AnimaMundi

The House That Ruth Built

The last game at Yankee Stadium was played last night. The new one across the street will open next April. The memories and history of the old stadium; it's sacred ground. Click through on Vanishing New York (bottom of post) for some photos of the old stadium.

The Olympic Torch

Hitler and Nazi Germany were such masters of modern hypnotic advertisement that I had swallowed the fantasy that the ancient Greeks brought the flaming torch to Olympia to herald the start of the first games. According to Leni Riefenstahl's 1938 film "Olympia", an homage to the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, the origins of this ritual are told.

"Never before had a lighted torch been relayed from a Greek temple in Olympia to an athletic competition, let alone by thousands of runners trying to keep it from being extinguished. So Riefenstahl creates the myth the Greeks never got around to telling, creating a filmic counterpart to the opening of Wagner’s “Ring,” in which an entire world gradually emerges from elemental fragments. The camera begins by surveying a misty landscape of ruins, of shattered pillars and overgrown grasses. Restless and circling, the camera reveals a Greek temple standing amid the stones. Heads and the bodies of Greek statues appear in an eerie erotic landscape. Under the sensuous caresses of Riefenstahl’s lens, a naked discus thrower comes to life, polished stone becoming muscular flesh. Another athlete prepares to throw a javelin, its trajectory leading toward a bowl of fire. Lighting the Olympic torch, another nude acolyte triumphantly raises it aloft like Wagner’s Siegfried displaying his sword."

The Rangers Are Winning, At The Moment

With the NHL playoffs underway, I had always sought out the in depth analysis of Professor Ashley Morris. He was amazing in his detailed knowledge of the game, the players and its history. He was particularly adept in his knowledge of goalies, past and present. My knowledge of the game consists of being able to follow the play of the puck and not much more. If you are into hockey, take a look at this post from last year on the playoff matchups. Professor, I miss your knowledge of the game and the anecdotal tidbits. If the Rangers lose along the way to the Cup, then I go back to reading 4 nights a week.

Giants vs. The Packers

My Uncle and Godfather George was a true blue Yankee fan. He groomed me on Mel Allen and Red Barber announcing Yankee games on the radio. Saturday afternoons and Yankee baseball. I was hooked. I was a Yankee fan in Red Sox territory. Telling in later years in other realms. He used to come to my grandmother's house after work. I would be there waiting for my mother and father to pick me up. He would sometimes pierce a raw egg with a pick and suck it dry with over the top Calabrian drama. I spent a lot of time in the basement of my grandmother's home. The basement had a dining table, one gas stove and another wood fired cast iron beauty that was sold for almost nothing and a very large long sink that you had to step up to. This is where she used to strangle chickens. The blood would sometimes squirt into my face. I remember, as clearly as what I ate and drank tonight, my grandmother praying hysterically to God while thunder and lightening made us tremble with fear of the Lord of thunder.

I was shocked one day when my Uncle George told me that he hated the NY Giants and was Green Bay Packer fan. I felt was at a loss. How could he be a Yankee fan and a Green Bay fan at the same time? But he loved Andy Robustelli of NY Giants. He admired him, maybe because he was Italian or maybe because he was a defensive player that went all out, I don't know. When he would make a great defensive play, my uncle would cry out "Robustelli!" with an almost operatic flair. It would be great to watch the game with him now. I could give a shit who wins. Overtime?

Update: 1961--- Green Bay 37 NY Giants 0 1962--- Green Bay 16 NY Giants 7

"If You're So Smart, Why Can't You Make A Freethrow?"

Caltech's basketball team hadn't won a game in 21 years when the documentary "Quantum Hoops" was made.

Struggle Versus Victory

The Bears won the NFC, but the Saints gave New Orleans' fans much more during the whole turnaround season. Schroeder at People get Ready, Ray in New Orleans and Wet Bank Guide say it much better than I can ever hope to. The spirit of New Orleans shines through in their posts. It's what New Orleans is all about. At least, I think it's a large part of it.

P.S. When you get drunk at a football game, you do not say derogatory things about the flooding of New Orleans. It shows that you are an asshole and should have your tongue burned out.

Football

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints! They'll be playing in the NFC title game next week in cold cold Chicago. I used to be a big football fan, but lost interest many years ago. The only two games I've watched this year were the Saints' opener and last night's game. God knows the Saints' win over the Eagles bolstered the mood of the beleaguered people of New Orleans. It's only a game, but it's more than just a game. I don't want to get all symbolic, but I'm just sayin'. Mircea Eliade notes in his journals that "today the sacred is camouflaged in the secular." Paraphrasing from "Dark Nights of the Soul" (light reading for the throne) by Thomas Moore, the clearest place where the sacred appears in the most ordinary of circumstances is sports. The battle between home and visitors, facing difficult odds, struggling, advancing and retreating etc. (Oh, I forgot to mention these strange alcohol-induced visions.) The game takes place in a Sacredome marked with boundaries and according to strict rules that keep it apart from real life. In this case, the boundaries are somewhat blurred because of what has happened on that ancient burial ground. The energy contained here is even more super-charged than usual with remembrances, numinous and stark. These rules are like ritualistic regimes: Athletic theater where players (some of whom fumble at vital points and make your heart skip a beat) and fans experience in imagination the palpable tensions they feel more meaningfully in everyday life. Hail Mary's, 2 minute 75 yard drives, Superstars and Legendary Pro-Bowlers' helmets gleaming in the Hawaiian sun & Superbowl. It's all there. Professor Ashley has said that if the Saints leave New Orleans, it could be the final nail in the coffin. 

Zizou's Way

The head butt of all time gets syndicated.

It's never going to end. Now there's a zouk-tinged track called "Coup de Boule". (La Plage Records)

Update and/or further analysis at The New Yorker.

FORZA ITALIA!

The Azzurri, 2006 World Cup Champions!

Italy 2 Germany Nil

I rarely get excited over sports, except the World Series and the NHL finals and only if NY teams are in the running. Somehow, the World Cup Soccer matches have kindled an interest in the global competition that I never had before. Brasil, the favorite, fell fairly early. It's an all "European" semi-final. Though, many of the players do not come from the countries that they represent in the World Cup. Money drives that decision, as in all professional sports. This is the main reason why many sports fans have for the most part ignored the cult of personality and contract figures. From there, some ignore the sport totally. So, it's with great pleasure that I finally come to appreciate soccer. Hey, they run for two 45 half's and with hardly any protective gear. They run. No commercials. They don't stand in formation or huddle, except on free, penalty, corner kicks. They are also in much better physical condition that your 340 pound NFL defensive guard and I think worth more per pound per minute. The half time in soccer is a lot shorter than the NFL halftime break. Plus soccer's as corrupt as any other sport, viz. the Italian match fixing scandal that attended the pageantry of the World Cup in the Teutonic North. The German press didn't fail to point out to the Italians that they were "parasites, mamma's boys and slimy". It's sooo humane of the host nation of the World Cup to express such egalitarian sentiments, in such florid language to boot. Was that in high or lower German? The German-Italian match was one to watch. In 1970, Italy had beaten Germany in an overtime match that has been called the game of the century, much like the 1994 and 2001 Rioja vintages in Spain. It came down to 90 minutes of a few shots on goal by each time, but nothing incendiary. ESPN had two commentators who must have been treated very well by their German hosts. It was a German love fest. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Germany and France are big players in the EU so... At one point the ESPN shill, said that "Italy was a fading soccer power" and "Germany played much crisper soccer". Crisper, my ass. There were many other quotes that basically said that the Germans were outplaying the Italians all over the map, except in goal. Italy has allowed only one goal in the Cup this year, thanks to Sr. Buffon. No score after 90 minutes, so it's overtime. Thirty more minutes of running in hot humid weather. The Italians score first well into the second overtime. This happens while I'm turning the ribs on the grill! I miss it. In another few minutes, the Italians score again deep into the back on the net. I see it and roar. I scare my bulldog, Aldo, who barks and thinks an enemy dog's around. This is from someone who hardly ever watches soccer. Maybe it was the heat and humidity. I do believe the ESPN folks were not a little shocked. They had it coming. So did the Germans. Schadenfreude. The Azzurri advance to the finals. They face the French, who are just (Francks) Germans who ran out of land. It's not that I'm an lover of everything Italian. I'm half-Sicilian. The Sicilians do not consider themselves part of Italy, except when it comes to soccer.

"In Italy, soccer is the national obsession,an integral part of the infrastructure of the Italian state of mind and of the Italian way of life."

John Molinaro reviewing "Forza Italia: A Journey in Search of Italy and its Football" by Paddy Agnew