We're Back/Cubs Update

I'm finally back from Olympic Trials and romping around for the Fourth. It's back to business.

Even though it's obviously a big risk, the Cubs move for Rich Harden yesterday just has to make you smile (um, unless you hate the Cubs).

The bottom line is that they added one of the best pitchers in the world to an already successful staff. Ok, so he's had some trouble staying healthy. But think about it: the Cubs can probably make the playoffs with the squad they had without Harden (and they didn't give Oakland any integral piece of that team). Plus, once you get in the playoffs, because of the way the off days are scheduled, you only need two dominating starting pitchers to win a series.

This trade gives the Cubs not just two dominating pitchers, with Harden and Carlos Zambrano, but three (assuming Ryan Dempster keeps up his pace).

And like I said, we only need Harden for the playoffs--so, just like how the Cubs shut down Zambrano for a bit at the slightest evidence of shoulder issues, they can be extra-cautious with Harden and his glass limbs for the rest of the regular season.

I like this trade, I think it sends a positive message to the players and the fans that the organization really believes it can win it this year. Now I'm no sucker Cubs fan--I don't go all crazy every April talking about how the Cubs are the best team in the nation. I seriously doubt the Cubs could take the blasted Red Sox in a seven game series.

But there's also no doubt that the Harden trade just made the best team in the NL a whole lot better.

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In other fun Cubs stuff, check out this Uni Watch post about all the weird developments and quirks in Cubbie uniform lore.

Friday Video Premiere

Every Friday, we're highlighting a specific video (or two, or three) for your end of week enjoyment.

Welcome to the first Friday vid of June!! There's so much happy stuff going on in the world, you'll have to excuse me for my (probably temporary) optimism. But seriously, the Supreme Court came through big time yesterday and even though they basically threw a wrench into our system of dealing with these detainees, sometimes you have to burn ish down to build ish up, you dig? (Just don't ask Robespierre to do it.)

In sports, the Cubbies are coming through in the clutch, and even though the exceedingly obnoxious Boston sports community might gain yet another championship from the Celtics, there's so much soccer on everyday that my mood is simply imperturbable.

Ok, ok, enough. On to the videos!

There's no choice but to feature the Euro Cup, I'm sorry. Thing is, it's only a week in and there really hasn't been a goal that's made me smile right before I go to sleep (like this one). But there have been good goals.

Let's start with this goal from yesterday:



You'd be narrow minded to write it off just because it's from a corner. Look at how ballsy Sionko is! First of all, the guy's like 5'4". Second of all, he puts his head right where it would most probably be kicked--just to get a look at the ball. And last, he makes great contact to absolutely power it past Ricardo in goal.

I also like this Ibrahimavic goal:



There's two main things I like about it: one, that one-two with Larsson is amazing. Look how easily they slice through the Greece defense with two simple five yard passes. Two, it shows great technique that Ibrahimovic could turn his body to square up to the ball and hit it cleanly.

The goal is not as ridiculous as this one from Euro 2004, but it is one of the best goals so far.



And finally, the best goal from Monday's amazing Holland v Italy game:



Just look at how quickly they break--at how quickly the ball moves from the near side to the far side to the near side and in. It's the epitome of an effective counterattack, and there's a great finish by Sneidjer to boot.

Sort of reminds you of a classic Arsenal counterattack, don't you think? See for yourself:



Ok, you JJ folk, there you have it. It's weekend time! Sorry for the sparse output of late, but surely you can sympathize: sometimes, and in the cruelest way, summer jobs are more stressful and take up more time than schoolwork. Somehow.

So? Onwards.

Friday Video Premier

Every Friday, we're highlighting a specific video (or two, or three) for your end of week enjoyment.

Happy Friday everybody! Sun's out, semester's winding down, Cubbies are winning, and even though the Democratic party is exploding, Cambodia's botching their genocide trials, and the evil Spurs might go through, we just can't help but enjoy the day.

Check out the video below for the JJ Collective's first "Friday Video." It's "Us Placers," by Kanye, Lupe and Pharrell's group Child Rebel Soldiers. They're on the Glow in the Dark tour right now.



There's a couple things I like about the video, even besides the song. If you listen to the lyrics (especially the verses by Lupe and Kanye) you see that the song is mostly about the often pained life of a star.

Lupe's verse lists a star's accoutrement, but ends it with the loaded phrase, "All the money in the world don't make it painless." Kanye says, "I try to keep that balance/ After MTV that’s a Real World Challenge."

The video (which is not official, by the way, it was done by some YouTube director "Vashtie") is poignant because of the use of kids' innocence. The child actors who play CRS are not completely comfortable in front of the camera--you can see "Kanye" often looking away, like Snoop did in his earlier videos--and so they seem to be eschewing the spotlight, which fits the lyrics perfectly.

Plus, the kids in the video are not stars, they're (presumably) not yet corrupted by fame, and so the video is also a kind of wistful realization of CRS' dreams.

What do you think?

I like the song, too, although its sparseness was at first offsetting. There's nothing besides the piano, Thom's wailing, and that hazy electronic percussion that you can find all over Thom's solo album "The Eraser"--but in the end, I was won over by the piano taken straight from the first song on Eraser, "The Eraser," which is below.



I mean, you can see how much CRS leaned on that song.

By the way, The Eraser has some ridiculous album art. (Thank you, Stanley Donwood.)






Photos from amazon.com.

A Prayer for the Cubs...Yeah, right.

Lord, we stand before you here today stripped of our comfort. We are alone. Our dear friends have deserted us in our neediest moments and we find it harder than ever to believe in your great name. Oh Lord.

Lord, Take our hands through this tunnel of darkness and lead us in the general direction of deep left center field where Eric Byrnes and Chris Young might have a collision just bad enough to hurt both of them for the rest of the playoffs but not in any way endanger their careers or general well-being. Lord, your name is great, and you give us hope, precious hope, but we ask in pure humbleness and modesty to put the Cubs ahead by at least three runs as early as the first inning so that we don't have to watch them struggle to score from behind as Soriano, Lee, and Ramirez strike out late in the game with runners on second and third and less than two outs. Oh Lord.

We fill our hearts with prayer for you. With join in song every 7th inning and try our very hardest not to spill any peanuts, hot dog mustard, or Pepsi on the person in front of us. But Lord, we need your help.

Stay with us through the evening, through Craig Sager's terrible jackets (did you know he was Willie the Wildkit when he attended Northwestern University? well of course you did Lord, I just wanted to say thank you once again for blessing us with Wikipedia), through knowing that Steve Stone would announce another team's game, through a day of watching Sportscenter highlights of Cleveland and Boston get clutch hits by their best players and seeing Mike Lowell cracking jokes in the dugout while the Cubs' players peed their pants over and over again...Lord. Please. We need you more than ever.

Amen.