England 2 Colombia 0

CBC Music (which I follow on the Tweety) recently featured a best-and-worst-World-Cup-songs-ever roundup. I was entertained and pleased to see Ricky Martin finally get some credit for something musical--in this case, "Copa de la Vida," his World Cup hit from 1998. I'm going with the Spanish-language version, because (1) "cup of life" sounds goofy in English and (2) "Copa de la vida" was the first version I heard. Oye, it's a San Antonio thing.

No, for reals about Ricky Martin. I mean, "She Bangs" and "Livin' la vida loca" were ridiculous, but gah, I even miss '90s music these days, when there was a chance you might hear a song on the radio (at least in San Antonio) that didn't sound like it came out of a sterilized facility in an industrial park somewhere deep in the San Fernando Valley.

*Heavy sigh.*

But I digress . . .

While I was pleased to see some musical love for a post-out Ricky, I was nonetheless slightly perturbed that CBC Music didn't include my all-time favorite World Cup song in its best-of list. And that would "England 2 Colombia 0" by the late, fantastic Kirsty MacColl.

OK, so it's not a true, official World Cup song. Regardless, it is far more entertaining, celebratory (of life, of survival), and poignant than anything J-Lo and Pitbull could manage in a thousand years of trying--which, plainly stated, still wouldn't be up to the output created by a hundred monkeys locked in a room with a drum machine and Autotune.

Sorry, just a little bitter this morning. Kirsty was taken from her family and from us much too soon. Her own output was sporadic due to record company problems throughout her career, but I had followed her from sometime in the '80s when I used to hear her songs on the radio in Washington. I also probably had some glancing knowledge that she was the creator of the pop classic, "They Don't Know," made famous in the U.S. by Tracey Ullman, during the second British Invasion, late '70s-early '80s edition. And who could forget a song title like, "There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis"? Well, I probably did forget about it until recently. But it's a rockabilly charmer worth recalling now.

So I am sad that Kirsty is no longer gracing us with her wonderful, whimsical, poignant songs, but I am also happy that if she had to go so soon, she went out on a very high note with the Latin-inflected Tropical Brainstorm album.



Here's another one from the LP, "In These Shoes?," which may or may not be the first song I heard from this album and one that still makes me laugh and groove. I am pretty sure I bought this record when I was still living in San Antonio, although I don't remember how or when I heard about it. Nevertheless, I pull it out every now and again and give it a spin and regularly use tracks from it on mixtapes I make for friends.

And now, through the miracle of the Internet, I'm doing the same for you.

La mordita

Gol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Luis Suárez, McGruff the Crime Dog Wannabe (Source:
Jimmy Baikovicius, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sometimes when life gets too hard, all we really want is a shoulder to bite on.

She's loose!

Welcome to my world--Freeassocsylvania.

My friend Oresund, who actually grew up in la Suisse, recently posted this image to her Facebook page--in a fit of World Cup fever for the Swiss national team, I believe.

Not that I really understand what's that all about, but I am to be live-and-let-live on this topic. Despite my Euro pretensions, I'm strictly a North American guy when it comes to sports. Or, rather, I'm a North American gay guy of a certain age, a non-native of Pittsburgh, which means I really don't give a fatted calf about sports, American or otherwise.

Oh, there's the rare eye candy on the football field, at least if you're into the Zeb Atlas-esque overbulked bully boys of the pigskin. Frankly, I find hockey players far more masculine, handsome, and sex-ay (envision a bearded Kris Letang, par example, or a spiffed-up Maxime Talbot), regardless of the tendency to require dental implants by the age of 23.

"Soccer," though, really does seem to have the best-looking men. There's Ronaldo, of course, the Portuguese one, although he's a little too slick for my taste (as The Onion put it recently, a body slathered in hair gel makes it easier for him to get away from others on the field). There's David Beckham, of course, but shhhh, don't speak, just stand there in your underwear, Dave. Tim Howard bearded, please--but, really, hombre, it's time to walk away from the tattoo needle. Past time, actually. And Mario Balotelli--although I could never date (or anything else) a man with such ludicrous hair, at least when it seems styled so in an un-ironic way.

I'm actually more partial to the unassuming masculine charm of Landon Donovan, truth be told.

Anyway . . . is there anything more boring than a gay guy detailing all the men he's attracted to when there's absolutely squat chance he'll have the opportunity to explore such untoward interest? I think not.

No, where this is supposed to go is here: 




An oldie but a goodie from 1981--SCTV Network 90, a quirky and quite hilarious Canadian comedy import that I used to watch during my college and working adult years. I distinctly remember watching reruns shown late on weeknights on one of the Washington, D.C., public TV stations. I stayed up often to 3 am to catch it, then had to be at work by 8:30 or so later that morning. Oi, youth--although I pretty much have done the same thing as a 50-something "professional," either watching "The Best of Will Farrell" Saturday Night Live reruns on VH1 or trying to get members of my Irish-themed Sims 3 family to improve their cooking, logic, or guitar skills.

If ever there would be a "This Is Your Life" segment about me--either on TV or on Judgment Day--this video should feature prominently in my story. It still makes me guffaw 33 years after it aired. Why? Golly only knows. There's just something inherently silly about it, but clever, too, reimagining all those late '70s/early '80s "Break Out the Bull" commercials for Schlitz Malt Liquor as a "vehicle" for Shelley Winters (or John Candy impersonating Shelley Winters). How can you not laugh at that?

"She's loose!"

Ah, now that's worth a personal tour of Freeassocsylvania, I hope.