Statues

I don't usually read the Sunday Herald so close to its date of publication (traditionally read on a Wednesday at 0Dark Hundred). I only got round to reading last week's on Thursday night; having only just finished today's, my feeling that the days are running together is reinforced. I especially hate it when I read the pre-big-event coverage after having watched said event - in this case, the World Cup final.
I can remember my first cup in 1994 - Italia 90 simply did not register on this 3.5 year old's awareness in the same vein as the collapse of the Soviet Union, or the existence of both the Labour Party and the electoral process before 1997 passed me by. I've still got my old USA 94 guide I bought from the school-books-thingy in Primary 3, with all the scores atrociously filled-in. I can still clearly see the Brazillians and Italians taking penalties in the Rose Bowl. I remember how bright it looked: the Brazillian shirts, the noon sky, and that characteristic over-exposure of NTSC.


Being 11 at the time, France 98 is perfectly clear... except for the final. I was in Tenerife, eating dinner poolside as a large TV screened the game - but this was before I got glasses, so like my vision, the events of the 98 final are essentially a blur (plus, the commentary was in Spanish and my attention was divided). Curiously, I can't remember seeing the 2002 final. I remember the opening ceremony (not the game) because I had to leave at kickoff to attend my fucking computing exam.

All Le Cup Mondiale coverage in the paper makes mention of Zidane being player of the tournament and suchlike - talk about hindsight. If it's true that he was reacting to a racial slur, well its still hard to justify his response in terms of how one behaves either on or off the pitch. Anyone who has ever been incensed knows rational thought goes out the window. I think its deeply unfortunate he went out like he did, but you can't blame him for having human responses. I expect FIFA will have something lined up for bringing the game into disrepute. Cue playground imitations across the world.

For me, things feel like they've wrapped up early. As I've largely only watched the BBC's online broadcasts, I missed all backward-ITV's allocated games - I dislike ITV for being a ratings whore. Of course, I can watch the BBC's Final coverage forever thanks to my (very likely illegal) ripping of their stream. Unfortunately, there's no time index for a live stream, so the entire 3.5 hour file must be watched from beginning to end. Note that the confetti at the end almost crashed the stream - video became heavily pixelated and the audio backed-up whilst the processor went flat out trying to decode the nightmare of endless fade-in/out footage of bits of paper flying about in the air. A well enjoyed month nonetheless.

What with C4 offering online simulcast (although anything you would want to watch is unavailable and it's DRMed), & a number of BBC2 programmes are on demand. My old fake-wood-panelled Mistubishi TV now survives on watching terrestrial Simpsons and the now very rare use of the PS2.

An hour to write and 10 minutes to type up? As of publishing at 1421 10/07/06, I have been up for just over 24 hours.


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