Should we call it "The Obama Bowl?" Or, "The Super Obama?"

Finally, I found a reason to watch Sunday's game.

Monte Carlo

One of the interesting things about Mrs. Architecturefootballandfood's Dad is the fact that he used to be a Rally racecar driver. (Which reminds me that one of the (possibly the only) interesting things about the word "racecar" is that it's spelled the same going forwards AND backwards. Palindrome!) Tomorrow he'll head off to Monte Carlo to be in the official "cheering team" for a team from Japan participating in the Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. It's basically an all-star race for veteran drivers. This team in particular won the actual race in 1979, and they'll be using the same car that they won it with. He will be in support of No. 15 Nakagawa and Morikawa's team, driving a Mazda. The funny thing is that most everyone else is driving Peugots, Mercedes, Alfa Romeos, Porches and the like, and the Japanese team is representing with a Mazda! You have GOT to love that.

The So-so-Bowl...

Well, what do you know? The Superbowl will be between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers. YIPEEE!! Thanks to American sports' belief in parity, it has become official: I have ZERO interest in basically all championship games anymore!!! There are no superpowers in American sports. There is no good, no evil. There is even no history anymore. The Cardinals (apparently) have the second longest drought in sports for championships. But WHAT Cardinals team does that refer to? The Arizona Cardinals, with the future hall of famer, pretty boy, young go getter behind center, Matt Leinart? Oh, my bad. Leinart, the "future" of the Cardinals got replaced by the "history" of annoying God-touting players and even more annoying players' wives, Kurt Warner. Or the Phoenix Cardinals? Or the St. Louis Cardinals? Or was it the CHICAGO Cardinals? The Chicago team, by chance, happens to be the last Cardinals franchise which DID win the championship (prior to it becoming the Superbowl).

My question is: Who cares? Who cares who wins this Superbowl, or any other Superbowl for the past few years. Neither team belongs there. The Superbowl champion will not be the best football team in the country, period. So what are we celebrating? Champion of what? One game? And then what? After two weeks, EVERYBODY will forget who won. Let me ask you this - honestly - how long does it take you to remember who won the Superbowl last year? (I remembered pretty quick because I'm a Giants fan.) But how about two years ago? I'd have to Wikipedia who won it three years ago because God knows I can't remember that on my own.

I'd hate to be a pro-England Anti-American blogger, but I remember Premiership champions. Maybe that's because it's plausibly only going to be 4 or 5 teams. Maybe it's because there are no playoffs, and the team with the best RECORD at the end of the season is Champion. End of story. No artificial drama or extra rounds for TV money's sake. Maybe it's because the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker and parity is thought of as mercy in English football. I don't know. But this seems right to me. I know that every year, I can hate the good teams because they'll beat my team. I know who will be contenders, and if a new contender comes along (Aston Villa or maybe Man City in the future) it will probably take them a while to build a worthy team, and they'll probably remain contenders for a while. There is NO flash in the pan.

Maybe I'm just grumpy because I have to go to work on MLK day. But I don't give a TOSS about the Superbowl this year.

A Rebirth of Theaters

There is a fascinating new cultural trend that I've been noticing slowly gaining in popularity over the past year: showing big events in theaters, put on by private organizations, TV stations, etc. This is a very interesting development in culture on a number of levels.

1) It is signalling an even great trend towards 3d viewing - since a large screen and easy distribution of 3d glasses make large audience theaters very attractive.

2) It is mimicking the phenomenon of people moving OUT of the suburbs and back INTO the city. This was triggered for a number of reasons - gas prices, environmental concerns, mortgage crises, typical ebb and flow of living habits, etc. But when people opt out of viewing something in the privacy and comfort of their own homes, and opt for going out on the town, to see and be seen, and give up comfort for an added adrenalyn rush of partaking in a group/social event, it signals that a resurgence of openness and energy is beginning to take shape.

3) Broadcasting local events, such as live shows from the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, around the country to theatres, shows an embrace of modern technology and a willingness to modify habits based on available possibilities. This is something that is incredibly important to me as a contemporary architect, and I hope that it will transform from a social trend to a broad cultural taste, allowing more every day people to embrace new technologies and aesthetics in their design and architecture.

Here are some links to various new uses for the every day movie theater. I would love to get everybody's take on this so comments are, as always, welcome.

Sports events

Obama's Inauguration

Broadway Shows

Metropolitan Opera

Premiership Wrap

Round 21 in the Premiership was a bit of a strange one. Two games were cancelled, and Newcastle didn't lose. I know - strange.....
The weather was quite cold and dangerous in parts of the country, which caused many smaller clubs some serious headaches, mainly with frozen pitches. But the games that did go on were not without some serious drama.
First, before any kickoffs even occured, Rafa Benitez came out with a pretty surprising tirade against Sir Alex Ferguson of Man United. Not surprising based on what he said, since everything he said was pure fact and very well known by everyone in the league. But it was quite surprising that anyone actually have the gawl to say an unkind word against the Patron Saint Sir Alex, who, if it were up to the British media, would be immediately crowned king and Savior, and a new "Alexian Church" would be started where instead of stale bread for a host, we'd nibble off used pieces of Sir Alex's gum, and instead of a cross or star of david, we'd all worship a photograph of one of Ferguson's famous geriatric goal celebrations.
Rafa Benitez went down a pre-written list and stated all the media outbursts by Ferguson, and the FA's response (or, lack thereof). He compared that to other managers' outbursts, and the following fury which was unleashed upon them by the FA. Basically proving, fairly simply, how biased the FA are towards the biggest of the clubs. Now myself being a supporter of a team much, much further down the table, I can see some incredible hypocracy with this outburst, since Rafa and his players have gotten off the hook on many instances as well - case in point, Saint Steven Gerrard being arrested by Mersyside police for a barfight - almost the same as Joey Barton's charge. Now, Barton, being a Newcastle player gets put in headlines every day for the next week or two, and with Gerrard - POOF! A day after his arrest, it's completely disappeared from the headlines, and lips, of any media outlets. Let's talk about bias, Rafa.
Now to the football.
Newcastle were lucky to get a point at home against fellow struggler West Ham. Recent reports suggest that roughly half our team is looking to move to a better club, with Michael Owen having already reportedly agreeing to terms with Man City for a summer move, N'Zogbia opening his huge, annoying mouth again, stating that while his agent hasn't actually spoken with anybody yet, he'd looooove to go to Arsenal, and Given being one foot out the door, also to Man City. Anyway, Owen is still here, and he did his job well, putting away a nice goal to give us the lead. Our defense couldn't handle Bellamy all day (I never realized just how quick that guy was until Saturday) and I wasn't surprised at all to see him equalize quickly. In the second half, Seb Bassong fouled a player in the box, and we were lucky that it wasn't called for a penalty. Besides this play, he was MONEY all day, as he has been all season.
Their second goal, though, was truly horrific. Culminating a spell of 20 minutes of just about the worst football I've seen by any team this year, we gave Carlton Cole about 45 seconds to receive the ball at his feet, put a few moves on a few players, bend down, tie his shoes, give himself a good old spitshine, play a quick game of Go Fish with Scott Parker and Lucas Neill, and cooly put away the go-ahead goal. Shay Given, at that point, held up a sign saying "Man City or Bust."
But with just over 10 minutes to play, we were threatening time after time. Unfortunately all of our crosses were easily cleared before they could cause any trouble.....until the young'n Andy Carroll, sporting a classy new cornroll infested hairdo finally put his height to good use and powerfully shot home a header to tie the game up. It ended that way, but we were REALLY lucky to escape with a point, because the way I see it, we are a team in crisis, and I'm really concerned for the rest of the season.
In contrast, today's match between Man United and Chelsea displayed football at its finest - as it usually does. Watching the Newcastle match contrasted with the Man U match today, it was like watching two different leagues. Man U ran out deserving 3-0 victors, and Liverpool can now officially begin shaking in their boots, because with two games in hand, and only sitting 5 points behind them, Manchester look to really be hitting their stride now. Their youngsters put in good performance after good performance, with Johnny Evans coming through today INCREDIBLY strong, after Rio was a late scratch after waking up with a bad back. He, Raphael, Nani, Anderson, Possebon, and Danny Welbeck are all going to be the stars of about 6 years from now, and Man U show no signs of letting up. That was the most clear difference today - Manchester looked full of spring and energy, and they completely ran past and confused Chelsea. It was a demolition - and Big Phil was correct when he said that if his team continues to play like this, they'll quickly be removed from the title race.
Good thing Newcastle doesn't have to worry about that.

2008....AF&F style.

Thanks to Brett's great suggestion to do a "year in review" post, I'm doing a "year in review" post.
If you look back on 2008 with that 20/20 vision everybody always talks about, one word sticks out in your head: "Shite." I mean, barring Obama's wonderfully emotional and uplifting election, some great individual holiday/family/personal moments, some good food, and an occasional (and I mean REALLY occasional) Newcastle victory, 2008 was littered with economic crises, joblessness, wars wars wars, bad baseball, bad football, and even bad American football.

I'd have to say my favorite moment of the year was, of course, the moment when CCN predicted Obama's victory on the big screen at Grant Park, and I let out of surge of joy and excitement with all my friends there that night. From that point on through the rest of the night it felt like we were all together, on one team. Walking back home on Michigan Avenue, all was right with the world. People singing and dancing in the streets, not a single frown on a face as far as you looked, and somehow, we would all come out of this mess that the GOP had put us through for the past 8 years.
Some other highlights were: Of course, our trip to Japan, Christmas with my little nephew and some great food prepared by my Mom, the day Keegan was announced to take over NUFC's reigns, our emphatic victory over Spurs last season at White Heart Lane, our trip to Via Osteria, and another trip we took to a little restaurant called Bistro Campagne in Chicago, which I did not document on this site.
The lowlights were: definitely the day that many of my friends and coworkers got laid off at the firm, and it sunk in REAL QUICK how tough the next year or so is going to be, if we're lucky enough to stay employed for the next year, and the day that King Kev left Newcastle. I like to keep this place a happy one, so I won't get too into the downers of 2008.

So, it certainly was a tough one to get through, especially the last few months. But look - we're all here. We've made it. Let's get our chins up off the dirt, and keep walking forward. Because at the end of the day, as long as there is still architecture to enjoy, football to watch, and good food to stuff your face with, the world is still worth hanging out in.