So, I Got To See The Fireworks.

As a part of the second session here at Lead America, we got a chance to see the national fireworks show from the Jefferson Memorial. It was extremely amazing and I highly recommend it in the future. It went surprisingly well considering that we had nine hundred students with us for the trip. Speaking of second session, it's going rather well. The kids have almost successfully ended the world, so things are going great. I am excited that I only have one more session left before I leave here to head to San Diego. I looked at the weather for the region last night and it looks like it will be amazing for the next week, so hopefully it holds while I am there. Also, I just checked the calender on my laptop and in exactly two weeks and four days I will be touching down in Nashville. I am excited to get back to town and start on my footwork and my kicking again. After about a month off it will be interesting to see how I play.

Apart from that, the main purpose of the post is to give a review and a product bump. First of all, the review. Back during staff training me and the other INS staffers got together and went over to Dupont Circle for tea and bree with fruit. It was a rather yummy experience. When we got done, we went to Kramers books. While we were walking around and I was giving customers my opinion the books that they were picking up (since it seemed like I had read them all or at least attempted to) I came across How Soccer Explains The World by Franklin Foer. The book attempts to describe globalization from the soccer standpoint but it does a fairly poor job. None of the topics relate to the common notion of globalization. There is no talk about how boarder and barriers are coming down and the world is getting more and more chummy with itself. It is no more than a book of essays about topics that exist in the soccer community, such as hooliganism. I enjoyed the essays, don't get me wrong there, but I do not believe that it lives up to its title really. So, if international relations and soccer both peak your interest and you think that this is good book that will link the two, then you are a tad bit mistaken. However, if you are looking for a simple and fun read about aspects of soccer culture, then by all means, grab this one.

Secondly, I came across a site called Philosophy Football.com. It is a t-shirt company that takes quotes about the game from philosophers and puts them on shirts. I really want the shirt with the equation of how a ball flies but it is only in kids sizes so far. So, dixieland footie is bumping Philosophy Football just like we bumped Who Are Ya' Designs. Happy footy all.

Book Roundup (Yes, footie fans write books and I'll be damned if we don't read as well)

(Provided by Wikipedia and Penguin Books)



So, I am not a huge Arsenal fan but I passed this book in Boarders one day and I decided to give it a go. I think it is unfair to put it in the sports section of the story. Sure, it deals with the authors devotion to the Gunners, but it is more of a life story and therefore deserves a spot in the biography isle.

The book is a wonderful collection of events in the authors life. It covers the time period between 1968 and 1992 and highlights what was a very bleak Arsenal squad in the good ol' days. The author takes each match and compares it to an event in his own life.

Perhaps the most interesting quality of the book is how the author abandons Arsenal over and over again but somehow always makes it back to Highbury. The fan base for an English team is more intense than anything an American football team will ever experience. And to see a fan leave the game on more than one occasion is an amazing thing to read. This couples well with the authors description of his level of ritual before and during a match. Hornsby allows the reader into the mind of someone who abandons what he loves.

A second interesting factor that is brought out in the book is the presentation of the life that the author leads. When you look at the fan who commits such a large portion of their life to a team, one would expect them to have no life, no love, no nothing. Hornsby shows the reader something entirely different. He discusses his school life and proceeds to his college life. Then he shows the black and white world of office work and how football can make a boring day at work interesting. He then moves on to being a teacher. This takes the mask off the average American picture of a European soccer fan.

The third and final point that the author strives to drive home is that all English fans are not hooligans. To look at a work like "Among The Thugs" that stresses that violence is key to the football experience and then look at "Fever Pitch," it is a complete 180.

If you want to see how a true fan lived during twenty plus season of football, read "Fever Pitch." It is extremely well written and is a quick read that any true fan of the game would enjoy.