Belgium isn’t all chocolate and comedy prime ministers.

That’s from a fairly extraordinary bit of modern folk-culture archeology over at Tom P’s blog.

*Swoon*

Kinder spielen Fußball mit Stürmerstar Torres

Egal wie das Spiel Russland gegen Spanien am Abend ausgeht, die spanischen Stars sind jetzt schon die Europameister der Herzen.

Wo spielt Fernando Torres, der 35-Millionen-Euro teure spanische Stürmerstar? Genau: beim FC Liverpool. Und jetzt auch im Feld hinter dem Sonnhof in Neustift. In der kleinen Gemeinde im Stubaital, in der Nähe des Hotels der spanischen Nationalelf, ist damit wohl auch ein Bubentraum Wirklichkeit geworden.

Keine Berührungsängste
Spontan hat der spanische Stürmerstar dort an einem seiner freien Tage unerkannt mit fünf Jungs aus dem Dorf fast eine Dreiviertelstunde lang Fußball gespielt – mit Jakob, Matheus, Benedikt, Peter und David, allesamt zwischen 6 und 13 Jahre alt.

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Turns out all the cool stuff you wish they’d put on TV they probably tried to but it never got past the pilot. Behold Lookwell!

Good job the economy’s fucked. Maybe she‘ll have to emigrate.

So, Mexico seemed pretty disappointing. On arrival in the holiday town of Puerto Vallarta, the Benidorm of the Americas, I checked into a fairly dull hotel, ate a tedious sandwich, and sighed. This isn’t the Mexico I have come to expect, tequila-swilling toughs wearing tattoos and leather waistcoats, ready for a stand-off* at any moment, stroking their moustaches and eyeing you suspiciously until that moment comes. A stroll around the Marina shows promise though, an Iguana, flame-clawed crabs, and crocodiles all sauntered about.

It wasn’t until I encountered a local tour salesman that I got the real Mexico:

“You like pussy man?”

“Sure, chum.”**

“I get you on this tour, you get all the pussy you want. You like weed?”

“No thanks, I’m cool.”***

I only wish it was Danny Trejo who had asked, not some slack-jawed teen.

*In Mexico, it’s just called a “stand-off”, see old joke about Chinese food

**Portions of my answer have been edited to make me look cool.

***Portions of my answer have been edited to make me look like an old man trying to seem cool.****

****Just because.

Savage:

I love that glimpse of Little Richard at the end there too.

I drafted this post in November 2005, more than a year after Obama gave this speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention (I had only just read it). And yes, I was genuinely excited and uplifted by reading much of that speech.

I never posted, because I always thought I would get to a more thorough, deserving analysis of that speech and, I hoped, the person who made it, about whom I was genuinely curious. I never did. But, for no particular reason, except maybe this one, here in all their toe-curling glory, are my initial thoughts (as saved by the good people at Wordpress - damn their eyes).

Title: The ‘voice of reason’ market? Huuuuuuuge market.

Barack Obama. He’s too good to be true, right?

I’ll be honest with you. Obama creeps me out a little bit. And it’s not just the whole ‘head boy at Hogwarts’ goody-goody vibe; that’s just my own built-in prejudices biting. I can get over that. But he makes me uncomfortable. I hate listening to a politician and thinking, ‘Hey, people should listen to this guy. This is a great idea - and I think he means it!’

And that was it.