We walked up to Toulouse Petit for lunch where we sat in the bar and I ate a burger and Jaime ate an oyster po' boy (which sounds kind of like a crude reference to an encounter with a shellfish worker). There were guys watching the World Cup and seeming really into it. There were a couple of women with them who seemed to be there not merely with but because of the guys. Then there were two in-their-late-thirties-and-single women watching it together.
The latter two were pretending to be into the game. They were cheering and so forth, but I don't think they were genuine - one of them cheered and reacted loudly to a goal attempt that was actually a replay.
I have a firm conviction (which is really just based on speculation) that most of the people right now who are watching soccer are essentially pretending. Maybe these guys at Toulouse were really into it, but they had the look of guys who probably played soccer in their freshman year of high school and weren't very good at it.
I'll admit up front, out of respect for my readers who don't already know about this, which is probably very few of my readers: television sports are not my thing. In fact, in life, anything where there is a kind of organized competition that has rules and involves doing things that aren't sort of fun for their own sake, really isn't my thing. That extends to board games. Luckily Jaime is the same way; for example, this weekend she referred to the World Cup as "the US Open or whatever".
I can catalog my sporting life pretty quickly. I played soccer from probably the age of five to maybe ten. My memories of soccer involve being really miserable during rainy Saturday games and once getting hit in the face with the ball during a game, by my cousin, who was on the same team. I can't remember if I cried, but let's assume I did. I think I played baseball, but I can't even remember the age at which I did this. It was in elementary school and probably for a season - maybe two. I can remember getting in trouble for sitting down in the outfield. Around fourth grade I played floor hockey on a Boys and Girls Club team - I can't even believe that's a sport. I was actually pretty good at it, but being good at floor hockey is kind of like having really handsome elbows. I also played basketball on a B&GC team. I played football in seventh grade - defense; more specifically, I prevented anyone from stealing the bench during games. Then I played on our country club's golf team for like a year in middle school and took first place in my age group in the club tournament - so I was ok at it, but mostly despised it. And, there you have it.
So I do have a skepticism of sports watching, in general, and that's in part due to my own natural biases. The whole activity just seems really habitual, like smoking or the compulsions of those people you see on cable who like pull out their eyelashes.
I'm not one of those anti-sports people, however. I don't think there's anything inherently stupid or barbaric (or insert cliche criticism) about them. I actually think it would be really cool to be good at basketball or some other thing that I could still actually play from time to time in adulthood. But I'm not and I will probably never take the time to become that good at anything like that. If nothing else, after so many years of not doing that kind of thing, my muscles and cortex probably just don't have the right kind of connections to develop a good jump shot. To the point: I'm not criticizing sports here, just suggesting that mass spectator culture seems habitual in a way that makes me leery of it.
And but so Toulouse Petit was really hopping with a lot of these types on Saturday. Lunch was tasty and loud.
I have a firm conviction (which is really just based on speculation) that most of the people right now who are watching soccer are essentially pretending. Maybe these guys at Toulouse were really into it, but they had the look of guys who probably played soccer in their freshman year of high school and weren't very good at it.
I'll admit up front, out of respect for my readers who don't already know about this, which is probably very few of my readers: television sports are not my thing. In fact, in life, anything where there is a kind of organized competition that has rules and involves doing things that aren't sort of fun for their own sake, really isn't my thing. That extends to board games. Luckily Jaime is the same way; for example, this weekend she referred to the World Cup as "the US Open or whatever".
I can catalog my sporting life pretty quickly. I played soccer from probably the age of five to maybe ten. My memories of soccer involve being really miserable during rainy Saturday games and once getting hit in the face with the ball during a game, by my cousin, who was on the same team. I can't remember if I cried, but let's assume I did. I think I played baseball, but I can't even remember the age at which I did this. It was in elementary school and probably for a season - maybe two. I can remember getting in trouble for sitting down in the outfield. Around fourth grade I played floor hockey on a Boys and Girls Club team - I can't even believe that's a sport. I was actually pretty good at it, but being good at floor hockey is kind of like having really handsome elbows. I also played basketball on a B&GC team. I played football in seventh grade - defense; more specifically, I prevented anyone from stealing the bench during games. Then I played on our country club's golf team for like a year in middle school and took first place in my age group in the club tournament - so I was ok at it, but mostly despised it. And, there you have it.
So I do have a skepticism of sports watching, in general, and that's in part due to my own natural biases. The whole activity just seems really habitual, like smoking or the compulsions of those people you see on cable who like pull out their eyelashes.
I'm not one of those anti-sports people, however. I don't think there's anything inherently stupid or barbaric (or insert cliche criticism) about them. I actually think it would be really cool to be good at basketball or some other thing that I could still actually play from time to time in adulthood. But I'm not and I will probably never take the time to become that good at anything like that. If nothing else, after so many years of not doing that kind of thing, my muscles and cortex probably just don't have the right kind of connections to develop a good jump shot. To the point: I'm not criticizing sports here, just suggesting that mass spectator culture seems habitual in a way that makes me leery of it.
And but so Toulouse Petit was really hopping with a lot of these types on Saturday. Lunch was tasty and loud.
When we got back I read about 30 pages of Infinite Jest (which is really just slow but very enjoyable reading, which is why it will probably take me until August to finish its 1,070 pages) and then finished reading Although You End Up Becoming Yourself. Most of the pages I read while up on the roof, where the air was hot and calm and Jaime was reading Imperial Bedrooms.
Cool street/alt art above the block party on 10th.
Saturday night we went to Tavern Law, then to a Pride block party (see last post supra). I should add that the gays are certainly not any different from other groups in at least one way - when they have an event, all the businesses that cater to that event raise their prices (hello $12 cover and $5 national-brand beers just for the pleasure of standing in an outdoor biergarten). We met some new people - when people ask what I do now I tell them I'm a "failed writer working as an attorney", which is really the description that makes me feel the best about myself.
Sunday, Jaime went to a Junior League brunch at the Portage Bay Cafe. I read more Infinite Jest. Then we went to Cactus to meet up with Jaime's friend Amanda who works for a sports-management company - one of their golfers was in the process of (and ended up in fact) winning the tournament that was playing on the television in the bar at Cactus.
After that, we went home and booked our next trip to LA (August), watched a movie and went to bed. Just another weekend of high drama, glitz, glamor &c.
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