Month: June 2014

World Cup Cocktails: Group A

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You’re watching the World Cup, and the important question is not what tactical formation Nigeria’s coach is employing, but what drink you’re deploying. I propose a few humble cocktail suggestions over the course of eight posts — one for each group, inspired by the teams battling to escape said group.

What are my criteria for these cocktails? In the end, it comes down to what I’d want to drink… and what I will drink, since none of these recipes will go untasted. It’s a selfless act, I know. Also, my morning self will need a lot of coffee this next week.

In general, though, cocktails will take the one of three forms:

  1. A national cocktail, or a drink strongly associated with one or more teams
  2. A cocktail taking inspiration from a team’s name or colors
  3. A cocktail utilizing ingredients from one or more teams’ countries

For the Group A cocktails, I’ll do one of each of the above three. The cocktails will cover the group consisting of Brazil, Cameroon, Mexico, and Croatia. The natural starting point is the national drink that you cannot escape this World Cup: the Caipirinha. If you’ve seen any feature story about the culture of host country Brazil, you’ve likely seen someone mention this refreshing, rustic, and simple drink:

I am but a humble lime muddler.

I am but a humble lime muddler.

Caipirinha

Half a lime, cut into quarters
½ oz – simple syrup
2 oz – cachaça

In a shaker, muddle the limes and simple syrup. Add cachaça, add ice, and shake. Pour directly into an empty rocks glass — DO NOT STRAIN. No need for garnish.

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A Prairie Home Perfection: The Miraculous Qualities of FX’s Fargo

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This should not have worked. FX’s Fargo — a limited-run series “original adaptation” of the Coen Brothers’ seminal 1996 film, which had its season finale last night — should not have been good. Carrying over many character types, plot tropes, and thematic ideas from the movie, it should have been a lazy cash-in or a failed experiment, ala the TV adaptations of Crash and Traffic after their Oscar-winning successes. But that was not the case. Just the opposite. In stunning fashion, Fargo was one of the best things I’ve seen on TV this year.
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Three Up, Three Down: Thoughts from the Dugout

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jose-bautista

We are over a third of the way through the baseball season, and I’m averaging about one baseball column every three weeks. Three might as well be a theme of the column this week, and while I apologize for leaving my dedicated baseball readership bereft of material (to all five of you — sorry guys!), I am glad to announce that we’re back this week with as much topical news as I can muster. Unfortunately, the most topical thing is tremendously sad, so I’ll save that for last.

At this point in the season, we can start to see team narratives developing, and whether certain teams are flukes or not. Rather than do an all-out power rankings (of which I have one planned for the All-Star break), we’ll take a look at just six teams. (Well, five, but again, we’ll get there.) Three of these teams are doing quite well, exceeding expectations, or have a nice story going for them. Three of them are in the doldrums, fading, or have been beset with loss. As always, the baseball season is a marathon, not a sprint, but we’re far enough along to take a look at some things and say “Hmm, well, that doesn’t seem so bizarre anymore”.

Enough about this. Time for a game of Three Up, Three Down.

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Mapping Awesome With John Green

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Ever the history nerd, I was all too willing when my boyfriend suggested we watch ten-minute, “crash course” youtube videos on World History. The host was not the stereotypical, boring teacher from middle school who fixated on dates and the reigns of King X and Queen Y. No, John Green was a dude who was passionate about history.

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My Three Queens: The Ambitious Women of Game of Thrones

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Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I’ll sleep more easily by night.
– Jaime Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Every Sunday night, we gather round the television.  Animated discussion cuts to tense whispers as the fizzle of HBO’s signature static fades to black. The theme bursts to life! DUN-dun da-da-DUN-dun da-da-DUN-dun da-da-DUN-dun… The audience sings along, made-up lyrics and all, trying to stave off the inevitable horrors and wonders that await us on the other side of the credits.

So begins my weekly Game of Thrones viewing, a ritual that I am not alone in keeping. The world loves the marriage of high fantasy and premium cable!  Whether people are coming back for the delightfully gory violence, the gorgeous design, impeccable dialogue, superb acting, or, hey, even the boobs, viewership continues to grow. Show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — as George R.R. Martin did with the books before them — lure us all with promises of dragons and heroes, aging kings and cruel queens, new threats and ancient evils. All the makings of D&D campaign! But Thrones transcends those cliches. We don’t watch because we want to see pretty dresses. We watch to see familiar struggles.

Who has not done something stupid in the name of love, like a certain blonde swordsman-you-love-to-hate? Who has not manipulated tiny events in their favor, like Littlefinger or Varys or now even mini-Baelish Sansa?

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[Note: Google “Sansa and Littlefinger fan art” at your own risk.] (Image via)

Who has not had — ahem — ill-advised romantic entanglements, a la Dany and her newfound dalliance? Fortunately for us, most of our personal dramas play out on a very small scale. In Martin’s world, though, “you win or you die” on an epic scale. Your triumphs and failures are on parade for all the world to see.

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A Great Day For Pop Culture

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This article is short but very sweet. Andrew and Jill

I’ve known Jill Pantozzi (her name is her twitter handle) since 2011, and she is one of those people who fill your spirit with delight every time you see them. Jill has spent her life writing about pop culture, mostly comics and sci-fi/fantasy media, for a variety of websites, and in everything she does, she brings the analytical insight of an expert and the passion of someone who loves even the most infinitesimal minutiae (yes, minutiae THAT small) of her chosen subjects. And she does it all from a motor scooter due to her muscular dystrophy. Every single time I read about the continuing misogyny against and harassment of female comics and genre fans (and you all know my reaction), I think of Jill. She is living proof of what idiots they are.

For the past two years, Jill has been Associate Editor of The Mary Sue: A Guide to Girl Geek Culture, a fantastic news site concentrating on genre entertainment from a feminist perspective. It’s one of the best and most readable sights on the web. And today it merges with Geekosystem: Your Geek Guide to Internet and Tech Culture, into one giant website covering every topic the two covered separately. And Jill will be Managing Editor of this new edition of The Mary Sue. I cannot fully express what a great decision this is: the result will be a source for everything important happening in the “nerd” culture that is informative, inclusive, and handled with the best of care…and, I believe, a force to help transform the culture in the ways people like we at the Addison Recorder long to see it transform, in a way that leaves prejudices and threats behind and embraces the viewpoints of all fandoms. And so I wish Jill Pantozzi and The Mary Sue nothing but the very best as this begins, and urge anyone who loves space, monsters, fairy tales, technological advancement, steampunk, and gender equality to make it a regular part of your online day.

Or the results won’t be pretty.

World Cup 2014: Evaluating Groups E-H

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Welcome back for the latter half of Alex and -J. making predictions which they will not be held accountable for later on. We hope you grabbed your favorite libation, as our evaluations make a lot more sense with a bit of alcohol in your system and a lot of sundry trivia bouncing around your brain.

Let’s get to it.

(If you missed the analysis of Groups A-D, you can find them here.)

Group E: Tropical Absinthe

Switzerland * France * Ecuador * Honduras

Alex: France has alternated between phenomenal and craptastic over the past four World Cups. Since it’s already been eight years since they lost to Italy in the 2006 Final, that means it’s time to sing La Marseillaise again. Which I’m down with, because that’s the best damn national anthem in the world.

Vive la France! Who will be carrying the baguettes for Équipe de France de football, J.?

-J.: I’m not sold on the French, though I’m not sold against them, either. I am a French equivocator. Switzerland seems like a great team every World Cup, but never “semifinals” sort of great. Ecuador is in South America, a thing whose imporance in 2014 I’ve mentioned repeatedly. Honduras is a CONCACAF stalwart that feels like it ought to maybe be some kind of dark horse if another team in this group implodes, so… Hrm. How about I go with one team from Europe and one team from the Americas to make it into the next round. Will that work?

Mourinho doesn’t think so.

Fine, José Mourinho, I’ll make some damn picks. Um… I’ll take the middle road and go with Switzerland and Ecuador. Geez.

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World Cup 2014: Evaluating Groups A-D

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We are only a couple dozen hours from the start of everyone’s favorite 4-year celebration of burdening a host country with crushing debt and soon-to-be-rusting opulent sports venues!

No, not the Olympics. The other one. The World Cup thing.

Anyway, if you’re looking to lose money like a World Cup host, Alex Bean and I are here to provide some solid analysis that you can definitely throw money at. And, like a World Cup host, you’ll probably have a lot of regrets after you do. All that’s missing are the bribery and corruption, though Alex and I will gladly accept any and all payments of beer and dollars. You won’t get anything from these gifts, but you also won’t have to deal with years of riots. Probably. To the analysis!

Group A: Nintendo World Cup +1

Brazil * Croatia * Mexico * Cameroon

Alex: Brazil will win this group. That’s the Bean guarantee. (This guarantee will only be used in conjunction with Brazil being a massive favorite.) As to the rest, I think Cameroon will come in last because I know nothing about Cameroon football. So it comes down to the game between Croatia and Mexico on June 23rd in Recife to advance. I say El Tri emerges victorious despite their swoon of late. Who do you think advances on June 23rd?

-J.: I know about Cameroon football, kind of, because I was a kid obsessed with playing Nintendo World Cup on the original NES. Three of these teams represent the varying difficulty levels of your progression through the game: you start against a team like Cameroon, you know it’s getting serious when you reach Mexico, and Brazil meant you were up against some serious shit. (Croatia was still part of Yugoslavia at the time, so they don’t fit into this frame of reference.)

“Croatia’s right behind me, aren’t they?”

Besides learning about the geography of Africa at a young age, I also learned that American countries south of the United States are really good at soccer. So, yeah, obviously Brazil moves on. If it were any other World Cup, I’d also pick Mexico. But El Tri needed Team USA’s help just to qualify for a play-in to get to this Cup, and that’s not exactly heartening. I’ll take a chance on Croatia making it through.

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Are There Any Faults?: “The Fault In Our Stars” From Book to Film

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This article by nature contains spoilers. Okay? Okay.

Because money is not everything, I am not going to dwell excessively on how Josh Boone’s film version of The Fault in Our Stars, made on a $12 million budget, raced past two productions that cost $180 million each to become the number one movie in the United States of America (Well, I’ll dwell on it for a second: HOLY CRAP!) and focus on a question that really matters. This question stems from something we know all too well: many beloved stories get completely messed up in the translation from page to screen, and nobody wanted this to happen with Fault. This is a novel that has the Addison Recorder seal of approval (patent pending). Over half of us read it, loved it, and cried over it, and we’re not alone, for few books have inspired such a rapturous fan base who were waiting for this film with the same intensity as others wait for Fallout 3. A fan base that hoped this anticipation would be justified. So those who have laughed and wept over Hazel and Augustus need to know: was the movie good? Or great? Or at least not a disaster?

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World Cup 2014: Setting the Scene

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Welcome to the 2014 Word Cup coverage!

Assuming you are reading this in the United States, and assuming that your soccer consumption habits are average for a U.S. citizen, you’re in desperate need of an expert or two to tell you how the World Cup is going to shake out. Maybe they’ll explain to you the different variations on the 4-4-2 formation, and what they’re good for.

Here’s where the Addison Recorder‘s coverage will differ from all others: we have no experts. Some of us are part-time soccer enthusiasts, and at least one of us could probably pick out Mesut Özil from a lineup. This makes us the perfect commentators for the U.S. audience — just like you, we’ve watched plenty of international and club soccer when our favorite (non-soccer) sports aren’t on. We know enough to take Alexi Lalas with a grain of salt, and to defer to the opinion of whomever doesn’t have an American English accent.

Yahoo! Sports hay have José Mourinho, but we have people who have an idea of who José Mourinho is. That’s the kind of expertise that you can kind of trust.

Right, then. I guess it’s time to start our actual coverage of the World Cup. Before I grab Alex Bean to join me in previewing all the different World Cup groups, allow me to set the scene for this year’s Cup. It’s not a pretty sight, so here’s a silly music video from a mustachioed man strumming a banjolele.

That was delightful. Now we get to wade into the shit of the World Cup. So, take a deep breath, because we’re going to start with the rotting, bloated corpulent Sulla sitting atop the corrupt Soccer Empire that oversees all this Roman-esque spectacle: FIFA.

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