brewing history

TweetIt’s not every day that a Costa Rican and an American team-up to lead their team to victory in the Premier league. I enjoyed the game Highlights of Clint Dempsey and Bryan Ruiz’s goals.

TweetThe recent deaths of comic book legends Jerry Robinson and Joe Simon have been a bit bittersweet. Part of my own interest in popular culture stems from the role of comic books during my formative years. With parents who spoke Spanish at home, and two older brothers who I probably annoyed to no end, I [...]

TweetTwo nights ago, my family and I watched an ESPN special on the mechanics and science of Cristiano Ronaldo. A quick browse of Brewing History should make it obvious that I appreciate Messi more than Ronaldo as a footballer. But the special was interesting on two fronts. One, is how the human body functions like a [...]

TweetLevante: 1st place in the Spanish Primera Division. Sid Lowe’s excellent piece on a team that should not be in first place, but is with players discarded by other teams.

TweetI’ve been thinking about this type of list recently (just who I would put in the top 10). It’s very difficult to judge players across time, especially if you never got to see them play live or on the tele. Thankfully, the folks at The Football Pantheon put a lot more thought into this than I [...]

TweetPerceptions are everything in soccer. As the match between Chile and Argentina tonight gets closer, the first in a grueling two-year World Cup qualifying campaign in South America, I have thought about perceptions in varying ways. Before arriving in Buenos Aires in July, I expected the nation to be wrapped up in national team fervor [...]

TweetI am knee deep in revising a dissertation prospectus on soccer in 1960s Argentina, so it was refreshing to wake up and see an article on soccer and national identity ahead of next Wednesday’s US-Mexico match, which debuts new US head coach Juergen Klinsmann and a team with a decidedly more “Latin” flavor. A great post [...]

TweetUpdated (8/15/11) Brian Phillips over at Grantland delves into FIFA corruption. Pete Alegi has a nice roundup of the “seedier” side of World Cup hosting: political corruption, human rights abuses, and the widening gap between rich and poor. BTW, have you noticed any follow-up articles on South Africa 2010? Similar articles were very common in [...]

TweetDan Cohen’s latest blog entry highlights WordPress’ ability to write scholarly work online. In light of CHNM’s unveiling of PressForward, it’s pretty exciting to be in the digital history realm right now (good article on PF in the NYT.) I continue to stress that the mechanism for maintaining peer review and ensuring quality scholarship already [...]

TweetSoccer film festival? Wonderful. I almost wish the Kicking and Screening Film Festival had included some past films into the lineup, but the roster looks good. I still want to catch Pelada, but Argentina Fútbol Club sounds promising, as does Rättskiparen.

TweetEvery footballing nation seems to have a clásico, a derby match. No matter whose club you support you follow this particular game intensely every year. Media coverage increases, streets get very quiet, and everyone is talking at work the next day. How do matches like these develop over time? Do common elements exist in clásicos around [...]

TweetFor the bat-nerds in all of us, a humorous post in Grantland by Andy Greenwald.

TweetLast blog posting from Bs As, but there’ll be some more come September. I didn’t know what to expect coming to South America. Travel Channel and videos from the library only can prepare you so much. My main goals were to get a sense of what to write down in my prospectus, figure out where [...]

TweetYesterday I was invited to a friend’s house to partake in some Argentine hospitality and asado. Many thanks to Mariano and his lovely family for an enjoyable time in Temperley (outside of Banfield and Lomas de Zamora). Luckily, I had my friend and fellow researcher, Alex, to figure out how to get to Temperley by [...]