USA v. Ghana

It's been an interesting World Cup. The French couldn't win, the favored Spanish lost to the underdog Swiss, and the Italians, the defending world champions, were ousted by the small nation of Slovakia, in their first World Cup since independence. The quote that has been circulating the internet jokingly claims, "This World Cup is like World War II. France leave early, USA turn up at the last minute, and England is left fighting the Germans."

I'm very excited for the USA. I'm thrilled that this is the first time that they've won their group (and possibly the first time they've made to it Round of 16) since the first World Cup in 1930. But the Americans will be playing Ghana. As the last African nation in the first African World Cup, I think that I agree with this NYT commentator. The USA has dominated countless sports for decades. We consistently top the medal records for the Olympics, an American just won Wimbledon, and the US has won the women's World Cup in 1991 and 1999. Our first love remains (American) football. Another FIFA loss would be frustrating, but most of America probably wouldn't even care. In contrast, imagine the morale boost for the entire country of Ghana, and for all of Africa, if their team gets to advance. Perhaps it's an idealistic notion, but perhaps sports bring healing and progress.

I hope the Red, White, and Blue play well, and I will be thrilled if they do advance. But patriotic allegiance aside, I'll be cheering for the Red, Yellow, and Green. Let's go Ghana, and let's go Africa!

May the best team win.

World Cup Again

The World Cup starts this Friday in South Africa. So excited! Here's another "official" theme song... how many are there now?

Museum Mile Festival

The annual Museum Mile Festival is tonight in New York City. From 6-9pm, gain free access to nine of the museums in the Upper East Side--including the Met, the Neue Galerie, the Guggenheim, and more--and enjoy live music and art everywhere in between. This festival is usually held each year on the second Tuesday of June.

Frugal Travelers

NYT Frugal Traveler Matt Gross has passed the baton to a new FT, Seth Kugel. Kugel will be traveling across South America on a tight budget this summer.

One of Gross' final columns was regarding a journey from Vienna to Budapest by foot. The Danube hike sounds beautiful, though walk steadily for so many days can take its toll. In Vienna proper, the NYT today is highlighting the resurgence of the Karmeliterviertel and Jewish life.

Worldwide World Cup Frenzy

FIFA World Cup 2010 starts in two weeks in South Africa!! Listening to K'naan, I can't help but get excited.

Turning to a New Chapter

Transitions can be a very difficult time. They bring excitement, but also terror. Anticipation, but also nostalgia.

And so, friends, as I find myself standing on this latest threshold, at this metaphorical bend in the road, hovering on the brink of the abyss before attempting flight, I cannot help eagerly craning forward, while simultaneously dragging my heels and looking back.

Change is in the air, and it is a good thing, but change is a fickle beast. It comes when it is unlooked for or unwelcomed and creates endings while also bringing freshness and new beginnings. You are never ready for change, but you never have a choice but to continue moving with the shifting winds.

Thus, apologies for my rather sporadic postings for the past few months; I'm afraid that this trend may continue for a few months more. So as a quick recap, here's a few things that have been happening in the world:

• We're in a new decade.
  
• Obama has been in office for a year and a half (wow, already?).
  
• Many of the "flower" revolutions seem to have reversed, as many former-Soviet countries seem to be leaning toward Moscow.
  
• But Washington is friendly with Moscow now.
  
• Many of Poland's top leaders died in a tragic plane crash (on Russian soil, on their way to commemorate the Katyn massacre of Polish officers by Russian soldiers).
  
• But Russian-Polish relations seem to have improved, in part because of this tragedy.
  
• There's an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
  
• Antigovernment protests are spreading in Thailand.
  
• The Brits elected a hung parliament! panicked! and then formed a coalition government.
  
• The Euro is imploding.

Additionally, this blog passed it's two year anniversary with absolutely no fanfare. Instead, it's two and a half year anniversary approaches. So a very happy belated birthday, dear WM. Thank you to everyone who has read, everyone who continues to follow regularly, and everyone who will find this blog in the future. New adventures coming soon!

The Opposite of Lucid Dreaming

Maybe it simply stems from my having seen Waking Life at a young age, but I am fascinated by the study of sleep. REM sleep and lucid dreams are fairly common topics these days, but what about dreams that seem so realistic that the dreamer confuses them for a memory of reality? (Or is that just me...)

Where is this line between dream and reality? And in the end, what is sleep?

From Paris with Love

Google continues to not only create innovative services and products, but clever and adorable ads. This one aired during the Super Bowl 2010, and it strikes the heart of anyone who has studied abroad, anyone who has traveled, and anyone who has been in love.

A couple links from the news

It's been a month without posts again. Just a few links to share tonight.

Krugman insightfully provides some much needed perspective (and common sense!) to the current impasse in the Senate: America is Not Yet Lost

Also, looks like Viktor Yanukovich is poised to win the presidency in Ukraine. When's the last time we heard his name on the world stage? During the so-called Orange Revolution in 2004, when Viktor Yushchenko (complete with a blotched face from conspiracies) won in Ukraine's first truly democratic elections. Some have called Yanukovich's success a reversal of this Orange Revolution. Yet the elections were judged to be fair and very successful, so the perhaps democratic legacy continues despite the election of a Russia-leaning candidate. Perhaps this is the balance that Ukraine needs.

The End of a Decade

As 2009 draws to a close, bloggers, artists, and journalists everywhere are scrambling to reflect upon the past ten years. Naturally, in this decade of the Blog, of Google, of YouTube, and of Facebook (it's hard to believe that none of these concepts existed ten years ago), this reflection is taking many diverse forms.

First, there's the usual collection of different lists of favorites (videos, music, theater, etc.) from the year. As usual JibJab released a comical video immortalizing 2009 in song and dance. Dave Barry wrote his annual year in review.

My favorite 2009 tribute goes to DJ Earworm, who created this clever mash-up of the top 25 pop songs of the year:

However, reflections on the decade as a whole present additional challenges. To start with, what should we call these past ten years? We've had ten years to decide how to pronounce the '00s, and with perfect procrastination, we failed to reach any consensus. Personally, I'm a fan of reviving the term "aught", which was used to describe the years of 1900-1909. (For example, '05 was pronounced "aught five"). Paul Krugman argues reflects on all the negative trends between 2000-2009 and thus suggests that the decade should be remembered as the "Big Zero".

The past decade certainly did bring a lot of challenges, and it bears careful remembrance and reflection. For those with only a few minutes to spare, Newsweek released a comical fast-talking review of the decade in seven minutes through headlines and old news reels. For those with a bit more time to spare, the Daily Show released a fantastic year-by-year review of the decade through old Daily Show clips to sum up the main events.

NYT is again seeking photographs from readers, this time in order to document the images of the decade. (EDIT: Here's the collection of a decade of photos). Paste considered fashion and examined the evolution of the hipster in this past decade through images.

However, my favorite tribute so far is the You Aught to Remember blog. This blog has been posting an entry a day for the past hundred days in order to reminisce about various events and (pop) cultural phenomenon that were quintessential parts of 2000-2009. Though this blog will be completed in the next few days (only 4 more entries to go!), the archives provide a comprehensive look back over the past years.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!

Happy 2010.

'Tis the Season

I loved this article on Weihnachtsmärkte in Germany. Such Christmas markets can be found across Germany, but the Berlin markets have especially specified and diversified. The NYT offers examples of a market for kids, a market for GLBT, and a market for environmentalists.

Hurry, because these markets traditionally close by Dec. 24!


Can't get to Deutschland or Österreich this year? A number of U.S. cities have adapted the tradition and added their own Christkindlmärkte.

Frohe Weihnachten und ein gutes Neues Jahr!

Rust Belt Tourism

USA highlighted Buffalo today and its efforts to regain its place as a city of architectural grandeur. As one who enjoyed architecture and an amateur urban explorer, I found the images intriguing and the building listed probably worth a visit, even if not fully restored.

Some more images of Buffalo, courtesy of Flickr.

Souvenirs

As one whose favorite souvenirs are often a pebble from a beach (Cinque Terre) or a collection of napkins and coasters from bars and restaurants (across Europe), I find the Frugal Traveler's essay on souvenirs to echo my sentiments exactly: Souvenirs on the Road

Velvet Revolution

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of peaceful student demonstrations against communist rule in Prague, Czechoslovakia. These demonstrations culminated to become the Velvet Revolution, which achieved its ultimate goal of overthrowing the communist government on December 29.

Unfriend

Facebook has truly permeated our culture. The OED announced today its Word of the Year for 2009: "Unfriend" (or "defriend"), that is, a new verb to describe the act of breaking off Facebook connections with someone and de-linking profiles.

Antonym: to friend (someone), i.e. "Sue friended the girl she met yesterday." Also see: to facebook (someone), which is sometimes used as a synonym for friended but also implies facebook-stalking.

In other Facebook news, the social networking site now offers language options that include English (upside down) and English (Pirate).

20 Years - Die Berliner Mauer

By this hour, 20 years ago tonight, the Wall had opened and East Germans flooded into the West. They say that most simply crossed in order to say they did, in order to walk on Western streets, in order to buy something from a Western store; then, after wandering for a few hours, they crossed back over the barrier that no longer carried any meaning.

The commemorations and reflections have been almost exhaustively numerous on this historic anniversary. (Also check out the concert by the Brandenberg Gate). It was a time to remember the images of the day but also consider the boundaries and debated legacy that remain.

Lest Americans forget, Ronald Reagan's famous words were uttered more than two years before the Berlin Wall opened, and he played next to no direct role in the opening. However, his relationship with the reformist Gorbachev epitomized the thaw of the Cold War. Gorbachev did not attempt to crush revolutions, as his predecessors had, but instead embraced reform even as the hard-line East German leaders dug in their heels. Poland had already elected a democratic government, Hungary had torn the Iron Curtain by opening borders with the West, and the Czech Republic would soon follow. However, in the end, it was a mistaken word at a press conference that caused the Wall to open so suddenly, unleashing the flood of humanity into the streets of West Berlin on the night of November 9-10.

The rest, as they say, is history.

A Step Toward a United States of Europe?

... or perhaps just a breath of fresh air to make the unwieldy EU structure a bit more manageable. Either way, the Lisbon Treaty has now been signed by all 27 EU member states and may take effect as soon as December 1. The Lisbon Treaty updates the original 1992 Maastricht Treaty, which formed the European Union, and provides a permanent presidency and foreign minister.

This has been a long time in coming; the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty by all the EU member states has taken almost two years--one could argue that that delay itself emphasizes the need for such a treaty. (Indeed, the origins of the Lisbon Treaty can be seen in the proposed and rejected European constitution, which goes back to 2005). Will the creation of a permanent EU presidency and unified foreign affairs activity gradually rob member states of national sovereignty, as many fear? Time will tell.

Rumblings from the Rubble of the Wall

The anniversary of the Berlin Wall's opening is fast approaching, and rumblings of memory and warning are arising in the media. Today, the Times published a column written by Mikhail Gorbachev, reflecting on the momentous year of 1989 and the results of his perestroika and glasnost. Another opinion peace warns Americans to remember the facts of the day-- the sudden opening was an accident, a mistaken word that resulting in the quintessential image of the fall of communism and (from the US perspective) the perceived American victory.

2 for $22

Don't miss Open Letter's "2 for 22" deal. Choose any of two of their books from previous catalogs and pay only $22! Get them before they're gone.

A Piece of History

The New York Times is collecting photos and stories about the opening of the Berlin Wall and individual accounts of where you were and what you remember about that historic time.