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Life by Keith Richards

It's like having Keith tell you all his stories, in order, without repeating himself or getting confused. What more could you want? OK it slows down a bit at the end but if you like Keef I reckon you would like this book. After you're read it be sure to read Bill Wyman the journalist's tale where he imagines if Mick Jagger responded to Keith Richards about his new autobiography.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

This book is set in a near future South Africa where criminals are mysteriously bonded psychically to animals. Our hero, Zinzi December is "animalled" to a sloth. We get to be on the inside of 419 scams, we get to learn lots of South African slang, and we get swept along by the sheer energy of this book. A couple of times I got confused about what was going on but I didn't care. I read this book in 3 days (which is quick for me) and I recommend it.

Women's World Cup 2011

I enjoyed what I saw of the Women's World Cup. My favourite players:

1. Homare Sawa
2. Abby Wambach
3. Sonia Bompastor

ESPN's coverage was... OK. Julie Foudy was good, and Kate Markgraf was excellent but Ian Darke and the other men were fountains of cliches. ESPN managed to show Sawa's fantastic goal from every angle...

except the one that actually showed what happened:

I was impressed by the way Abby Wambach was the first to go to congratulate the winning team, and the only player to talk to camera after the game. She also knew how to take a penalty.

I hope that we will soon be hearing more about the management style of Norio Sasaki. In the huddle before the penalties we expect to see the coaches sternly exhorting their players to win. Whenever I see coaches lecturing players I imagine them saying "kick the ball.... into the goal". But Norio Sasaki simply bowed to his players with a big smile on his face. He knew that there was nothing left for him to do.

I hope we will see more of Megan Rapinoe in the future, perhaps as an elf in the new Hobbit movies.

How did the newspapers do? Alas the Oakland Tribune is unclear on the concept of sports:

The other papers did OK with the Washington Post being the best for showing Sawa triumphant.

Carmageddon: LA Times front page 15-Jul-2011

The Rolling Stones got lost in Chester in the 1960s

I am reading Life by Keith Richards. It is great. I am up to 1963 and Keef is describing the tour. The Stones played Chester in 1964 and 1965 (at the ABC) so maybe that is what he is remembering here:

Sometimes chief constables would devise these ridiculous plans. I remember once in Chester, after a show that had ended in a riot, following the chief constable of Chester police over the rooftops of Chester city as in some weird Walt Disney film, with the rest of the band behind me, and him in full uniform, with a constable at his side. And then he loses his fucking way, and we're perched on the top of Chester city, while his great "Escape from Colditz" plan disintegrates. Then it starts to rain. It was like something out of Mary Poppins.

Happy 4th July from Judge Dredd

Judge Dredd on the The Smiths