My horoscope today reminds me that freedom is best enjoyed in whimsical pursuits, and since I posted yesterday on the liberating nature of online journal posting (I really hate that word blogging, it’s so discordant), I thought the best way to incorporate that advice would be to write about a form of amusement, rather than my usual serious diet of politics and activism and social issues and whatnot.
This is still a blog promoting intellectualism and sophistication, of course, and although my fascination with it must annoy and become tiresome for some of my friends, in point of fact, their aversion to it has been frustrating and tiresome to me for a while now as well, and is the real motivation behind this site. The world needs more intellectuals, America needs to get over itself and stop pretending that it’s cool to be coarse.
For a shining instant, call it 1968, we appeared ready to embrace refinement, Bob Dylan was making music inspired by the culture and style of Greenwich Village, John Lennon was living in New York City, and the Grateful Dead were exploring the folk roots of The Blues and Rock and Roll.
And music is not the only entertainment that can be sophisticated. I went to school at Penn State, and I grew up in Chicago, so I understand that even football doesn’t have to be about overpowering talent, superstar quarterbacks and lightning fast wide receivers. Midwest football is about controlling the game; a burly offensive line controlling the line of scrimmage allows the tailback to pick up four yards per carry, an eighty yard, eighteen play touchdown drive keeps the opponent’s defense running all over the field, while even a thirty yard, eight play drive that ends in a punt can wear them down and pin their offense deep in their own territory; a well rounded, endurance conditioned defense can hold them there and translate to better field position, even to blocked punts or a safety; the Bears last year scored more on defense and special teams than they did on offense and they won the division championship, they arguably lost the Super Bowl on the turn of one play. Of course, the Colts aren’t built that way, but then again, Indiana can hardly be counted in the Midwest, it’s more like a southern state that broke loose and floated wrong-way up the Mississippi.
It works in soccer too. Who won the last world cup? Mickey Rooney? Thierry Henry? Ronaldinho? No, the World Cup Champions for 2006 are the Azzuri, a team who’s starting lines almost to a man play against each other two and three times a year in their domestic league, or did until the world saw Fabio Cannavaro dancing around like a fucking bad-ass, looking as much like an Olympic Floor Exercise gymnast as a defenseman. Until they saw Luca Toni making perfectly timed runs behind the defense for wide open one touch shots on beautifully lofted lead passes from the midfield. Talk about the beautiful game…
Speaking of the Azzuri, I wanna give a shout out to Jack White, the most intuitive musician to make a platinum record since Lennon himself. (Sorry. If you didn’t catch the segway, the Italian National Team’s unofficial anthem for the World Cup was Seven Nation Army—the same number of teams they played on the way from the group stages to the Cup, by the way) I repeat, the White Stripes are the most musically deep band making music in the world today. Jack White has the vocal maturity and expressive resonance of a Michelangelo painting, for those who have not heard Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground, there are lines in that song that are poignant enough to break your heart the first time you hear it. Other songs, like Hotel Yorba, Blue Orchid and Jolene will absolutely rock your world off its axis. I can only hope they eventually achieve the level of recognition the Beatles got, because as far as I am concerned, they are the first band since them to deserve it.
I’m going to stop now, because I’m trying to keep these short enough to absorb effectively. But I leave off with one last thought; that sports are as intricate and complex an expression of culture as theater is. A well staged Shakespeare or Aeschylus is as riveting as a come-from-behind, last minute, Super Bowl-winning touchdown. In return, a perfectly executed, four play goal line stand, can be as emotionally draining as any production of Medea ever staged. And both require equal parts talent, effort, artistry, intuition, practice, and awareness of the circumstances relative to history on the part of the players in order to be truly epic.
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