Sweet.

What do they have in store for us this time?

New Radiohead.

October 10.

In Rainbows.

Best. Band. Ever.

Flickr

Few new pictures up on Flickr. Mostly the view from our balcony. Hope you like 'em.

Talk About Propaganda

Major League Soccer is expanding again. Ives Galarcep reported earlier this week that the Seattle Sounders, who currently play in the USL, will join (be promoted to?) MLS as the 15th team in 2009. But what I find interesting is this article, which found its way to my Google Reader:

SEATTLE SAID TO BE MLS EXPANSION CITY

Okay, rumors and innuendo. That's cool. But who published the story? The MLS official website! It includes the gem, "The league would not confirm or deny any impending accouncement [sic] on a Seattle franchise." Well that may be, but it won't stop them from all but "accouncing" it on their website. This is like:

RED SOX RUMORED TO WIN AL EAST (source: mlb.com)
COLTS PURPORTED SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS (source: nfl.com)
ARENA FOOTBALL COULD BE IRRELEVANT (source: afl.com)
CLAUDIO REYNA PERHAPS OVER-RATED (source: nyredbulls.com)

So I'm "accouncing" a contest. Best stupid rumor propaganda headline. Winner gets an MLS-style press release written by yours truly to be posted for posterity on J&S. Your entry has to be sports-related, true, and (above all) HILLARIOUS. Submit your entry via the comments. Multiple entries are okay, as long as they are funny.

Also, I don't know if MLS can handle this torrid expansion pace (Toronto F.C. joined the league this year and San Jose hits the pitch next year) - it doesn't even seem to know how many teams are in the league. The sub-headline states, "Pacific Northwest reportedly targeted for 14th franchise" and there's mention of Seattle as 14th franchise in the first paragraph. BUT... the league currently has 13 teams (RBNY, New England, Columbus, D.C. United, Toronto F.C., Chicago, F.C. Dallas, Houston, L.A., Chivas USA, Colorado, Real Salt Lake, and Kansas City, all of which I sadly named from memory) and San Jose (re)joins the league next year, making the Sounders the fifteenth MLS team.

Also, San Jose, the real 14th team, isn't in the Pacific Northwest (last I checked). Maybe I need remedial math and geography classes. Or, the person who wrote the press release is a referee.

Don't forget the contest!

Barça Update: Hats Off

Wanna see a trick?

Tonight was one of those games that was never in doubt, with a streaking, in-form Barcelona taking on last place Levante. How bad is Levante this year? Going into tonight's game, they had scored two goals through five games, while conceding ten for a league worst -8 goal differential. It got worse for the Frogs (where do they come up with these nicknames...) as Thierry Henry decided to show everyone why he makes all those euros by scoring a natural hat trick on 4 shots.

In other news, Barça officially got their captain back from injury, with defender Carles Puyol coming on as a halftime substitute. In addition to being a world class defender, Puyol may be the ugliest man on the planet. Fortunately, the captaincy isn't a beauty contest and the armband, which had jumped from alternate captain Ronadinho to second alternate Victor Valdes to Xavi, finally came back to number 5. The only remaining significant injuries are Ronnie, who's expected back on Wednesday (unless he spends Monday night in da club), and Eto'o, expected back in about a month.

Barça now have a break in league play until next Sunday, when they take on Atlético Madrid in what has the potential to be an upper-table clash at the Camp Nou. Before that, it's off to Germany to take on VfB Stuttgart in Champions League group play Wednesday. A win there would give Barcelona a commanding position for the remainder of group play. But for now, the standings:

1) F.C. Barcelona / 4-0-2 / 14 points / +9
2) Real Madrid / 4-0-1 / 13 points / +10
3) Villareal / 4-1-0 / 12 points / +3
4) Valencia / 4-1-0 / 12 points / +1
5) Atlético Madrid / 2-1-2 / 8 points / +5


Pelé Sez: Barcelona sits atop the table for the first time this season, but don't get excited. There were only two Saturday games, so sixteen teams are in action tomorrow, including three that can pass Barça in the standings. I say they finish the weekend in third.

By the way, since they played Barcelona, Sevilla have absolutely tanked. They went into the match tied for second and have since lost to Barça, lost at home against Espanyol, and lost tonight at Zaragoza (the team Messi singlehandedly throttled on Wednesday). Depending on how tomorrow's games work out, Sevilla could see themselves drop to sixteenth place, or fourteen spots in ten days. Sure it's early, but wow. I never did that with Santos. Maybe it's the crazy pink uniforms. Mathematically, the best they can hope for is to start October in 11th place. Given the games tomorrow, I figure they drop to 13th. And I'm Pelé, so you should listen to me. Love! Love! Love!

Up Yours, American Broadcasting Company

Grey's Season 4: With McDreamy, McSteamy, & McABCsucks

There are certain things about American life that I miss, mostly food related. But being in Barcelona also means a big, fat no to a lot of television. Not that this is a real problem, in most cases. My viewing habits pretty much consisted of the occasionally available Cardinals game, Fire away games, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, and whatever was on Discovery.

I can follow the Cards online (and am advocating for mlb.com's season pass for Christmas), same with the Fire. MythBusters, et al. are surreptitiously available on YouTube - the parts worth watching, at least. But I need my Grey's and I really need my Lost. In that heroin-addict-needs-his-fix sort of way. You can take away man points for liking Grey's if you want, but I need to know what happens, and so does Susie. They're showing it in Spanish (on Fox, no less), but Anatomia de Grey is 1) starting with season 1, which I've seen, and 2) is in Spanish, which I don't understand. Though the "penis in a cooler" episode would no doubt be funny in Spanish even if you don't speak the language, I'm not interested.

But I had a plan.

Remember how at the end of every episode of every ABC show they say something along the lines of, "watch the episode again on abc.com"? Even the bad ones like October Road or Six Degrees? I thought to myself, "I know! I'll watch the episode on abc.com."

So this morning, I went to abc.com to see how the whole endeavor works (knowing anything online not owned by Google has a reasonable chance of being overly complicated) and have the whole thing ready to go when Susie gets back. I was greeted by the following message:

Only viewers within the United States can watch these full-length episodes.

WHAT?! Why?! Who's idea was this? I can buy (read: choose to ignore) your damned Dove body wash and whatever other products are being pushed on the ads just as easily over here as back home. Unfortunately, ABC's Executive Vice-President of Online Suckitude has spoken, so I'm left with few options.

Basically, I see my options as this:
1) Wait for the Season 4 DVD for like $35, get high-def quality, watch at leisure, but wait until everyone else I know has been discussing the season ad nauseum. Face social ostracization. ABC gets a portion of my purchase price as a direct result of their sucking.
2) Sign up for the iTunes Season Pass for the same $35, get what has been described as VCR-ish resolution, get now, and watch at leisure. Then purchase DVD set for (inexplicably) the same amount. ABC gets a portion of my purchase price as a direct result of their sucking. Twice.
4) Move back to America at a price several hundred times the cost of the iTunes pass and the DVDs combined and give up everything good about life in Barcelona for a television show. Still miss season premiere and episodes up to his return. ABC gets nothing.
3) Download episodes from LimeWire for free, get varying quality, watch at leisure, keep reasonably up to date, possibly miss an episode here or there, face potential wraith of the man (or el joven). ABC again gets no money for their douchetude, though I'd likely purchase the DVD set later anyway. Extras and all.

So what to do? I'm initiating the first ever Jake and Susie in Spain blogpoll. I want your input. What should I do? I can't boycott a show I can't watch (that would show them), and I need to know what to do soon, as I'm already falling behind. Also, missing an episode of Lost is simply not an option.

You killed off my two favorite characters, but I need to know what happens.

YouTube Greatness

What do you get when you combine two of the internet's most popular phenomena - Will It Blend? and Chuck Norris?

Greatness. That's what.

26 Things

Well, it's not September 28th yet where you are, perhaps, but it is here in Barcelona. For those of you that don't have Facebook (and its handy reminders), today is Susie's 26th birthday. Unfortunately, she's en route to Chicago without me for a wedding, so we can't celebrate properly until she's back and recovered from jet lag.

So, in the meantime, here are 26 things I love about Susie:

1) Her reasoning process has two settings - "Cold Logic" and "No Logic"
2) Her smile
3) She's a dork, but an awesome dork
4) She sings like no one is listening (cause sometimes she forgets I'm there)
5) She takes care of me when I'm sick or having a bad day
6) She gets nervous before she flies
7) PUPPY!
8) She gets embarrassed when you compliment her
9) She makes a mean quesadilla
10) Refuses to purchase a belt
11) She speaks Spanish
12) She's cute when she sleeps (as long as you don't try to wake her up!)
13) Was willing to pack up and move to Barcelona
14) Her funny story voices
15) Takes photos of herself
16) She's a vegetarian, but doesn't cringe when I eat raw meat
17) SMACKS
18) Calls Catalan streets by their Spanish names
19) Has rockin' musical taste
20) Puts up with my online poker
21) Learned to play online poker (and might be better than me)
22) Puts up with my endless, profanity-laced tirades at Fire games
23) Dislikes Chad Barrett
24) Participates in theme roadtrips each October and March*
25) Has started letting the boys in on said get togethers
26) Inexplicably married me

Happy birthday, Susie!

*on an unrelated note, I propose [vulgar title of March trip] III: Crema Catalana!