World Cup day 6, 1/2 ⚽️
– Wales 🏴 0, Iran 🇮🇷 2: Welsh overmatched even before their keeper got a straight red; Iranians score 2 after 98’
– Qatar 🇶🇦 1, Senegal 🇸🇳 3: Qatar get their first-ever (last ever?) WC goal but the home “fans” still all left early again
Author: Chris G Page 8 of 77
World Cup day 5, 2/2 ⚽️
– Portugal 🇵🇹 3, Ghana 🇬🇭 2: it was looking like another scoreless draw until Ronaldo’s PK opened the floodgates
– Brazil 🇧🇷 2, Serbia 🇷🇸 0: Serbians held firm until Richarlison gets a Thanksgiving brace, the second as sweet as pecan pie
World Cup day 5, 1/2 ⚽️
– Switzerland 🇨🇭 1, Cameroon 🇨🇲 0: subdued game, Africans always taking a touch too many, then Shaqiri’s team break the deadlock early in the 2nd half
– Uruguay 🇺🇾 0, South Korea 🇰🇷 0: the South Americans looked threatening… but weren’t, in the end
World Cup day 4, cont. ⚽️
– Spain 🇪🇸 7, Costa Rica 🇨🇷 0: as with France, this is how sharks should dispatch minnows
– Belgium 🇧🇪 1, Canada 🇨🇦 0: result doesn’t match which team played exciting, attacking ball & which looked flat (plus Canada should’ve had another PK)
World Cup day 4 ⚽️
– Morocco 🇲🇦 0, Croatia 🇭🇷 0: watching Morocco deadlock with Modrić‘s team not as worth getting up early for as the ARG upset
– Germany 🇩🇪 1, Japan 🇯🇵 2: speaking of upsets! Germans fail to score from open play, & the Japanese punish them for it
World Cup day 3, cont. ⚽️
– Mexico 🇲🇽 0, Poland 🇵🇱 0: another goalless draw, with a soft PK saved by Ochoa (ball don’t lie)
– France 🇫🇷 4, Australia 🇦🇺 1: this is how a dominant team dominates
World Cup day 3 ⚽️
– Argentina 🇦🇷 1, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 2 (!): 500 offside calls saved the Saudis, then a couple stolen goals made them giant-slayers
– Denmark 🇩🇰 0, Tunisia 🇹🇳 0: a red & white grudge match
World Cup day 2 ⚽️
– England 🏴 6, Iran 🇮🇷 2: underdog Iranians steal 2 but English dominate
– Senegal 🇸🇳 0, Netherlands 🇳🇱 2: Senegalese hold Dutch at bay until late
– USA 🇺🇸 1, Wales 🏴 1: Yanks get a narrow lead but not enough to get past Bale
World Cup day 1 ⚽️
– Qatar 🇶🇦 0, Ecuador 🇪🇨 2: the hosts wilted under the pressure of the opener, and reportedly many of their “fans” gave up & left at halftime. I hope they wash out, goalless
Saturday’s beer: Jester King Brewery’s Pattinson Porter
⭐️ __ __
should’ve known better than to think a Jester King wouldn’t be funky 🫤 🍺
new post: Fuq Qatar, in which I rage briefly under a childish headline about the monsters hosting the pinnacle of the beautiful game ⚽️
The Guardian: Beer ban is show of strength and an almighty two fingers up to Qatar’s critics:
The ink was barely dry on Qatar’s decision to ban alcohol from World Cup stadiums when an informed insider in Doha was asked why it was happening now, just 48 hours before the tournament’s big kick-off. His response was succinct. “It’s a deliberate fuck you to the west.”
Fuck us? No, Qatar. Fuck you.
First you stole the hosting rights with envelopes of cash, then you moved the tournament to November, then you screw up even the most rudimentary hosting requirements. (Hotel capacity? Really?) That’s not even to mention the human rights offenses or the brutal working conditions and high death toll on the people you’ve tricked into coming to build all the stadiums.
And why? Sportswashing, they say, but for what? Tourism? To make people think, hey Qatar, they’re okay, I guess? Well, congratulations, it’s completely backfiring. Now everyone knows how much your country sucks, and even rabid soccer fans are only coming to the tournament grudgingly. You might pay people (or not) to post nice things on Instagram, but nobody’s planning a trip to fucking Doha next year.
#fuq___Qatar
#Qatar___suqs
P.S. To hell with FIFA, too, for letting this happen.
Warpaint, performing Disco//Very live on KEXP 🎵
Nina Persson, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 🎵
Saturday’s beer: Save the World Brewing’s Sanguis 🍺
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Metric, again, with Doomscroller, again, from a livestream last week. I paid to watch this, and haven’t closed my browser window yet to keep my replay-ability beyond the 24 hours… but here’s the opening song from YouTube thanks to some pirate 🎵
The Cardigans – I Need Some Fine Wine, and You, You Need to be Nicer 🎵
baby you’re foul in clear conditions
but you’re handsome in the fog
Alstadt Brewery’s Oktoberfest
⭐️⭐️⭐️
one more Märzen, why not 🍺
The Guardian: How Texas’s gun laws allow Mexican cartels to arm themselves to the teeth
We know that most, if not all, of these high-caliber weapons are coming from the United States and a significant amount are likely coming from Texas.
great job, Greg.
tifo at today’s Austin FC playoff game (we won, eventually!): Verde Hasta La Muerte (green to the death) ⚽️
Saturday’s beer: Goose Island Beer Co.’s Bourbon County Brand Fourteen Stout (2021)
⭐️⭐️⭐️
the eve of Austin FC’s first ever playoff game is a special occasion, right? this beer is as good as it is dark 🍺
‘Could I understand the people who rushed into the Capitol?’: George Saunders on how stories teach empathy
What our mind is learning when it reads a good story is that its current state, whatever it is, is temporary. That state is like a weather system that’s just rolled in.
Courtney Barnett, Elevator Operator, live in Austin, 2015
I come up here for perception and clarity
I like to imagine I’m playing SimCity
All the people look like ants from up here
And the wind’s the only traffic you can hear
🎵
Real Ale Brewing’s Oktoberfest
⭐️⭐️⭐️
🍺
one silver lining of long travel days is that I managed to start and finish two books: Patrick deWitt’s French Exit on the way there, & Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic on the way home. both really enjoyable (though I can’t fully recommend the deWitt) 📚
…and the view from the back porch
view from the front porch of our rental house, north of Bozeman, MT
just backed this Kickstarter project from John August (screenwriter & host of the Scriptnotes podcast): Writer Emergency Pack XL
saw Hadestown yesterday, it was wonderful. this Tiny Desk Concert can’t show the fantastic (& award-winning) set, costumes, lighting, etc., but gives a great taste of the music 🎵
people who claim, when ending a meeting earlier than scheduled, that they’re “giving you all back x minutes!!” are the equivalent of a mugger tipping you $1 from your own wallet after they rob you
Saturday’s beers:
– Elysian Brewing’s Night Owl Pumpkin Ale
– Whitestone Brewery’s Opa’s Lederhosen Oktoberfest
– TUPPS Brewery’s McKinney Oktoberfest
– Saint Arnold’s Oktoberfest
– AquaBrew’s Festbier
You have your “most wonderful time of the year” & I have mine
