Monday Night Culture
Jun. 26th, 2006 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kniteracyI suppose I should really call this, "weekend culture," because I got most of it on Sunday, watching television with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
filceolaire.
You see, the World Cup is going on, and this is Big Stuff here in London. In fact, the CSH has a football sweepstakes going, and I was persuaded by our librarian, MT, to put in my two quid. The seeded team I drew was, you guessed it, England. Now, I don't know the first thing about football, so MT has been trying to give me an education, andfilceolaire contrived to help me out over the weekend. So I have not only watched football highlights on the BBC, I have also, with the help and encouragement of filceolaire, watched a football anthems programme, including the best and worst football anthems ever. There's always a song, apparently for World Cup time, and sometimes the songs made in a particular year aren't as good as the ones before. Now, I'm not sure when any of the songs were made, except that one with all the football players singing about how there's nothing they can't do-- except apparently improve their haircuts-- must have been made sometime in the 70s.
Now, of course some of these were more enjoyable than others. I think the catchiest one is Vindaloo, but maybe that's because I love to watch people--and there are many people to watch in the Vindaloo video, trust me.
England are now in the quarterfinals and will play Portugal on Sunday. They made it into the quarterfinals due to a kick by team captain David Beckham, who is most famous in the US for having actually married one of the Spice Girls. It was a nice kick-- I have seen it several dozen times in replay now, and I haven't even been trying. There are also numerous gratuitous shots of Posh jumping up and down and yelling for her soon-to-be hurling hubby (he was apparently physically ill after scoring the goal). Of course, her bosoms aren't as impressive as those of the woman I'm going to discuss below, but that's neither here nor there.
Anyway, there are three things going on in England right now. First, there is the national obsession with football. Secondly, there is Wimbledon, which started today. And third, there is Big Brother, a reality TV show which apparently has whole segments of the population utterly transfixed. Sunday night, we watched a little bit of some of the programming surrounding Big Brother on television. It's astounding how much programming the television stations have managed to eke out of Big Brother.
Last night, there was a trivia quiz with one of the contestants. She was asked three questions. Lea's personal news page is here, but they haven't put this interview up there....
Q: Who was the first English monarch to divorce?
A: What's a monarch?
(whispers in background)
A: Oh! Um, Charles?
Q: Which bird swims the fastest?
A: Birds don't swim, they fly.
(whispers in background)
A: A swan?
Q: Who was the youngest Beatle?
A: Bono?
I am not making this up. At least now I have identified why English people want to watch Big Brother. They have a deep desire to be smarter than someone. Luckily, Lea provides just about everybody on earth with the ability to string together an understandable, if not properly parsed, sentence, an opportunity to feel superior. Well, at least I understand that now. Luckily, when I want to feel superior, I have other places to look.
Oh, yeah. Wimbledon was mostly rained out. Nobody here cared much: Big Brother was live all day on Channel Four, and more than a hundred England fans have already been banned from Germany! Go team!
filceolaire.You see, the World Cup is going on, and this is Big Stuff here in London. In fact, the CSH has a football sweepstakes going, and I was persuaded by our librarian, MT, to put in my two quid. The seeded team I drew was, you guessed it, England. Now, I don't know the first thing about football, so MT has been trying to give me an education, and
filceolaire contrived to help me out over the weekend. So I have not only watched football highlights on the BBC, I have also, with the help and encouragement of filceolaire, watched a football anthems programme, including the best and worst football anthems ever. There's always a song, apparently for World Cup time, and sometimes the songs made in a particular year aren't as good as the ones before. Now, I'm not sure when any of the songs were made, except that one with all the football players singing about how there's nothing they can't do-- except apparently improve their haircuts-- must have been made sometime in the 70s.Now, of course some of these were more enjoyable than others. I think the catchiest one is Vindaloo, but maybe that's because I love to watch people--and there are many people to watch in the Vindaloo video, trust me.
England are now in the quarterfinals and will play Portugal on Sunday. They made it into the quarterfinals due to a kick by team captain David Beckham, who is most famous in the US for having actually married one of the Spice Girls. It was a nice kick-- I have seen it several dozen times in replay now, and I haven't even been trying. There are also numerous gratuitous shots of Posh jumping up and down and yelling for her soon-to-be hurling hubby (he was apparently physically ill after scoring the goal). Of course, her bosoms aren't as impressive as those of the woman I'm going to discuss below, but that's neither here nor there.
Anyway, there are three things going on in England right now. First, there is the national obsession with football. Secondly, there is Wimbledon, which started today. And third, there is Big Brother, a reality TV show which apparently has whole segments of the population utterly transfixed. Sunday night, we watched a little bit of some of the programming surrounding Big Brother on television. It's astounding how much programming the television stations have managed to eke out of Big Brother.
Last night, there was a trivia quiz with one of the contestants. She was asked three questions. Lea's personal news page is here, but they haven't put this interview up there....
Q: Who was the first English monarch to divorce?
A: What's a monarch?
(whispers in background)
A: Oh! Um, Charles?
Q: Which bird swims the fastest?
A: Birds don't swim, they fly.
(whispers in background)
A: A swan?
Q: Who was the youngest Beatle?
A: Bono?
I am not making this up. At least now I have identified why English people want to watch Big Brother. They have a deep desire to be smarter than someone. Luckily, Lea provides just about everybody on earth with the ability to string together an understandable, if not properly parsed, sentence, an opportunity to feel superior. Well, at least I understand that now. Luckily, when I want to feel superior, I have other places to look.
Oh, yeah. Wimbledon was mostly rained out. Nobody here cared much: Big Brother was live all day on Channel Four, and more than a hundred England fans have already been banned from Germany! Go team!
