Did a ton of washing in washington…
Ok…I know that that was a particularly crap joke. But it happens to be true. My wardrobe in a backpack is slowly expanding however. I came into possession of a brand new lime-green t-shirt the other day. It was a gift from a bunch of anti-Bush activists who were here to, er, march against Bush and stuff… Truth be told, the geezer wanted to give me a whole armload of shirts to take back to england, together with numerous wristbands (“You guys do wear wristbands in the UK right??”). Now I have no qualms about being anti-Bush. I’ve even donned a monks costume and marched through the streets of London myself. But as the evening wore on it became clear that I was in the company of some fairly wacky paranoid conspiracy theorists. So I made my excuses and went to drown my brain in the product placement advertisers wet dream that is American televison.
Oh, and how. I wonder how British TV viewers would react if they were exposed to the sheer depth of commercial immersion that confronts one over on this side of the pond. You might think that inserting adverts in between the end of a program and that programs credits might be a bit silly, especially when another advert break comes after said credits. You’d be right. Sports lovers might also get slightly exasperated when trying to watch the superbowl, a very BIG american football match that was played a few days ago. American football by its nature seems to be rather a stop-start sort of a game with innumerable excuses for the players to stop and give each other hi-fives. Challenging the ref’s decision, re-challenging the tv ajuducators decision, time-outs, bottom of the fourth, top of the twenty-seventh… If you add the halftime show by an increasingly geriatric looking rolling stones, you have on your hands a sports match that lasts about 3 & a half hours. And thats a long time….
Which is why I was very happy that, for me, the superbowl was no more than background entertainment for a far more interesting sporting event: a game of poker. While tapping ones chips, lifting pizza to ones mouth, and occasionally standing up at crucial moments may not constitute sufficient physical exertion to elevate poker to the olympics anytime soon, it remains a jolly engaging pastime. Plus, when one is playing with a bunch of guys who grew up here in D.C, there’s plenty of scope for some fascinating stories…
Of which I will mention just one. “John” – whose name has not been changed because its a pretty common one, used to be friends with the former Vice-President’s Al Gore’s son: Al Gore junior (They must have had a real hard time coming up with that one..) And one day whilst playing with young Gore, John felt the need to move his bowels. So he went into the Vice-presidents house, sat on the Vice-presidents toilet, and used what apparently is particularly pleasant vice-presidential bog roll. Oh how humbling it feels being THAT close to someone who was THAT close to a toilet that Dicky Cheney has sat on…
Hope everyone is well.
Bucky
Tags: toilet, USA, washington
The Dude
I love you description of football, and I love this post! Just to inform you about the superbowl, yes it’s a sporting event, but actually this sporting event is as famous for its commercials as it is for the game. All the big ad agencies release their new ads during the game and Americans get to be consciously brainwashed between plays. I went to high school just outside washington, and I’ve gotta say, you’ve completely captured its character (as stereotypical as it may be), especially with the cheney story.
Oh my and such commercials…it’s a shame it’s february because in any month I would just jump at the opportunity to get the latest Chanel accessories. And that lexus purchase would be positively bursting out of my of my mastercard bill. Alas, alas.
hey man,
who’s jane?
love Gid x
ps what the fuck (in general…usa, joe and such)????????????????????