Nike’s Soccer Ads

I may not always agree with everything Nike does as a company, but there's no denying they have a long history of amazing soccer ads. From the very beginning of my love for televised soccer, Nike has been producing great little mini films that reflect a lot of care, style, intelligence, and knowledge of the game, and this latest, “Write the Future” is no exception. Anybody who’s ever played a competitive match has had dreams of glory or fear of goathood flash though their head, but Nike takes this one to another level. After watching this, I’m really fired up for the start of the World Cup.

Here’s a few more classics from previous Nike campaigns:



Good vs. Evil is the first Nike ad I remember, and is also responsible for my love of Eric Cantona. The overall look may be a little dated, but that little "Au revoir" coupled with the collar flip could come off incredibly cheesy. Cantona makes it about as bad-ass as anyone would think possible.



The Brazilian squad with a little ”Jogo Bonito” in the airport. It’s funny to see some of these guys at their peak (Ronaldo) and some of them who dropped off the face of the earth soon after starring in this commercial (Denilson). Also, Cantona ges a cameo.



Guy Ritchie’s first person masterpiece puts you in the head of a lower division player whose free kick goal gets him a spot on Arsenal, superstardom, the Champions League and then eventually, the World Cup, all in 3 minutes. Genius.

New Kid in Town

Denver Nuggets vs. Houston Rockets. I'm not much of an NBA fan, but I have to say, this game was surprisingly entertaining... at least the second half was. We got to see a pretty good game from Allen Iverson (who scored all of the Nuggets first 10 points and ended up with 28) and a sparkling debut from Maryland product Steve Blake (above), who flew in to town late last night after Denver sent wee Earl Boykins, Julius Hodge and some cash to Milwaukee in exchange. Blake finished with 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough. In fact, he must have been flashing back to his days as a Terrapin as Denver continually gave wide open shots to former Dukie Shane Battier, and he made them pay to the tune of 25 points as the Nuggets fell 90-86. Still, it was a good start for a guy who just met his teammates today. With Blake and A.I. running things, once Carmelo Anthony gets back from suspension and Kenyon Martin gets healthy again, this Nuggets team is going to be fun to watch.

A Question of Sport

The Final Four has invaded Indy. Or, more correctly, I guess I should say the corporate sponsors have invaded Indy. They've plastered Coke and Bud Light signage on every available inch of the downtown buildings, and most of the streets around Monument Circle are shut down and covered in lighting rigs, speakers, and giant projection screens shilling their products (all guarded by some flabby meatheads wearing security shirts who feel they have to earn their minimum wage by being total dicks and not letting you cross the street to get to your office because they're assembling some scaffolding 2 blocks away and "someone could get hurt"). It takes a good 10-15 minutes to make the 5 block drive from my apartment to my work. There appear to be about 200 portable trailers selling all manner of fried food (and to wash it down, of course, Coke and Budweiser products). Half of the circle is now buried under a stage where 80,000 people are expected to gather to see Michelle Branch, John Mellencamp and Carrie Underwood. Nothing like an American Idol winner to bring out the masses. But it's all worth it, because millions of dollars will be spent in Indy this weekend. Millions of dollars of free publicity will be generated for the sponsors. Hundreds of thousands of man-hours will be wasted by workers staring out their windows at all the chaos and holding on that last little slim hope that they might still win their office pool. Oh, and somewhere in all this mess, some college kids will play a couple of basketball games. Luckily, I managed to get something worthwhile out of this deal, scoring some free tickets to see a non-lip-synched concert when Robert Randolph and the Family Band play tomorrow afternoon at... the Bud Light tent? Shit. I guess nobody's safe from the long arm of corporate whoredom.

While most of the country is gearing up for this moneymaking extravaganza, I'm saving my excitement for the fact that this is Opening Weekend for MLS. All 12 teams are in action, with 3 matches on Saturday and 3 on Sunday. There are 2 matches on national TV tomorrow: Chicago and Dallas start the day on ABC at 4 pm Eastern, and ESPN2 has the rematch of last year’s final between LA and New England, at 11 pm. My boys from DC United open the season on Sunday at home against the New York Red Bulls, one of two teams that changed their name this year. The Red Bulls used to be the Metrostars, but were bought only a month ago by (believe it or not), Red Bull, and immediately rebranded. The other team with an identity crisis ended last year as the San Jose Earthquakes. During the offseason, they moved to Houston, where they were christened Houston 1836, after the year Texas won its independence from Mexico. Unfortunately, this managed to piss off the very Hispanic community the team was trying to attract, so they wisely and quickly changed the name again, settling on Houston Dynamo. They did manage to get one thing right, though, ending up with some of the coolest uniforms in the league. For more info, ESPN and MLSnet have both extensively previewed the new season, and SoccerTimes has a condensed wrapup of the offseason.

So between Final Four-related activities and a wide range of televised soccer, I’m in for a busy weekend. Usually, I’d be joined in my excitement by my friends Todd and Cynthia, but for some reason they seemed to think a two-week vacation in Australia would somehow be more interesting than sitting on the couch watching sports. Different strokes, I guess...

AP Photo

Entertain me

Got the Super Bowl on in the background as I write this. The commericals seem pretty lame this year. And am I the only one who thought the Stones looked like a bunch of old men pretending to be rock stars? I mean, Mick can still move, but Keith and Ronnie shaking their hips just makes me feel sad. Charlie Watts still appears to be the coolest man alive, though. I don't think I've ever seen that dude break a sweat. Anyway, in between Big Ben's turnovers, I'll catch y'all up on a few things that I've been enjoying lately.

Fables
OK, this may be a little tough to explain, but I'll give it a shot. Fables is an absolutely genius comic book created by a guy named Bill Willingham. The basic idea is that all the fairy tales that we know and love exist. Any fairy tale kingdom from the Brothers Grimm, Mother Goose, or any story that's ever been made into a Disney movie is out there somewhere (sort of like Shrek in a way, but much darker and sexier). But some as-yet-unknown-to-me evil force called The Adversary gathered armies of all the fairy tale monsters and started conquering all these kingdoms. So the characters became refugees, and fled to the real world, where they established a hidden community called Fabletown in New York City for the human "Fables", and a farm in upstate New York for the non-humans. The series mainly follows the exploits of Bigby Wolf (of Red Riding Hood fame—get it? Big B[ad] Wolf?), now Sheriff of Fabletown, and Snow White, the deputy mayor, as they try to keep the communities together under the constant threat of invasion by The Adversary. It's such a fresh idea, and with an almost unlimited supply of characters and backstory to mine, it's easy for Willingham to continually provide an interesting twist on well-known folklore. There are currently 6 paperback collections of the ongoing series, and I just finished #4 this afternoon. I can't wait to read #'s 5 and 6.

Brokeback Mountain
Strip away all the hype and controversy around this movie, and you have a very familiar story: two people in love who have a lot of obstacles keeping them apart. The only reason it's any different this time is that the two people in love are both guys. But this film proves itself worthy of the hype, and what makes it worthwhile is two things. One, it's superbly acted, all the more so considering there were probably 1,000 total words of dialogue in the movie. Incredible performances from a lot of actors, but Heath Ledger was undoubtedly the standout. And two, as with all Ang Lee movies, Brokeback is visually stunning. Montana has probably never looked so beautiful, but Lee is even able to find the beauty in a dingy apartment kitchen. Regardless of the gender of the romantic leads, it's totally deserving of its Oscar noms.

Andrew Bird, Andrew Bird & The Mysterious Production Of Eggs.
Gorgeous, catchy alt rock from a classically trained violinist who's into jazz and European folk, and has also performed with alt-swing outfit Squirrel Nut Zippers. How's that for a resumé? My brother Jeff gave me this album around Thanksgiving, but I'm just coming to appreciate it now. It's been on heavy rotation this past week. There's a definite Radiohead influence here, and some songs owe a debt to Cake as well, but Bird makes it a distinct sound of his own, and he certainly can turn a lyrical phrase. Perfect music for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Well, as a fellow Miami alum, it's nice to see Ben get a ring. But, man, what a yawner of a game.

Lazy, lazy, lazy

Well, I wanted to post something, but I'm too tired to think. So here's a bunch of links to some humorous/quirky/cool stories, and one funny use of editing.

ABC and ESPN paid $100 million for the rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups. But the big news is that they were one of five American network groups bidding for the rights. That's a huge step forward for soccer.

Wide receivers in the NFL are wearing non-traditional numbers. And ESPN.com is writing non-traditional NFL articles.

According to Chinese scientists, there's a black hole in the middle of our galaxy.

You can buy a semi-pro indoor football team on EBay. For the low, low price of $100 grand.

And finally, a video editing house in Seattle had a competition to see who could recut a movie trailer to make it seem like something it was not. This is the winner. I warned these Hollywood types once already about overusing "Solsbury Hill," and now these folks have showed how that song's power can be used in horribly wrong ways.

If you're a fan of the Adult Swim shows on Cartoon Network and you haven't heard Danger Doom's The Mouse and the Mask yet, run right out and get yourself a copy. Hi-class underground rap interspersed with bits by various Adult Swim characters. Sweet.

Zzzzzzz...

Here's a little note I just dropped to the folks at ESPN:

Dear ESPN,

It's Sunday at 9:27 pm CDT, and I'm watching your channel for one thing: football. Please save the highlights of other sports for Sportscenter. Aside from the fact that you're running the risk of losing half of your viewership by putting them to sleep, if you must show bore-ball highlights during halftime of Sunday Night Football, put them at the end of the halftime show so that those of us who couldn't care less might use that time as a snack break and not have to worry about missing any of the good stuff: namely, the NFL highlights. When is the media finally going to realize that America's pastime's time has passed? Give me cold weather, beer commercials, and a full Sunday slate of NFL action 'til I die, but please don't interrupt to waste my time with the only sport in this country that can cure insomnia.

I'll tip my cap to baseball's memory, but enough is enough. The sport gasped its last breath when Cal Ripken hung up his spikes. The sooner everyone realizes it, the better.

The Washingtonian

Spent the weekend across the river from DC at my cousin Brian's wedding and visiting my friends Matt and Katie and their 10 month old son, Conor. It made me a little homesick to be back in the DC area. It really is beautiful at this time of year. Warm, but without the summer humidity. Great walking weather, and rather nice for a wedding as well, especially since the reception was held at a library along the banks of the Potomac.

But enough about all that. On to more important things. Like the fact that I got to watch my first NFL game in hi-def this weekend (and even better, the Redskins managed to pull their usual late-game choke but still won the game in OT). After just a few hours of HDTV, I've decided I gots to get me one of those things. You could see every blade of grass on the field, and the color was so real, I might as well have been sitting in FedEx Field. Fantastic.

I see famous people

OK, B- and C-listers. But they're more famous than you.

Maybe during all the football this weekend, you saw a commercial for ESPN Classic’s new show, Classic Now? Well, I did, and imagine my surprise when I saw that the host, Josh Elliott, is a former co-worker of mine. Nice guy. Just a bit surprising to see him in between beer commericals on ESPN. Strangely enough, when we worked together we were asked several times if we were brothers. Not that I know of, but if we are remotely related, I guess Josh came from the good-looking side of the family. I'm sure as hell not gonna be hosting a TV show anytime soon.

Todd was in Atlanta this weekend and stayed in the same hotel as the Hulkster, who had cameras in tow for his reality show. Dude’s still got some guns.

I actually spent some time yesterday laying (lying? I can't keep that straight) on the grass and watching the clouds. I haven't done that in years. None of them looked anything like famous people.