The Phone Company

Laura from MO writes about Darren's Dance Grooves:

This video was a waste of money. The tape was short, and a good 15 minutes of it were devoted to talking about Darren and how godly he is, not to teaching any kind of dance moves. Also, he moves very fast through all the steps and he faces the camera the whole time so you have to do everything backwards. If you want to waste your money on a video that is only out there to promote and glorify Darren, this is the video for you.
posted by Kermit at 6/30/2004 07:19:00 PM |

I know you are all working and schlepping through the days back in Americaland, but here in partly-cloudy Europe, everything has stopped to make way for the big party that is the European Cup. For those of you unaware of this, The EC is the soccer tournament of Europe and is held every four years. Now me, being an American, had absolutely no interest in the thing. But then I started watching. Soccer is usually one of those games that I don't enjoy because I have no investment in any of the teams. When Bremen plays Hamburg, I just don't care about it. But when it's Germany against Holland, then a shit is given. Germany got knocked out in the preliminary round on Wed. (mild upset there) and it actually hurt a bit. As I was walking to my local bar(the Banana: frequented by the local metal community and other lowlifes thus making me feel right at home) to see the game the streets were absolutely deserted. I could have walked about naked carrying a bazooka and no one would have seen it. Eerie. When I got to the bar (10 minutes late, how ungerman of me) it was packed with... the local metal community and other lowlifes who were, for perhaps the first time in their lives, actually paying close attention to something. It was Germany against the Czechs and Germany had to win to advance to the next round. They scored first and the place exploded. Really cool. Then those pesky czechs tied it up. The rest of the game was about as tense and fun as any sporting event back home. The czechs eventually scored again and we didn't come back. It actually hurt a bit.
Tonight was the first game of the quarter finals and it was England against the host country Portugal. I was pulling for Portugal. What I got was an absolutely incredible game that went into 2 overtimes and was finally settled on penalty shots. In front of his home crowd, the Portuguese goalie shot the winning penalty kick and that was that. I was at the same bar and while there were fewer people there than last night, there was still real interest and people had definitely taken sides. I got completely wrapped up in the game and was elated when Portugal pulled it off. I was also quite happy when David Beckham, the English pretty boy superstar, missed his penalty shot. Icing on the cake. The moral of this story is that I am now completely sold on soccer and intend to follow it from here on out. It's a wonderful game and unlike the critics charge, far from boring. It is intense, athletically mind-blowing, and just plain cool... Provided of course that you care about the outcome. So my recommendation is to check your local listings and see if you can get a game from the tournament, pick a side, and enjoy the ride. With any luck you'll see something great. Cheers! posted by Kermit at 6/25/2004 12:08:00 AM |