you can't hear it on the radio, you can't hear it anywhere you go.

--America's nightmare descent into socialism has been delayed -- for now.  The Ghana game was tough to watch in both an agonizing and boring sort of way, and served as an especially fine example of the truism that Bob Bradley's greatest gift as a manager is correcting Bob Bradley's abundant tactical errors.  Cherundolo (and Bradley, for that matter) was too tired to keep up his excellent form from the past few games, and Gooch Onyewu, rehabbing or not, was best equipped to deal with the size/speed combo Ghana offered.

--And may I note, for the record, that soccer is the last, best hope of "go harder, win better!" analysis?  Baseball and football certainly suffer from it too, but there's at least the pretense of strategic analysis in those sports to go along with determining who does and does not have swagger (a term generally reserved for people of the natural athlete persuasion) or scrappiness (more appropriate for players of a fan favorite complexion).  With soccer, it really is just, "[Player name]...GOAL!/Just wide."  Or, if the announcer is the insufferable John Harkes, "THESE GUYS JUST NEED SOME HEART TO GO AND WIN OUT THERE!"

--In conclusion, the reason why America isn't more competitive in Ninja Warrior is that the best athletes in America are playing sports other than Ninja Warrior.  Think about it, people!

--Speaking of athletic competitions that are superior to soccer, Spencer Hall had an excellent post recently detailing one of my very favorite things about college football:  superdickery.  It's an incredible list (bolstered by incredible writing), but my favorite has to be the Jack Pardee story, which is just Biblical in its douchiness.

--Dr. Saturday is in the midst of Mid-Major week, and he's been absolutely on fire.  Hinton's blog is required reading anyways, but posts like this one on Saban show that, in addition to his great statistical analysis, he's a really funny guy, too.

This is why first impressions are often correct

--Some things are starting to crystallize in my mind regarding this blog:

• I think that I will indeed update daily, but that I'll only have one extended post (e.g. the Andrew Bird post) on music/movies/books once per week, probably on Tuesdays.
• Still thinking that I'll have sports (football duh) on Mondays and Fridays (reactions and predictions, respectively)
• We got peeds, y'all! We're officially on the internet (I had my doubts).
• Seriously, Bill, I respect your game, and you clearly put a lot of thought into that comment (maybe I was looking out into the distance on horseback for some manner of pedophile mirage), but it's over, dog.
• xoxo

--In part to avoid a debilitating oversaturation with Talking Heads a la Sufjan Stevens, I've acquired a truly ridiculous amount of music over the last two months. We've got:

• Monsters of Folk (best name ever), Self-Titled
  
• The Mountain Goats, Tallahassee
• Megafaun, Gather, Form & Fly
• David Byrne and Brian Eno, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
• David Byrne and Brian Eno, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
• St. Vincent, Actor
• TVOTR, Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
• Sunset Rubdown, Dragonslayer
• Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation
• The Rural Alberta Advantage, Hometowns
• My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
  
• Pixies, Doolittle
• Talking Heads, Little Creatures

In all likelihood, I'll skip over most of these when I'm doing my top ten list in January. Not only is there a ton of competition, but I've had a bad and longstanding habit of giving albums less thorough listens than they deserve, and then putting them on the "Honorable Mentions" list (Return to Cookie Mountain and a number of Josh Ritter albums suffered this fate, if I remember correctly, on the original list in 2007). Some of the denser albums I've gotten this year, like Merriweather Post Pavilion and Bitte Orca, will probably get the same treatment. So far, though, Loveless, Hometowns, GF&F and the Byrne/Eno albums are the most promising. Also, a top twenty songs list (new feature!!!!) is taking shape in my brainzone right now.

--Next week's culture post will either be on a Talking Heads album, a movie, or Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

--The Cardinals are the chokingest bunch of chokers; disgraceful performances these last two nights.