Yes, the bandwagon is groaning under the weight of fair-weather fans and long-time Hawks supporters, all clad in their “12” jerseys, caps and T-shirts. I personally am conflicted about wearing a jersey. I have rooted for the Seahawks practically since I moved to Washington state in 1989, but I hate to be a conformist. Can …
Search Results for: Claude Iosso
Playing at Seattle’s Bumbershoot as part of their short reunion tour, the Replacements kick, kick, kicked our doors down. We didn’t realize what great anthems those songs were when only 200 people were in the audience. Somewhere between 5,000 to 10,000 were in attendance Sunday at the main stage at Memorial Stadium, singing along with …
I was at work, preoccupied with the World Cup, not the next destination for King James and his cadre of close friends, the LeBrontourage. I am glad he’s going back to Cleveland and that that poor city has a chance at sports glory, but I realized that I don’t like players deciding where next year’s …
The World Cup final between Germany and Argentina delivered much. The world’s best player on the biggest stage. A fearsome German side in a battle against an Argentine 11 who would not be intimidated. And a sublime goal by midfield wunderkind Mario Goetze to decide things. I watched with rapt attention and consternation, much as …
Pity Brazil, for the historic pasting by Germany and for the weight that was slowly crushing them throughout the tournament. They were a middling bunch asked by a desperate nation to sprint past cheetahs. According to the brackets I’ve collected, most people figured Germany could take Brazil even when Brazil was at full strength. While …
Yes, the Group of 16 games were all stemwinders, packed with drama to the end as scrappy underdogs repulsed the big boys time and again. The U.S. got the script too, pushing Belgium to extra time with a Herculean effort by goalkeeper Tim Howard. But I’m not satisfied. I expect the most skilled soccer teams …
Let me introduce you to my favorite hero of the World Cup so far — Bryan Ruiz, the cheerful captain of Costa Rica — who seems bent on proving nice guys can finish first. I had never heard of the sprightly midfielder before June. Fulham has been loaning him to Dutch club PSV Eindhoven most …
So I had Chile beating Brazil. It didn’t happen. The weight of 75 years of history and a poor nation’s passion for futbol finally crushed the lusty lads in red. Still, my skepticism about Brazil was confirmed. Neymar is awfully good, maybe even great, but his teammates are just good. Many start for top European …
Sure, it’s too bad the U.S. soccer team gave up a last-second goal to drop into a 2-2 tie with Portugal, but it’s not a major disaster. The Yanks’ chances of advancing to the knockout rounds of the World Cup are still pretty good, and they’ve played well enough so far to earn advancement. There’s …
If it seems like Hope Solo’s from another planet, it’s because she is. People shake their heads at the nutty antics of the United States and Seattle Reign goalkeeper, but it’s not easy being the daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia. It’s boundary issues really. If you were told to go to bed by …
Midway through the group stage of the World Cup in Brazil, the genuine contenders — and the hapless pretenders — are already emerging. Germany, Holland and France have all looked fearsome in the early going while Spain is suddenly yesterday’s news and England is doomed by a leaky defense. Argentina and Brazil, the front-runners from …
“How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” I think this quote from Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” summarizes Spain’s swift demise in the World Cup. They were flattened by the Netherlands and Chile, unable to hoard the ball with their trademark stylish passing and too old and slow to keep up with …
“One of These Nights” is a hundred times better than everything else the Eagles ever produced, a delicious, irresistible groove with falsetto and funk, when the band was at the crossroads of disco and country rock. Disco is “the daughter of the Devil himself.” Of course, country rock is the namby pamby “angel in white.” …
“It’s not an accident that we’re on stage together,” David Byrne declared near the beginning of a concert Thursday with St. Vincent at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville, Wash. Good thing he said that considering how little the two performers genuinely meshed during the show. That said, the concert proved to be an …
With absurd ease, Andres Iniesta steals the ball in A.C. Milan’s half of the field and sends a pass forward to Xavi, who slides a deft ball past a sliding defender to striker David Villa. In the box, at an angle, the Spaniard stops the ball, then drives it with his left foot into the …
I was just thinking about something else last night when the phrase “hit me with your rhythm stick. hit me, hit me, hit me” … hit me. That’s staying power and pervasive influence of which any rocker can be proud. – Claude Iosso http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A61i0Xscj-k
I just learned that Bob Welch died and for a moment, the verdant trees of June were bare. Fleetwood Mac was an inspiration for blues purists in its formative years and, of course, blew up the pop charts in the late ’70s, but my favorite albums were the ones recorded with Welch at the helm. …
He’s a shoo-in for the GOP nomination. – Claude Iosso http://youtu.be/bE2m355-JRo
In 2009 a pet chimpanzee went berserk and savagely attacked its owner’s neighbor, literally tearing the woman’s hands and face off. This horrible event was never far from my mind as I watched “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” As reckless genetic engineers ply primates with brain-altering chemicals, then prod them to perform, my …
You can never count rhymin’ Simon out. In his seventh decade making music, Paul Simon has a new record that, if not revelatory, features songs with incisive lyrics, catchy melodies and lively rhythms. And so what if the bard from New Jersey hasn’t bottled lightning again with “So Beautiful or So What?” This guy released …
“That’s when I absorbed the entirety of the musical artist’s vision for the first time in years. And that vision, my friends, is delivered in the space between the songs, a pause that has no place in a sea of discreet digital files. On an album though, that white space focuses the mind on the …
For me, it happened a couple of months ago. I was at a birthday for one of my daughter’s little playmates and the mother was lamenting a poor turnout. “I facebooked everyone just yesterday, and they had other things going on already,” she said. The very next day someone else mentioned facebooking about something. Talk …
. . Fifteen years after Cicely’s moose bid farewell and strode into the night, “Northern Exposure” remains one of the most original shows ever to grace the small screen. From 1990 to 1995, quirky characters in a remote Alaskan town wrestled with profound questions about identity, community and love. NX featured no cheap laughs and …
Bjork could be rolling in ungodly piles of money just jiggling to formula bubblegum pop; her hotness is impossible to ignore and her vocal range is supernatural. But instead of settling, the empress of Iceland dares to be an rock’n’roll auteur, a colleague of Byrne not Beyonce. A cappella album? She’s done it. Jazz? Here …
“Hold my life, until I’m ready to use it.Hold my life, because I just might lose it.”— From “Hold My Life” by the Replacements No band has propped up my world the way the Replacements did in the ‘80s. Although I’ve had favorite musicians before and since, those performers’ music was just life’s soundtrack, often …
But it bucked trend toward conservative soccer strategy By Claude Iosso It was the World Cup final many of us wanted, and yet the experts feared it might be a cagey, even dull affair based on the trends. Instead, Argentina’s victory over France was so exciting, it’s been immediately recognized as the best final ever, …
Sad news from the world of entertainment today. http://online.wsj.com/articles/james-garner-tv-star-dies-aged-86-1405856731 I’ve had a variety of scattered thoughts since I heard the news an hour ago: I just can’t believe that a man that good-looking would ever die. He was the John Wayne of the small screen. He portrayed Rockford as one of us, only taller, funnier …
I was never a rabid fan, just a casual one. However, I’d love to see these guys in concert (not at a festival). I can’t believe they dissolved over 20 years ago. Man, I am old! http://www.vita.mn/crawl/210487301.html – Mark Erickson HOW THE REPLACEMENTS SAVED ME FROM THE LEDGE, by Claude Iosso
This just in, from Claude Iosso: “Where is Black Francis’ mind? We have a better idea these days — aliens from outer space and Mexico and the triumph and emptiness of L.A. life are recurring themes in the great man’s oeuvre. However, the Pixies were fascinating and kind of scary at least partly because their …
Late in 2017, in famed tobacco town Winston-Salem, in a jam box perfumed with stale beer, manly sweat, smokes that “taste good like a cigarette should,” a glass pipe of skunk grass, and the occasional splash of moonshine, Crenshaw Pentecostal began their American saga. It was a low-light grieving session. This group of friends happened …