Bowl for the people

New Orleans needs to do this when Gayle's SuperBowl comes to town in 2024.

The FIFA World Cup is currently taking place in Russia, and a network of Saint Petersburg-based civil society activists and social entrepreneurs have launched a campaign called “Cup for the People,” providing an alternative program for hundreds of thousands of soccer fans arriving from all over the world. From guided tours held by local residents about LBGT rights or environmental issues to a map of responsible consumption, the campaign hopes to spread awareness about different aspects of social life in Russia, while fostering diversity, tolerance and sustainable development within the food, retail and tourism sectors.

Behind the campaign is Olga Polyakova, a 31-year-old activist engaged in civic education, citizen cooperation movements and circular economy.

"I was in Hamburg, Germany, when the G20 meeting took place there [in 2017], and I saw what kinds of alternative programs local activists carried out – with actions, discussions and performances,” she says. “In almost every country there are people who are critical of such mega events, which are normally financed with public funds but benefit mostly politicians and corporations. So I thought about creating a similar alternative program for Saint Petersburg."

Congratulations, ladies

Nice going!  You've earned it. It being considerably less, of course.

Overall, the 32 federations representing teams of the men's World Cup took home $358 million. Germany, the champions, won $35 million and the other 31 federations made $8-25 million with an average of $10.4 million. Meanwhile, the Women's World Cup champion will win $2 million, with the other 23 federations taking home an average of $650,000.

Cab drivers and concierges as sources

Brazil is maybe an extreme example but it is remarkably easy to get visiting reporters to tell only the story your tourism boosters want them to tell.

As is often the case with the mainstream media, they have started with an indisputable truth and then have chosen to draw conclusions that match their own embedded perspective: a perspective shaped by Sepp Blatter, his broadcast partners and a blinkered reality of hotels and black SUVs. It is certainly true that the million-person protests have not taken place during the World Cup, as they did during the 2013 Confederation’s Cup. But the conclusion that now everything is awesome and “parties have replaced protests” is simply not true. I recently returned from Brazil and saw a different reality. The fact is that there are protests, strikes and battles with police happening every day. In the favelas, there are demonstrations against the police occupations that are happening because of the Cup. (Here is a terrific photo essay by Andalusia Knoll that shows images from all the World Cup protests that are not happening.)

If the protests are far smaller than the ones a year ago, it is because the streets are militarized down to the last inch, ruled by a military police force who are tear-gassing any group of people who attempt to gather and raise political demands.

Count the days that we have wasted from the start

Here are some notable anniversaries that passed during the month of June.  I meant to mention them sooner but I've had a busy month.

Happy 10th anniversary to Antigravity Magazine.

If you're of a certain age, you might remember a time when the only "music scene" in New Orleans anyone ever wrote about seriously consisted of 1) The sorts of acts old white people RVed in from Wisconsin and bought Jazzfest tickets to go see. And 2) That's about it.

And if you're a bit younger or maybe just recently arrived to New Orleans you'll know that not a whole lot has changed.  But also now there's Antigravity.  Here's a list of blurbs from some of their contributors over the years.  This quote is from Leigh.

While much of New Orleans and its visitors has been stunned by the spotlight on more traditional local culture, such an environment has allowed Antigravity to stealthily arrive and thrive in this town for ten years now, raising a raucous— sometimes downright unruly—yet always relevant voice on what has been deemed “alternative” culture. That Antigravity is predominantly a free paper first and foremost in a time seeing the rise of virtual media makes it all the more precious as a cultural touchstone, a small, potent remnant of DIY zinedom available in many locations around town.

"Alternative culture" doesn't accurately describe Antigravity's beat, though.  Those words imply a kind of pretentious affected otherness that, frankly, sounds more to me like the imagined New Orleans experience that Jazzfest visitors are looking for when they buy their vacation packages.

But there's no phony exoticism  in AG.  It's just a music magazine. But it's a magazine about New Orleans music rather than about New Orleans Music^TM. And  that, in this increasingly tourism obsessed city and media market, is what makes it seem like an "alternative" publication.

Happy 20th anniversary to a great rock album.

I drone on and on about how great GBV is so I'll try to avoid that here. Although I will borrow a great quote from David Giffels's book about  the rust belt that Leigh highlights in her Antigravity blurb. 

“Rock and roll needs a void, and we had that, in abundance. We had empty garages and basements and warehouses, and great stretches of empty time, and—most important—no one paying attention.”

GBV is very much a product of the declining post-industrial midwest Giffels is writing about.  The mythology and appeal of the band; middle aged school teacher creates a sort of alternate universe of rock history in his basement with his drinking buddies;  is tied to the idea of, not so much escaping that scene, but  persevering and making it your own even if there is "no one paying attention."

Leigh is right to connect that ethos with the antediluvian New Orleans that spawned Antigravity back in 2004. Were the New Orleans and Ohio of that time, "parallel lines on a slow decline"? It's a hard thing to see from here.  There's a contrast between that time and the seemingly "vibrant" New New Orleans you might read about today. Much of the New NOLA  is an illusion of course, but sorting that out is beyond the scope of this post.  For those of us who came of age in the slowly fading New Orleans of 90s and early 00s, there's some resonance in this music.  At least for me there is. 

Bee Thousand is actually the second GBV record I bought. it's also my second favorite but that's not important right now. The consensus of the critics is that it's the important one.  I got it at Paradise Records in Baton Rouge back in Nineteen Something And Five.

Here's a faux-listicle that actually breaks down the record quite well.

And here is the whole thing on YouTube.





And finally, Happy 20th Anniversary to this 1994 World Cup USA T-Shirt I wasn't sure I still had.  It's not exactly wearable but neither is my 20 year old car (Happy Birthday to that too!) and I keep that around for some reason. There's no rational reason to expect the US to move past Belgium on Tuesday.  But worrying about that sure beats arguing over Jimmy Graham's contract this week. 

Someone should be keeping score

How many Bobby Jindal Politico op-eds have been published  so far vs how many Clancy DuBos "Bobby Jindal is terrible" Gambit columns?

Given that Clancy's paper endorsed Jindal for Governor two times and published arguably the worst Jindal profile ever I'd say the overall match is a tie at this point.  It's like they're down to penalty kicks now.

Why do they hate America?

I guess conservative commentators trolling soccer is going to keep being a thing.  If that's not a reason to pull for more US wins in the second stage, I don't know what is.

What did I miss?

Been reading about soccer stuff all afternoon.

Back to Univision

I tried watching the ESPN World Cup commentary over the weekend in the hope that I might actually learn the game a little bit.  Most Americans being occasional casual soccer fans like myself could really benefit from some basic analysis that familiarizes us with the rules and strategy in the context of each match.

ESPN can't provide this, though, because they're too busy trying to be ESPN.

But still: watching every World Cup game and halftime show produced for an American audience this weekend, it was hard not to realize just how wedded ESPN remains to everything else about The Brand™ that so dumbs down its coverage of every other sport to which it owns the broadcast rights. Anchors holding a tenuous familiarity. Soft-focus features high on emotion and low on data. An aversion to analytics and a commitment to game breakdowns based on intangibles, delivered by the "authority" of ex-jocks. A pathological fear of politics or social context whatsoever.

More of a Shelbyville kind of idea

The golden rule of modern grifter detection: First ask, "Is there a monorail involved?" If yes, then be very worried.

With just two days to go until the 2014 World Cup opener in Sao Paulo, an accident at a construction project to build a monorail in Brazil’s largest city has killed a worker.

The incident occurred near Brazil’s busiest domestic airport, and comes as public sector strikes, mass unrest and crippling delays threatened to overshadow the start of the biggest event in world football this Thursday.

The monorail project is itself an example of a massive infrastructure which the Brazilian government said would be a positive legacy from hosting the World Cup.

But in 2011, just a year after construction began, officials had already declared that it would not be ready in time.

 By now, most people have seen John Oliver's FIFA segment this week.  Here it is anyway. 



Remember, also, just because we're not soccer crazy in this country, doesn't mean we don't deal with our own version of this on a regular basis.

This is what happens when you're not playing againt Brett Favre

Your opponent doesn't blow it big time in the waning minutes. Oh well. Guess it's time not care about soccer again for another four years. Except for whenever we get to root against England again. I'm not even sure I know what a World Cup even looks like.

No trouble at all recognizing one of these, though



Meanwhile, keep an eye on the Facebooks where any minute now Sarah Palin will explain to us how Obama caused the U.S. team to be eliminated. It's just what Hitler would have done.

USA wins!

Bud Light Limes for everybody