Abandoned books and/or movies #12

These are the books that I started and then stopped reading over the summer.

Maggie the Mechanic-- Jaime Hernandez

Two Love and Rockets books was probably more than I needed to read. This one-- the third in a row-- was definitely too much.

Def Jam Recordings: The First 25 Years of the Last Great Record Label-- various authors and photographers

This is a coffee-table book about Def Jam by Def Jam. The pictures were pretty good (such as the one of LL Cool J above), but I wasn't all that interested in reading the text.

 The Clay Machine-Gun-- Victor Pelevin

I've read this one before but not recently. When I started reading it again, it seemed like a good idea to re-read a novel that mixes the Russian Revolution, Buddhism, and Arnold Schwarzenegger (among other things). After about forty pages, it didn't seem like such a good idea anymore.

Here are some of the movies that I started watching but did not finish this summer.

Repo Man

I love this movie and have seen it many, many times. This time I watched about forty-five minutes and then decided that, instead of finishing it, I would go to bed.

Continental Divide

I had heard for years about how terrible this movie is-- it's a romantic comedy starring John Belushi as a big-city newspaper reporter trapped out in the wilderness. I finally decided to find out for myself. I made it twenty-one minutes before I had to turn it off.

Six Degrees of Separation

I have seen this one a few times and always liked it. This time around I couldn't get into it, though. I'm not sure why. It did inspire me to re-read The Catcher in the Rye, however (or maybe that was the other way around).

World Cup Update #5: Best National Anthems

Here are the best national anthems of the teams at this year's World Cup Finals (presented in alphabetical order)--

Brazil

Cameroon

Italy

Spain

Uruguay

And the best national anthem of a team not at this year's finals--

Champions League update: a new team to root for

Rubin Kazan are from Russia, somewhere in the Tatarstan republic. They already have snow on the ground there. Their players appear to be a mix of Russians and Latin Americans. In their last two Champions League matches, they played Barcelona. They won 2-1 away, and, yesterday, the two teams played to a scoreless draw.

Below: Coach Kurban Berdyev celebrates his team's victory in Barcelona.

For highlights of Rubin Kazan's 2-1 victory, watch the video below:

For a more complete view of Rubin Kazan's first goal, click here.

Silvio Berlusconi; stopped the war in Georgia?

AC Milan's Georgian defender, Kahka Kaladze, has publically thanked his team's owner/Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Kaladze was thankful because of Berlusconi's efforts to end the recent fighting in Georgia. Kaladze says that Berlusconi, a good friend of Vladimir Putin, called the Russian leader on the phone and personally negotiated for hours to help end the hostilities. I'd like to imagine that Berlusconi took this extra-ordinary step so that his player wouldn't worry, but I doubt it...

To read the full article... go here.

Euro 2008 update

In just a few hours, Italy will play Spain in the last quarter-final of Euro 2008. Italy will not be able to use either Gattuso or Pirlo, both of whom are suspended for one game due to accumulated yellow cards from earlier matches. I don't know if any Spanish players have to miss this game - probably not. Those of you who saw Turkey beat Croatia or Russia beat the Netherlands in their earlier quarter-finals will know that we can only hope that today's match is just as exciting. Those of you who only bothered to watch Germany defeat Portugal will probably not understand what I am talking about.

French Open - Women's Final

The French Open champion was Ana Ivanovic, who is Serbian. She defeated Dinara Safina, who is from Russia. The announcers made much of Ivanovic's abnormally flexible shoulders and the fact that she had to practice tennis in an empty swimming pool while growing up in "war-torn Belgrade." At the trophy presentation following the match, Ivanovic kept talking about how she rode her bicycle to tennis practice (presumably in the empty swimming pool...) Safina referred to Ivanovic's family and coaches as "annoying", but it appeared that she was trying to be funny. She also insisted that God likes the number three.

Tomorrow will be the inevitable Federer - Nadal showdown.