Only In America

Firewoman - The Cult (mp3)
I Think It's Gonna Happen - Army Navy (mp3)

The USA Women’s soccer team is the paragon of American team sport.

They exemplify more aspects of what makes our country so amazing than any other group. They are a walking, running, sports bra-clad icon of American pride.

The only possible competitor for this historical and symbolic spot would be the USA men’s basketball team, where a group of men, generally from lower-income levels of society, generally African-American, have united after they have achieved the American Sports Dream of striking it rich and famous. They attempt to place country before celebrity and, with clearly superior talent in a sport born in the USA, take the itty bitty world by storm.

But soccer is the world’s sport. We didn’t invent it, and our average sports fan doesn’t much care for it. The US men’s soccer team has never won the World Cup, and they won’t in the 21st Century, either. We are far from proving ourselves ready for the world stage as men.

But the women? They’ve taken the world’s game and reminded everyone what is unique about us: Even if we don’t respect women to the degree we should, and even if they aren’t yet given every chance to be equal, we try much harder and are much more committed to the idea than every other country in the world.

For all the flaws in Title 9 -- a law that naively or stubbornly insists on a fantasy world where just as many women as men want to play sports -- the US women’s soccer team is an example of what it did right and of why the law exists.

When they played Brazil on Sunday, the best player -- and probably the three of the four most-talented players -- all wore yellow. But what Brazil and all of South America gains in raw and devoted talent, they lack in financial and social support. South America simply doesn’t care about women being equal, and certainly not in sports. Same is true for big chunk of Europe.

Of course I’m using gross stereotypes here. Plenty of American men are pigs and chauvinists. But what’s truly beautiful about America is that, despite pigs and chauvanists, despite hundreds of thousands of Americans who think women’s sports aren’t worth a fraction of the effort or money they require, something about our ideals and values require that we support them.

Italy, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, Portugal, Croatia. All great men’s teams, but totally marginal on the women’s side. Am I supposed to believe this isn’t cultural, that there isn’t something about the cultures of these countries that simply don’t appreciate, value, prioritize or reward female athletes?

Guess which country won the last two Women's World Cups? Germany. They have a kickass female chancellor. Pardon me if I don't think this is mere happenstance. Yet, by comparison, our women's team says more about our country than Germany's does about theirs.

Don’t take my word for it; take their coach's. Pia Sundhage is a Swede, and they’re not exactly known for their oppressive misogyny, but even she feels something uniquely powerful about the Way of the USA:

“I come from Sweden, and this American attitude, pulling everything together and bringing the best out performance of each other, that's contagious. I'm very proud and very happy to be the coach of the U.S. team."

Or take 5-time FIFA Women’s Player of the Year, Marta, the most-talented crybaby this side of John McEnroe:

(Marta) pointed to her head, leading me to think she meant the Americans were strong in the air. "No, no," she explained. "It's the mentality." (from ESPN.com)

There’s this documentary called PELADA. Fascinating little flick. Young man and woman, floating uncertainly after their college soccer careers have ended, take some grant money and travel the world to experience pick-up soccer games in one country after another. They go through South America, Europe, Asia and even the Middle East and play game after game.... with men.

Best I can recall, they only play two pick-up games with women. One is on some salt flats, and the other is in Iran. Two female pick-up games out of, like, hundreds. And one of those is in I-friggin’-RAN!!

This isn’t my “you really oughtta give women’s soccer a shot” blog. Truth is, there ain’t nothing about women’s soccer that, if you haven’t found it in you to try it, and if you haven’t ever found soccer interesting, is gonna magically win your heart.

It doesn't matter whether you like it, or whether you watch it, because here’s what you can say about our women’s soccer team, and it’s something that proud Americans like saying:

ONLY IN AMERICA.

Those words mean more for this particular team than any other team for any other sport at this juncture in our collective American sports history.

The US women play France in the semifinals tomorrow (Wednesday). Kickoff is at noon EST on ESPN. BOTG's authors will be sitting at Tremont Tavern to cheer on the Red White & Blue, and we welcome others to join us! 

Our Earth

Earthquake zones

Hello world...

I was feeling great today until I just heard the breaking news....  A 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit near the coast of Honshu, Japan!  As a result, yet another tsunami alert has been issued.  *Sigh*  It's so frightening just thinking about it!  My heart goes out to the people in Japan. 

Also, as if that wasn't bad enough, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit Veracruz, Mexico today, though fortunately the reports say nothing major occurred other than buildings swaying for a few minutes (but still, holy cow)!  Oh, and there has been radioactive rain falling in South Korea today as a result of the radioactive fallout from Japan's nuclear disaster after the last earthquake and tsunami there last month.

Anyway, I don't know about you but I'm scared.  Our natural disasters have been getting worse and worse, and that realization takes my mind down a very long and uneasy road of thoughts. 
 

I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge this terrible news and say how bad I feel for the people of Japan and for all the people around the world who have suffered so much in all the disasters of these past few years.  Also, I'd like to say just because I hardly hear about Haiti or the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on the news anymore does not mean I have forgotten!  

I feel as though one of humanity's greatest problems in an age of so much bombarding technology, information, entertainment, and responsibilities is that it's so easy to forget that we are at the mercy of this planet.  It's so convenient to just go on with one's life, in a little bubble.  But I try my best not to do that, I don't want to be indifferent to the world's issues, because the world's issues are all of our issues, and if we aren't going to think or worry about them then who will?  It's our job.  With that said, we should all find ways, however small, to start respecting and preserving our planet better.  

The current growing environmental movement is typically referred to as the "green" movement, or "going green," but please note that this movement has also brought an onslaught of new "green" products created primarily for profit.  I believe that the big companies knew that this movement was going to be the "next big thing," so they produced tons of new products to feed the fetish (see this New York Times Article called "Buying Into the Green Movement") in order to capitalize on what they knew would surely be a frenzy of human consumption in hopes of helping the planet.  Not to be cynical, but in all likelihood that is the truth and many of us are falling into the trap.  So what I'm saying is, don't go out and buy a bunch of green stuff and buy into the fetish, because initially you'll just be negating your efforts to be green by buying and consuming more than what you already have.  First, figure out free ways to work with what you have, learn ways to become a more responsible consumer and disposer.  Once you've picked up on that, I believe it will be easier to make wise choices when shopping for "green" products without going crazy and spending boatloads of money before knowing what works best for you and your lifestyle.  Just because one buys green products does not necessarily mean they are being green and saving the planet, it could just mean you're buying (consuming) more and spending more if you're not smart about it.

It's a a big challenge and it won't be easy, but it behooves all of us.  With that said, below are some links to help you get started....

Going Green.com

A Brief History of the Modern Green Movement in America

Everyday Pollution Solutions

How to Go Green via Tree Hugger.com

10 Ways to Go Green and Save Green via the World Watch Institute 

Our Earth.org

Inspire Bohemia is carbon neutral, are you interested in making your blog carbon neutral too?  Find out what carbon neutral means and how your blog can join the movement at the "Make It Green" Program website.  You can also check out my post on the program: "Inspire Bohemia Goes Carbon Neutral."

(Image of Earthquake zones via PhysicalGeography.net)

Bon Voyage for Design!! *swoon*

Okay, this is going to be short and sweet.... I WANT THIS JOB! I would do almost anything to travel the world in seek of beautiful treasures, except, I'd be bringing them back to my store, not Anthropolo-blah blah... I'm sure the store is gorgeous, but I don't need to shop there because I am my own design scout! Nonetheless, I am anxious to see the premiere of this show, "Man Shops Globe" on the Sundance channel tomorrow October 7! Hopefully this guy justifies his amazing opportunities with some worthy treasurrrrre! Arghhhh.... Whoo hoo!

Check out the website for Man Shops Globe... and here's a preview....

One Person, One Song, One World?

The Magnetic Fields--"Acoustic Guitar" (mp3)
Hot Chip--"My Piano" (mp3)

If you've ever gone into a music store, not the CD kind, the musical instrument kind, then you know how annoying it is to hear wannabe guitarists, for example, playing snippets of classic songs when they try out the axes. It's been awhile since I've gone shopping for guitars (I think it coincides with when my first child was born), but "back in the day," it was mandatory that you would hear, with varying levels of proficiency, the opening to "Stairway To Heaven," the fingerpicked progression of "Dust In The Wind," the one string, single-note-at-a-time version of "Smoke On The Water" or "Sunshine of Your Love," or, in the later 80's, the early alt-rock opening of "Driver 8." Today, who knows?

Well, trust me, it's even more annoying to be the person who can only play parts of songs. In my now 33 years of playing guitar, I've had entire years where I only played parts of songs, sometimes only parts of my own songs. And when you get into that kind of rut, you lose the purpose of why you learned the guitar in the first place. It isn't to show off the fact that you know parts of the great songs of rock. A lot of people can do that. The purpose is to play music for other people and for yourself.

But, then you've got no-talent-ass-clowns like Kid Rock out there, trafficking in Lynyrd Skynrd riffs in order to scare up a hit. I don't even know what bullshit his song is slinging, something about summer. All I can remember is the repetition of "Sweet Home Alabama" over and over.

In this age of rampant sampling, rehashing, and outright stealing, it's probably only a matter of time before someone presents a concert of riffs, or, maybe even more likely, sells copyrighted riffs online. You can pay an arm and a leg to sample "Kashmir," or, for only a fraction of the cost, you can buy one of my soon-to-be classic patented riffs!

So what I'm advocating is this: it is a worthwhile societal goal that every person (or most) should be able to play one complete song on an instrument of his or her choice or destiny. Any person at any age can learn to play an instrument. Any person can master, for example, Neil Young's "Helpless" on the guitar or the spiritual "Michael, Row The Boat Ashore" on the piano or "Dear Prudence" on the ukelele or "Three Blind Mice" on the recorder.

That is my proposed benchmark for humanity. Everybody who can learns to play one song. Heck, I smell another Coke commercial.

But it needs to be the whole song: learn the chords, learn the words, and play the thing from beginning to end. And learn it well enough that you can play the whole thing in front of someone else, maybe your spouse or your children or your sibling.

What would this do for us as a society? Well, think about it. There are several potential benefits. First, I would argue that music is already one of the common denominators on this planet. But it's one thing to listen to it; it's another to share it. Second, think about what you're not doing if you're practicing music. You're not watching one of the two hundred reality shows currently clogging the airwaves. Koreans claim that eating kimchi makes you smarter; I claim that playing music makes you smarter. And third, songs are like Cheetos. Who would learn just one? We could become a society of musicians.

But then John McCain would claim that Barack Obama is the biggest rock star in the world, and that would piss off Bono, because he thinks he's the biggest rock star in the world, and that might either a) cause Bono to renounce his philanthropic ways or b) write one song, the absolutely definitive song, for the entire world, and then we'd all learn it and all play it and then we'd get sick of it and stop playing music.

But at least Kid Rock would have a ridiculously well-known song to base his next hit single on.


The Magnetic Field's 69 Love Songs is one of the great pop opuses (opi?) of the 20th century. You can experience the genius in the song above which name-checks Steve Earle, Charo, and G.W.A.R. all in the same sentence! And, like up-and-comers Hot Chip, it's available at Itunes.