian boy. Sadly, this one's married and doesn't live in London. Although he might soon! Okay, so it's a completely unfounded not-even-rumor-yet, more of a "we should sign him" than a "we are going to sign him", but still. It would be fab. And we both drink lots of milk and pull our long sleeves down over our fingers: totally MFEO.

Okay, now that I've revealed myself to be a total fawning fangirl and destroyed any sort of credibility about the game that I may have previously had, I'm going to go now. Peace out.

football history: blog challenge three

I'm sure some (if not all) of you have heard this story before, but whatev. It's a good one, so don't complain! My obsession with football started in Chicago when I was 13. It was the summer of the 2002 World Cup and I was at my grandparents house for a family reunion. My aunt had just returned from Ecuador, where she had gotten married and been living for a few years, and she brought her footie-loving husband back with her. Now as far as I knew, I liked playing soccer but thought watching the sport was incredibly boring. But the two of them were so into it (going so far as waking up in the middle of the night to watch the matches live on the Spanish channels) that I got caught up by the whole thing and started watching. Well actually, I was forced to watch the first game--I had some movie on and they made me change the channel--and I am forever indebted to them because of it.

So I fell in love with the US Men's National Team. (And yes, this is where my animosity for the German NT comes from--I have still not forgiven Torsten Frings for that uncalled handball on the goal line during the quarters, and I have hated Michael Ballack and Oliver Kahn from that game on. I don't think it'll ever change.) I started watching MLS, and soon fell in love with Taylor Twellman and Brian Ching and Carlos Bocanegra. And then about a two years later, right before my junior year of high school, we switched from basic to digital cable and I discovered FSC. My life has never been the same since.

Up until that point, the only English teams I had heard of were Manchester United (of course) and Reading (because that's where Bobby Convey went when he left DC). But I figured that was a very uninformed way to make a decision about which team to support, so I took a few weeks and watched as many matches as I could. First came Man United and I was unimpressed. They just didn't do anything for me. But the first Arsenal game I saw had me hooked. Dennis Bergkamp, Bobby Pires, Titi--I fell in love with the fluid style of play, and yes I will admit, the players. The teenage Spaniard with the monster passes filling in for Patrick Vieira captured my little footie-loving heart.

And then I found out that Nick Hornby (my favorite author because of High Fidelity, Songbook, and his weekly "Stuff I've Been Reading" column in The Believer) had written a book called Fever Pitch and IT WAS ABOUT HIS OBSESSION WITH ARSENAL. Fate? I think so!

I didn't realize until I started writing this and actually tallied it up--I've only been an Arsenal fan for about 4 1/2 years. That seems so weird to me because I can't remember a time when I didn't look forward to watching football on the weekends. Now I'm looking forward to actually going to a match someday. It's gonna happen.

worst halloween costumes ever: blog challenge two

So yesterday, as I'm sure you are all aware, was Halloween. My costume was pretty sweet, if I do say so myself...

...but there were others that I saw that really were not up to par. So I have compiled a list of what-not-to-wears, Halloween style.

1) Most of us have seen Mean Girls, but really, the "slut rule" should not be taken that seriously. Don't be slutty unless your costume is also actually good. The generic ones that you buy online (eg. French maids, Catholic schoolgirls, Playboy bunnies) are boring, overdone, and show far too much of what lots of girls probably shouldn't be showing. There was one girl I saw at the party last night just wearing a black bra and underwear and boots. WTF she was supposed to be, I have no idea.

I did see a few somewhat clever ideas though. One girl that we met on the bus was wearing birthday wrapping paper with a tag that said "From God, to men": God's gift to mankind. There was also a girl who was wearing a rather revealing outfit, but she had two plastic fried eggs on her head: eggs over easy. I can forgive whoreishness on Halloween as long as you've got a unique idea to go with it.

2) Do not dress as Sarah Palin. It's just a big no. That includes both girls and boys.

3) Guys, do not go out with just a wig on. That's ridic lazy.

4) Girls, a black dress with two lipstick spots on your neck does not a costume make. I don't care how much you pout when you take pictures of yourself on the bus, you do not look like a vampire.


Some of the good costumes I saw out:

1) A grocery bag

2) Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

3) Indiana Jones (okay this was nothing that special, but I love Indiana Jones so this costume is always good)

4) A Piñata (already broken, with candy stuck all over)

5) Party on Garth, party on Wayne!
Schwing!

esperanto and eskimo poetry: blog challenge one

After rewatching this episode of The West Wing recently, a few things ran through my mind.

1) Governor Ritchie is a lot like a male version of Sarah Palin

2) I know what Esperanto is, but I've never heard any Eskimo poetry.

So I looked up some Inuit poetry, and it's not half bad.

I see your face.
It is always near me, though I
Am days away from you.
In dear memory, I always see your face.

I see your face.
Alone in the dark night
I turn down the light and
In the darkness, I see your face.

I see your face.
You did not want to cry, but I
Remember now, tears as we said goodbye.
That is how I see your face.

I will see your face.
Only wait. When spring birds fly
home to nest and mate, so shall I,
And I will see your face.

Pretty stirring stuff, huh?

But this was my favorite piece that I came across:

I got my poem in perfect order.
On the threshold of my toungue
Its arrangment was made.
But I failed indeed, in my hunting.

Hee!