The Importance of Jay Adams

Growing up in rural Iowa in the early 1980s, I was really into superheroes. I ran around the farmstead where I lived imagining super powers for myself and using them to defeat invisible bad guys. Around fourth grade I discovered Marvel comic books through a classmate, and soon couldn’t get enough of them. J.J. had inherited piles of 1970s era comic books from his older brothers that he doled out to three or four of us at school. I would sometimes sleep over at J.J.’s house over the weekends, where he would grab stacks of magazines from his brothers’ bedrooms for me to pick and choose from. Amongst the comic books were other magazines from the same era, including Mad (which I didn’t understand at all), Rolling Stone (which I had been led to believe was Satanic) and Skateboarder. The only thing I knew about skateboarding was that it had been invented by Marty McFly. Flipping through the pages of Skateboarder to see what it was all about, I came across this picture:

I was enthralled and confused. Somehow, this wasn’t a picture of a kid falling down. It was only after imagining the photo as a comic book drawing that I realized I’d seen that pose before- from Spider-Man. The incidental old man seemingly sinking into the pavement in the distance provided the perfect contrast to this death-defying kid. The only photograph I had seen with this combination of grace, skill and determination was a poster of Dr. J our principal had hanging in his office. I had to find out who this person was.

The picture was from a series of articles by Craig Stecyk III about a group of skateboarders in southern California called the Z-Boys. Stecyk was the graphic artist at Zephr surfboard shop, which was located in the rough slums of South Santa Monica known as Dogtown. Instead of rainbows and sun rays, Stecyk put graffiti-influenced designs onto surfboards handmade by Jeff Ho and sold them to the hoodlums from both South Santa Monica and Venice who surfed a cove containing the remains of an abandoned amusement park and frequently broke their boards on the pier pylons they maneuvered through.

When the waves died down, some of the surfers practiced their surf moves on skateboards. The owners of the shop promoted themselves by organizing first a surfing team and, in 1974, a skateboard team, to participate in competitions. Skip Engblom, co-owner of the Zephyr shop, set up a practice schedule for the members to follow. They slalomed down a street near the shop, skated at local school playgrounds with sloping concrete banks and in whatever abandoned and empty swimming pools they could find around town.

The signature style of the Z-Boys, as the skateboarders on Zephr Skate Team were called, was to emulate surfers by staying crouched low to the ground; not shying away from touching it. Stacy Peralta and Tony Alva would eventually move on from this group to become the first famous skateboarders. Although their hand dragging style did not ever wholly catch on, the Z-Boys changed the focus of the sport toward riding bowls, performing vertical jumps (Alva is generally credited with completing the first aerial) and street skating. Beyond these seminal contributions, there was one other essential thing that transformed the hobby of skateboarding into a multi-billion dollar industry, and that contribution came not from Peralta or Alva but rather another one of the original Z-Boys- Jay Adams.

Skateboarding had been a fad in the early ‘60s, but the thrill of standing on a piece of wood with wheels attached had quickly worn off, especially after parents started organizing to ban skateboards for being dangerous. But in 1973, a new type of wheel was invented that greatly increased the skateboard’s maneuverability and durability, and because of that, by 1975, growing interest had convinced organizers to hold the first national skateboarding competition of that decade. The chosen location for the event was in Del Mar, California, conveniently located just two hours from Dogtown.

Freestyle refers to skateboarding on flat ground. The Z-Boys didn’t do freestyle. Today, nobody except Rodney Mullen does freestyle, and even he mostly does street skating now. Back then, freestyle skateboarding was nothing other than a gymnastics routine with a prop, like what gymnasts still do today with ribbons, rubber balls and hula hoops. At Del Mar, freestyle was not only the main event, but the only event other than downhill slalom.

In 1975, Jay Adams was fourteen years-old but small enough to pass for younger. Like many of the other Z-Boys, he had flowing blonde hair. He was the first of the Z-Boys to compete, doing freestyle. The Zephyr Skate Team wore matching outfits, so everyone in attendance expected him to set the tone for the entire team. The first thing he did was ride his board across the platform at top speed and then slide by planting his hands behind him to keep from flying off the edge. The Z-Boys called this a “Bert,” which they had named after surfer Larry Bertlemann, who would often run his hands in the water as he surfed and was the biggest stylistic influence on the Z-Boys. Of course, nobody outside of the team would have even considered this a trick.

Then, in what was presumably an attempt to emulate something he had just seen from another competitor, he tried standing up straight while riding backward on one end of the board- and promptly fell on his ass.

At this point, the cameraman filming the event for posterity actually turns away in disappointment… but Jay Adams gets back on the board and skates backwards again- this time his way. Crouched down, he grabs the board on either side and angrily hops up and down.

And with that outburst, skateboarding is changed forever.

It is the perfect embodiment of the old way of skateboarding being replaced. Because it is so completely unintentional, it is beyond what anybody could have scripted. For the rest of the brief routine, he stays so close to the ground it’s difficult to differentiate whether he’s sliding on the board or on the ground- in actuality he’s simultaneously doing a little of both. He ends by jumping off the end of the platform.

Jay Adams had dared to thrust aggression into a sport where simply demonstrating balance and acrobatic prowess had been the only point. Suddenly, skateboarding had attitude, and not just any attitude- it had Jay Adam’s attitude. Whereas Peralta was a mild-mannered and disciplined pretty boy and Alva came across as a self-centered prick, being a skateboarder would come to mean being raw, brazen, authentic, flawed and stubbornly determined regardless of ability or success. Adams was comparable to Janis Joplin or John Coltrane in not overtly seeking to innovate but doing so anyway by being obsessed with finding their voice. But if you’re going to compare him to a musician, it would surely be Iggy Pop, whose band The Stooges had broken up the year before but whose legend and popularity were continuing to grow. Adams embodied, and because of him, skateboarding represented what would become known as punk.

The competitors other than the Z-Boys hated Jay’s performance. Adams wasn’t particularly thrilled by it either. His reaction to anybody else’s opinion about his skating tended to vacillate between anger, indifference and disgust, which was proof that he was not a caricature, persona or act. He probably decided right then that competitive skateboarding was bullshit.

After Del Mar, sponsors came crawling out of the woodwork to capitalize on the allure of the Z-Boys, and the Zephyr Skate Team soon dissolved as the members ran after money and fame. Adams didn’t go anywhere, but instead became part of a team organized by his abusive step-father. The next few decades would not be good ones for Adams.

The Bones Brigade videos would herald a new preferred media for being able to watch skateboarders from afar, but there really was something special about imagining what might be possible from trying to decipher a still photo. There are three photographs from my childhood that even as an adult my mind wanders back to: a National Geographic cover of a Afghan woman with haunted green eyes, a lone man standing in front of a row of tanks at Tiananmen Square and Jay Adams slaloming down a hill.

Well, that’s sort of true. When I was in high school, I went searching for the picture of Jay Adams that had inspired me so many years prior, and found this one instead:

Now, I think of both photographs like one of those holograms where you see different poses when you look at it from different angles.

For those of you still wondering what’s the big deal about some rebellious kid bouncing up and down on a skateboard, let me try and frame it another way. Without Jay Adams, this picture certainly wouldn’t have the same connotations, and probably wouldn’t even exist:

Jay Adams: Born, February 3, 1961; Died, August 15, 2014

Top Ten Mistakes for Americans to Avoid While Watching the World Cup

10. “He totally touched that! Handball!”
First, a handball doesn’t just refer to a ball touching a hand, but the arm and shoulder as well. It is not illegal for a ball to hit a player on the hand, arm or shoulder. It is illegal for a player to deliberately use their hand, arm or shoulder. Further, a player must use reasonable effort to avoid touching a ball with a hand, arm or shoulder. So if a ball is kicked and immediately hits an opponent’s arm before he has time to react, it is not a handball, as long as that player’s arm wasn’t in an unnatural position at the time. One player on each team is allowed an exception to this rule, and that player can use his hands and arms only while within his own 18 yard box, often called the penalty area.

9. “That goalie’s clothes are crazy!”
The player allowed to handle the ball within his penalty area is referred to as the “goalkeeper.” Every sport has its own jargon, and football jargon is often unique. It is best to avoid calling the goalkeeper a goalie, and he's definitely not a goaltender. Why does it matter? Maybe it doesn't. Throughout most of the world, even calling the sport "soccer" is considered an insult, but in America, that's what we call it, even while realizing it is properly called "football." Since I'm in America, I tend to call it soccer just so other Americans know what sport I'm talking about, but would never call it soccer when speaking with someone from another country.

Second, and back to the point, footballers do not wear clothes, they wear a kit. The goalkeeper is required to wear a distinctive kit in order to be easily identifiable by the referee, and so wearing loud colors is encouraged. (Other jargon words to know: the field is called the “pitch;” a game is called a “match.”)


8. “That wasn’t a tackle- he didn’t even fall!”
A “challenge” refers to two players simultaneously vying for the ball, and tackling is one way a player can attempt to win a challenge. In soccer, this is what an attempted tackle looks like:

This is what a successful tackle looks like:

This is what a type of tackle called a slide tackle looks like:

The previous tackles are legal even if incidental contact with an opponent is made. Here are some examples of tackles that are illegal if contact with an opponent is made:
(Cleats facing opponent)

(Two-legged)

(From behind or through opponent, making contact with opponent first)

(Too late)

You also can’t adjust your body position in order to get in the way of or trip an opposing player after a successful tackle.

Here is an actual example of a world-class tackle:

This is an excellent slide tackle:

7. “Offsides!”
It’s “offside;” there is no “s!” I once yelled this at a person rooting for the opposing team during a particularly intense match. I sort of feel bad about it, but unlike with some previously-mentioned jargon, this one is unforgivable. Look it up: it’s Law 11. A player on the opponent’s half of the pitch is ineligible to receive a forward pass from a teammate if there are not two defenders nearer to the opponent’s goal line than any part of his body that can receive the pass at the time of the pass. There is no offside during a throw-in, goal kick or corner kick, although that last one should be obvious. Note the goal line is the entire line that connects the side lines, not only the section between the crossbars. That’s all there is to it, but it effects every dimension of the sport.

In short, the offside rule means you have to outwit and not just outrun at least one opponent other than the goalkeeper.


6. “This sport is so slow!”
On the contrary, one of the best things about soccer is its extremely fast pace. Only the referee can stop the action, and keeps track of when he does in order to add that down time to the end of each period. The players must strategize, act and react on the fly, simultaneously playing offense and defense while covering an area slightly longer and significantly wider than an American football field. Right now, Real Madrid from Spain is the fastest and most athletically fit team in the world. There is no group of players in any sport short of auto racing that could keep up with their pace for a full 90 minutes. Matches in which a winner must be decided sometimes go into extra time, conceptually the same as overtime, and these are often brutal affairs in which players fight fatigue and cramping muscles after having already given their all in the first two halves.

Because the only time most Americans even know soccer is being played is during the World Cup, many Americans don’t realize that players spend very little time training and playing with their national team. In every country, including America, national teams are made up of a sort of “all-star” collection of players from various teams, properly called “clubs.” Club matches are what most of the rest of the world follows for nine months of every year, and the athletes dedicate the vast majority of their time and attention to playing with their club in a style reflecting the strategic philosophy of that club, which may be very different than the style of their national team. Consequently, some World Cup teams will inevitably be slow, sloppy and error-ridden. The amazing thing about World Cup is that the overwhelming fan support and national pride will drive some players and teams to rise above all limitations and excel beyond all expectations.

To some degree, watching soccer is like watching a chess match where every move is immediately made with no time to think. If that doesn’t sound exciting, I'd recommend watching inner-city sidewalk chess matches. Every moment of the uninterrupted action could become crucial, and the discipline required, especially of the players but also the fans, to maintain focus for 45 minutes is not something a lot of Americans possess. I honestly believe Americans perceive soccer as slow because there are no commercials to entertain them.


5. “They should allow more substitutes.”
Soccer is a test of both speed and endurance. In competitive matches, only three player substitutions are allowed for any reason, including injury. Substituting for healthy players is a calculated risk willingly made by the manager. If all three subs have been made and a player gets injured, the thing to be questioned isn’t whether the rules should be changed, but whether the manager goofed.

Playing with fewer players than your opponent is part of the game, and another way in which soccer resembles chess. The main three ways a team is required to be short a player for the remainder of the match are violent conduct, if a player is deemed to have committed two fouls on purpose during the course of a match or if a player's foul prevents a clear goal-scoring opportunity. A player is "sent off" by being shown a red card.

There are non-tournament matches, called “friendlies,” in which more than three substitutes are allowed. These are akin to baseball spring-training games, with less focus on team interaction and more of a try-out for individuals to impress their manager. Counter-intuitively, allowing more substitutions slows the game down.


4. “It’s so boring they rarely score.”
The difficulty of scoring a goal adds to, not detracts from, the excitement. Watching the highlights of a match simply does not do the sport justice, because it removes the context. The drama lies in the nuances involved in protecting one goal while attacking the other.

There’s an episode of Star Trek: Next Generation, called “Peak Performance,” where Data frustrates a master strategist into giving up at a computerized strategy game called Strategema, much to the delight of the Enterprise crew. When asked how he did it, Data reveals that his strategy was not to win, but to stalemate. As a matter of fact, in point-based soccer matches, a winner receives three points and the loser zero, but in the case of a draw, each team gets one point. Therefore, if a team only needs one point and/or are playing a better team, they will often implement the same strategy as television’s pre-eminent sci-fi android. Trying to beat a team willing to draw is one example of the intensity within the sport that remains hidden from the novice viewer.


3. “It’s a sissy sport in which everybody is always pretending to be hurt.”
It’s telling that after expounding on ways in which the sport should be made easier, critics will declare it to be too easy. I’ve noticed a universal tendency to dismiss any sport one is unfamiliar with as being both weak and unsophisticated. For example, last year my girlfriend and I attended a single-A baseball game that included a player from Germany. This piqued my girlfriend’s interest, as she grew up in Germany and knows there is no baseball there, so she looked him up and found an article about him from a German paper. The comments after the article consisted of Germans trying to figure out what baseball was. After discovering via the German version of Wikipedia that it consisted largely of someone hitting a ball with a stick and then running around in a large circle as fast as possible, they agreed it was a sport with no strategy best suited for girls.

The only padding soccer players wear are shin guards, even though they have both skulls and cleats flying at them on a fairly regular basis. Getting kicked by a person who makes his profession by kicking cannot feel good. Because of the limited substitutions, players are sometimes obliged to play through injuries. A player with a cracked head with wrap enough gauze around it to absorb the bleeding as fast as he can- because his team will continue short a player while he is being tended to- and get right back into the action. Injury is inevitable in modern football, especially when one considers that the average footballer will play in over 50 matches each year.

One element of soccer that can get really annoying is “diving,” or “flopping.” This is a strategy employed by some, but not most, footballers, that consists of a player pretending he’s been fouled by falling to the ground and then often rolling around on the ground like a shot animal. Some footballers will make a drama out of demonstrating that they could have been injured in an attempt to protect themselves from the possibility of actually being injured on a similar play in the future. Another reason for flopping is due to the “advantage” rule. If a player is fouled, a referee will let play continue if he deems it advantageous for the fouled team to do so. A player who has been fouled will fall down in order to reduce the possibility of a referee declaring an advantage if that player would rather be awarded a free kick. Although flopping is considered dissent and should be punished with a yellow card, it rarely is, simply because it is often very difficult to determine whether they’re actually faking it.


2. “I just don’t understand it.”
Part of the beauty of soccer is its simplicity. There are only 19 rules, known as laws, the most complicated of which is probably the offside rule, which I summarized in one sentence. Another main thing to understand is that fouls are divided into two types; those awarded with a direct free kick and those awarded with an indirect free kick. The latter type requires a pass to be made. All free kicks are taken from the location of the foul (not where the ball was during the foul, except fouls of the direct free kick type drawn within the 18 yard box, whick can be awarded with a one-on-one penalty kick.

Most fouls stress the importance of not slowing the game and playing the ball and not the opponent. (Setting screens, for example is an indirect free kick foul.) If either type of foul is deemed to be intentional or shows disregard for the rules or referees (and not just the result of poor execution), the guilty player is given a warning in the form of a yellow card.

Most of the rest of it you can intuit from watching a couple matches. The complete, fully-illustrated rulebook can be found here: pdf of fifa football laws

American culture is ingrained with the concept that anything they are ignorant of is not worth knowing about. The majority of Americans are not explorers; they instead prefer to assume there is nothing greater than the things they are familiar with. Brand loyalty has proven lucrative for those selling it, but not particularly healthy for the consumers.


1. “American football is better because…”
As there are virtually no similarities between Association football, aka soccer, and American football, comparing the two is pointless. American football is a slower, tamer version of rugby, and there is only one country in the world that pays any attention to it.

FC Barcelona Strategy Breakdown 2013-14 La Liga Week 28

Jordi Alba (#18) passes the ball up to Andres Iniesta (#8) on the left wing.

Lionel Messi (#10), whose normal area of the pitch is just above the penalty box on the offensive right side, has drifted over to the left corner of the penalty area. The second-to-last defender has gotten too deep, allowing Alexis Sanchez (#9) to be on-side in front of the goal.

The defense, busy with Iniesta and Sanchez, seems surprised to find Messi on the left. Even the announcer in the commentary from which these screen shots were taken initially states Iniesta's pass is back to Alba.

Three defenders dash toward Messi as he pushes the ball forward, leaving Iniesta all kinds of space on the offensive left.

A defender attempts a tackle (a technique for dispossessing the ball from an opponent)...

...but Messi swiftly moves the ball around the threat with his left foot. The backing defender puts his foot up in case Messi attempts a shot toward goal.

Taking advantage of both defenders reacting, Messi deftly redirects the ball with his right foot...

...and squeezes it between them.

Messi follows the ball, but then makes himself big and slows, knowing if a defender eager to chase him down from behind bowls him over, Barca will be awarded a penalty kick.

A look at the big picture gives a clue at Messi's true objective.

Messi moves to position himself in front of goal and leaves the ball for Iniesta to receive.

The three defenders that were collapsing on Messi moments ago are now completely irrelevant.

Iniesta maximizes his options by pressing toward the goal-line.

Iniesta prudently decides to slip the ball back to Messi.

Messi swings his deadly left foot toward goal.

But only nudges it into his right foot.

The ball bounces back to under Messi's left foot, which he reloads with eye-blinking speed as the defender, reacting to what he expected to be a strike, falls to the ground.

This time Messi does crush the ball, at point blank range, into the net.

FC Barcelona is almost always exceptional at exploiting spaces, but they sometimes forget how disrupting little things like switching positions on the pitch can be. Barca is going to have to remain inventive in order to win the treble this year....

FC Barcelona Messi Skill Breakdown 2013-4 La Liga Week 26

Football Club Barcelona have earned a direct free kick near the center of the pitch, about 28 yards from goal. As usual, the left-footed Lionel Messi (#10) and right-footed Xavi Hernandez (#6) line up so that either might take the kick. (I have superimposed a line indicating the straight course from the ball to goal.) Adriano (#21) breaks toward the left wing, and the way Messi is lined up, it is possible that he may intend on playing a give-and-go with Adriano:

Messi quickly approaches and strikes the ball with power. The defender abandons Adriano, as it is already clear by the pace of the shot that this isn't a pass:

The balls easily clears the last defender in the wall, several feet wide of the goalkeeper's right post:

Shortly thereafter, the ball abruptly reverses course and curls back towards the goal:

The goalkeeper does his best to react...:

but the ball finds the top corner of the goal, impossibly out of reach and yet exactly aligned with the direct route:

¡Visca el Barca!

Portland, Part III

One day, I answered a call from an unrecognized number. “Heeey, this is Jake Fennell. Remember me?” Of course I did. We had been both bandmates and roommates back in the 90’s. Last I knew, he had run off to Colorado with some chick named Jen. “I just got off the phone with Carl, and he says you live in Portland now. I’m moving there, too! Do you think you could maybe pick me up at the train station in two hours?” Of course I could. It was great to see him.

Jake moved into a nice little apartment near downtown, across the street from the Trader Joe’s Tyler worked at. Tyler had been a mainstay at Tuna Tuesdays. When Tyler’s friend Colin returned from Canada to get his things out of storage and move into an apartment, I was somehow summoned to help, presumably because I was the only person anyone knew who owned a truck. I hadn’t met Colin before, but when the first several boxes in his storage unit consisted of Philip K. Dick books, original screenplays and manuscripts for graphic novels, I knew we’d get along well.

I bought a used bicycle and began riding it on weekends, which sounds like a very Portland-y thing to do- except I bought an 18-speed mountain bike instead of a single-speed road bike with no brakes. A trail near my apartment went through a disc golf course, which is a game I’d enjoyed playing in the late ‘90’s. I bought three discs and went there to play, but gave up when the course became un-navigable. Fortunately, Jeremy knew the course and soon we would be playing a round or two almost every weekend.

By and large, Portlanders liked to stay active but didn’t follow sports, excepting the Trailblazers. There were several kickball leagues consisting of co-eds on a softball field, drinking cans of PBR and asking each other what the rules were. They passionately disdained baseball. Perhaps it was because they had never witnessed Tim Wakefield hurling a knuckler or Barry Bonds crushing a ball. Once I was living alone I started going to Portland Beavers Triple-A baseball games. I often went alone, but had a whole slew of friends and acquaintances, of which one or two would sometimes join me. Despite the nicely laid out stadium and respectable team, the stands remained mostly empty. Eventually, nearly every home game became a routine of filling a flask of whisky and taking the train to the ballpark. After doing some internet research, I taught myself how to keep score, probably as a way of keeping myself company.

I caught wind that a couple friends (or maybe it was just Jim) would be watching a soccer match at a soccer-themed tavern the morning of May 6th, 2009, which seemed as good a way as any to start my birthday. I was familiar with the bar but had only been there on quiet evenings. I doubt I had ever seen an entire soccer match before, but back when I lived in Oakland, I had taken to watching soccer highlight videos, and at that time the greatest showman in the sport was Ronaldinho playing for FC Barcelona in Spain. I was also aware of this specific team because my family had an exchange student from Spain live with us when I was in 11th grade. He had explained to me the politics of Spanish “futbal.” He went for the team that represented Spanish Nationalism and was against the one that strove for equal recognition of minority ethnicities in Spain. This was ingrained in my memory because it had been a fascinating experience of someone trying to convince me of something and succeeding in convincing me of the exact opposite.

As I had become convinced Portlanders hated watching all sports other than basketball, I was surprised by the scene of rabid Chelsea fans. But I secretly and silently rooted for FC Barcelona in this Champions League semi-final, whatever that was…. Unfortunately, Chelsea take an early lead. Barcelona seem to be kicking the ball a lot, but never at the net. After a Barcelona player is shown a red card, they have to play the rest of the match with one less player, but instead of giving up, as the match nears the end, it becomes more and more frenzied. Somehow, if Barcelona can score a tying goal, that would mean they would win. (Two-legged ties and away goals were useless jargon to me, especially since that “tie” doesn’t refer to a draw.) Adding to my confusion, the match keeps going after time is up, and then Andrés Iniesta unexpectedly launches a ball that flies into the net like a heat-seeking missile. I found myself jumping out of my seat with a cry, and then felt the collective glares of a sardine-packed bar upon me. It was akin to being introduced to boxing via “the rumble in the jungle” or hockey by “the miracle on ice.” Despite that fact that I understood even less of what had happened than the (horrible) referee in that match, at that moment, I became a culé. (FC Barcelona would go on to beat Manchester United in the finals.)

I’m pretty sure I spent the rest of that day, like many others that spring, applying reflective tape to a 15 foot diameter geodesic dome Jake had built for his MFA final project.

I began going to Portland Timbers soccer matches, primarily with Colin. The Timbers played in the same stadium as the Beavers baseball team, but it was a completely different scene. Fans packed the place, screaming chants, banging drums and throwing streamers and smoke bombs when they scored. A lumberjack in the midst of the crowd wielded an actual chainsaw which he used to cut discs from a log to pass around the crowd. I also began going to watch women’s soccer matches at the University of Portland, one of the best female teams in the country, with Mike and Janaé. In 2010, I watched the entirety of every single World Cup match, thanks to espn3.com. Iniesta scored the winning goal in that one, too.

Incidentally, soccer would indirectly mean that 2010 would prove to be the last year for the Beavers AAA baseball team. The following year, the Timbers would become part of MLS’s primary division (an honor you have to earn on the pitch in Europe). A condition of that promotion is they needed their own stadium, but instead of building one they decided to try and move the Beavers somewhere else. The public made sure this “waste of money” would not occur. I, on the other hand, wrote the mayor stating I would move out of town if the Beavers weren’t there. That last season was special, because I met and beginning sitting with Geri and Sheila, who had been regularly attending games for years and years. Away players would say “hi” to them on their way to the batter’s box, which we sat right behind and could talk to them as they stretched.

I became involved with a Scotch tasting group that met once a month in the suburbs and began hosting various types of cocktail samplers at my place. But, for the most part, baseball and soccer away games or off-nights were spent experimenting with cocktails while watching Japanese movies and anime, especially after Jake moved to Seattle. I did remain friends with a girl he had dated named Janine, and we would occasionally cook dinner, go out to eat or watching movies with her son. Looking back, I’m realizing those evenings were perhaps the only times I wasn’t drinking. This was a direct result of me having been drinking too much the first few times we had met.

Those that were there will be chuckling that I have left out all of the dumb stuff that I did during my last couple years in Portland. (Well, that’s assuming the things I’ve written about aren’t dumb, which reminds me of a time someone attempted to insult both Portland and me by saying, “If you like drinking whisky at baseball games I can see why you like it here.”) But even while I was still somewhat hurt and angry about Rachel leaving, I was learning to embrace and discover the opportunities within the unforeseen and even unwanted randomness life sometimes forces upon us. Things not working out as desired make it possible for things to work out better than imagined, and only requires a willingness to adapt. This concept is perfectly illustrated by the Chinese game called Mahjong, which I had been introduced to in the Bay Area and had been teaching anybody willing to learn during my five years in Portland. This was why I had local artist Peter Archer tattoo my left upper arm with 18 random Mahjong tiles blowing in the wind. In August of 2010, I got rid of whatever didn’t fit into a rental SUV and moved away.

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil Tournament Bracket

I was unable to locate a simple, printable 2014 World Cup bracket chart online so I made one, replete with dates, using data from the FIFA website. (Click on image to see in entirety, print or download.)

FC Barcelona Strategy Breakdown 2013-14 Copa del Rey 1/8

Getafe has a 4-2 defensive positioning set up. Lionel Messi (#10) has the ball:

The closest defender on the right, who should be collapsing in to double-team Messi, seems to grab his leg and will go down injured. Messi cuts left toward the hole left by that injured player, in front of his nearest defender, who sticks out his leg to stop him:

The defender only gets a slight touch of the ball. Messi catches his fall with an arm:

Messi quickly recovers, gets the ball to his feet, and now has the four-man backline to deal with. Cesc Fabregas (#4) is in an especially good position:

Fabregas reaches the line as Messi nudges left, keeping the ball on his stronger foot. The left full back correctly comes up to meet Messi, who might try a lob pass over the line into the hole Fabregas is running toward, but it now looks like the weakly marked Cristian Tello (#20) is the best option:

Messi nudges the ball left as Fabregas runs offside, confirming his probable intentions to play a give-and-go with Tello:

Instead, he oddly kicks the ball forward, through a defender's legs. The ball is struck with pace, and it seems to be intended for the ineligible Fabregas:

However, Messi has expertly struck the ball with the perfect amount of backspin so that it quickly slows down. Messi races for it while Fabregas, as required by the rules, stands out of the way:

Messi gets there first:

He kicks it left past the goalkeeper. Fabregas is back onside, but it doesn't look like he'll be needed for this one:

Gooooooooooooooool!:

FC Barcelona Analysis 2013 La Liga Weeks 1-5, Champions League Week 1

The Messi/Neymar attacking combo is proving to be deadly; I really don't think these two in tandem are stoppable. However, Victor Valdez has been performing miracles in the goalkeeper role- blocked penalty kicks in consecutive matches are the tip of the iceburg, but he cannot maintain sensational save after sensational save forever. I don't know what solution there is unless Carles Puyol is able to return to action, other than holding Mascherano and (not or) Pique further back on the pitch.

Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta have proven themselves to be consistently reliable as the greatest players in the world at their respective positions, but I believe Cesc Fabregas will prove to be the key factor in Barcelona's success or failure this year. He is their most unpredictable attacking midfielder, and defenses haven't really figured him out, but I'm not sure whether his teammates other than Messi and Fabregas himself have figured him out either. He has a ton of talent and works as hard as anyone, but sometimes he starts over-thinking and becomes hesitant and confused. Adriano Correia continues to improve and I won't be surprised if he becomes another game-changer this season.

A lot of top-tier teams, including FC Barcelona, have changed managers this year. It will be interesting to see which of these will implode as a result. I am optimistic that "Tata" Martino can uncover a balance of staying true to Barcelona's tiki-taka style while encouraging them to take more risks and also inject fresh ideas to eliminate the predictability that cursed them last season. The addition of Neymar in itself has already proven to be a confusion to smaller-budget teams, at least, and the left attacking side has been more active than it was the past two seasons combined. Last season, Jordi Alba, Iniesta and Fabregas were the only players that ever seemed to be over there, and two of the three seemed to be desperately improvising most of the time. How Barcelona will match-up against the elite remains to be seen....

FC Barcelona Messi Skill Breakdown 2013 La Liga Week 4

FC Barcelona's offense was spectacular versus Sevilla. Neymar had his best match yet in a Barcelona uniform, but poor defense reared its ugly head near the end of the match and Sevilla came from a 2-nil deficit to tie on a horribly defended corner kick just as stoppage time began. Nearing the three minute mark of three minutes stoppage, which means more than three but less than four, plus the time between the goal being scored and the restart, Xavi Hernandez, the magnificent strategy-guiding mid-fielder, has the ball:

Xavi knows exactly what to do with the ball, especially considering the circumstances- give it to Lionel Messi:

Knowing what is at stake, Messi pushes the ball toward the opponent's goal. Remember, the referee cannot blow the final whistle while one team has an advantage:

Still moving forward, Messi slows down while giving the ball several light taps:

Then, Messi seems to uncharacteristically falter. He runs past the ball, but it is rolling too slowly to keep up. It seems the only thing Messi can do is pass the ball toward the center, but nobody is there:

Seizing the opportunity, the defender lunges toward the abandoned ball:

...and falls right into the trap. With a deft instep kick, Messi slips the ball past the defender on the outside:

Messi quickly pushes the ball goalward, where another defender awaits. Messi leans toward the center of the pitch, which is the easier move for the left-footed player:

...but it is more trickery, and he again goes around the outside of the defender:

Smartly, the defender cuts between Messi and the ball:

...and they collide. A lesser person, by which I mean every other player in the world, would have collapsed to the ground and rolled around in a frustrating attempt at winning a penalty kick:

Instead, Messi pushes inside. In desperation, the defender tries to hold him back with his arm, giving Messi yet another chance to attempt to win a penalty kick:

With all of his weight leaning into Messi, the defender finds himself in a precarious position when Messi slips past and continues his run:

Comically, when that defender finds himself on the ground, his teammate protests that it was Messi who caused a foul:

Somehow, despite this obstacle, Messi manages to catch up with the ball and drive it across the goal just before it crosses the endline:

The rest is a bit of a miracle- the goalkeeper kicks the ball directly to Alexis Sanchez who promptly returns it to the net to secure another Barcelona victory. ¡Visca el Barca!