Overdue post

With many apologies to the lovely Berwick Ladies, I am quite late with blogging. About anything. I am currently in Florida—which has the uncanny ability induce deep naps and lethargy. BUT its Sunday morning and the AC is going full blast and I find myself awakening a bit. I love Sunday mornings.

So what have I been doing/thinking about. At the beginning of the residency I found it necessary to sort of expand a bit with no particular purpose. Just learn about soccer and stuff. I still feel there is much to learn however. But this is true of probably anything. So while I will continue to allow myself to expand my knowledge I will also begin to “gel”.

Here is how I am uh gelling:

I have started mapping out the 4 games Ecuador played in the World Cup. It has been questioned if I need to work with Ecuador at all but I feel I do as there is a personal connection there somehow. The fandom and perhaps the misguided connection has to feel real to me. Especially considering that I am not even a sports person. I would be bored to tears doing this for any other team. (scans of these coming soon!)

When I do these mappings I am not particularly interested in the players. Just the ball. I am interested in the fascination with the ball. The pull towards the ball. The way all eyes follow this one object. I am also not particularly concerned about accuracy. In soccer the size of the field is not strictly regulated. It can vary within certain ranges. There also aren’t any markers except for the center line and the goals. So these drawings are largely interpretive. Which for me is fine. I am witnessing what I choose to witness. And I am reliant on the BBC version. When I go to Ecuador I will definitely try to score the UniVision cut.

Something else I am thinking about is the theatre of soccer. The stage is set. What are the boundaries and connections between the game and the players? I posit it is indeed our intense ball focused (although I do get momentarily distracted by those enormous soccer player thighs.) Perhaps we can think back to “folk soccer” where there were no boundaries between players and spectator. But now these boundaries appear to be very delineated. Perhaps the only way to ease these boundaries is “spiritual” or “psychic”. Feeling that participating in ritual you will be part of a game you are not really a part of. Nova recommended I read some Brecht. Which I will once I back in the academic overdrive that is Boston.