Day: June 19, 2010

gonna throw it away, gonna blow it away

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The World Cup continues; France play embarassingly badly to lose to Mexico, Germany are beaten by Serbia, Spain lose to the Swiss; England on the other hand won a hard-earned point against a well-oiled team that knocked out the reigning African champions and beat West Germany in the World Cup finals much more recently than England did (in 1982). Well done England! It was an effortless display. You made no effort whatsover.

rooney getting sarky

England’s 0-0 draw with Algeria was possibly the worst and least creative display I’ve ever seen from an England team (and boy have we seen some of those!!) And the thousands of loyal fans, very loyal fans, who travelled thousands of miles and spent thousands of pounds to be there for them and bring their band to play ‘the Great Escape’ loud enough to be faintly heard above the drone of the vuvuzelas, they deserved better. They are part of this experience and had a right to boo. I understand Rooney was pissed off at that, slagging the fans off on camera at the end of the match, but he and everyone else appeared too scared to get stuck in and prove why we should be crowned World Champions. Let’s face it, on the evidence we really do not, and I think a lot of the players think that as well. Algeria looked far more confident, imaginitive, skillful. We barely deserved the point. 

Cameroon went out today after a thrilling match against Denmark, and they were much livelier than England. I did a few quick sketches during the match. I like Denmark, but I felt bad for Cameroon. And so as teams get eliminated, the World Cup continues…

cameroon v denmark

a city in three acts

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three shots of sacramento

Sacramento on a Tuesday. After watching Portugal draw with the Ivory Coast, I bussed across the Causeway to the capital city. The colourful and historic Crest theater on K street was just asking to be sketched. It’s a gorgeous building, opened in 1949 (though there was a theatre there since 1913) I’m not a big fan of downtown Sac, never really as busy as a downtown should be, the only bustle being the hum of the light rail and the shuffle of the panhandlers. It does give me some ‘urban’ to sketch though.

I prefer it in Midtown, further up the road. There is a little more character, and some pretty cool shops. There is a whole little arts district by the railroad tracks now called ‘MARRS’ (midtown art retail restaurant scene). I had to stop in the Streets of London pub on J Street to watch the Brazil vs North Korea match. It was a good one. I drew the middle picture at half-time. Brazil won 2-1. I had fish and chips. The chips were not good.

After some more sketching and shopping and strolling, I went to catch my bus by the Capitol building, the last subject of this triptych. This building is always in the news here, because of the state budget crisis. State workers in suits marched here and there past beggars and palm trees, not a furlough day for them today (though it was for me, hence my midweek sketching trip). And so back home.