In my controversial "soccer puritan" post, I deliberately refrained from supplying a strict definition of the notion of "entertainment." I could, for example, watch the often defensively negative and relatively low-scoring Holland vs. Brazil 1974 World...
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Europeans—and yes UK, I'm chucking you in there as well—can be very stupid about all things North (sorry Sigi) American, especially when it comes to soccer. That's such a banal sentence to write that I'm almost embarrassed to open with it, but it b...
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There is a feeling in the air, a sort of sea change, following Sunday's final. You mostly find it on apologist message boards and blog comment sections, but some have written long form posts on it. It's the idea that "entertaining football" is a crass ...
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The first thing I read that inspired me to write about soccer was Brian Glanville's "Story of the World Cup." My brother picked it up for me at a garage sale and wrapped it for Christmas, but it stayed unread on my bookshelf for a long time. Who wanted...
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I do still have to be Canadian at some point. So, no I did not witness Landy's goal live. And if I had I don't think if I would have fist pumped around the house and shredded my vocal folds, never to sing countertenor again. I got mos...
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I will never forget watching the reaction of Aimé Jacquet when asked if he would ever forgive the French media for their treatment of him prior to France winning the World Cup in 1998."Jamais jamais." Never never. After helping France...
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Home again, home again.Yeah, it's been a bit. I've been raving away on Yahoo, both for Mother Country and for the rest of the world who are content to tell me, a total stranger, that I'm an idiot (there is a particular obsession about whether I...
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Meh, whatever.
As always happens close to the World Cup, soccer people in Canada or the US tend to get asked questions about the sport. Some are specifically related to rules, players, how the knockout stages work, if there's still a golden goal,...
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First, sorry for what are becoming all-too routine pauses on A More Splendid Life; my own less than splendid life has this sorry habit of getting in the way. So, some fun announcements.Second, one of the reasons it has been a bit quiet around h...
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Look, I like soccer ads sometimes. I even like soccer ads that a lot of people hate, like the one during the 1998 World Cup that featured a Massive Attack song and some black and white shots of soccer players taking free kicks in what looks like ...
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Yes we all know it was going to happen. Might was well get you all on board now.In my other life, I sing in a well-respected Toronto-based choir. The conductor is famous for his full-bodied direction on stage, a habit that has garnered hi...
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Today I bring you the blogger knows as Roswitha (although I prefer to use the moniker of her web address, the Angry Nun), author of Treasons, Stratagems & Spoils. It may seem to be a bit scatter shot reading right now, so may I suggest some John Cage prepared piano while looking...
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This is the first part of a group of recommended blogs (in no particular order) that I will be introducing non-regular soccer readers to in the weeks before the World Cup. While long-time blog readers might sort of chuckle at themselves softly in the deep recesses of their suburban basements, old Leeds matches from...
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Sorry for the long pause (I think longest in AMSL's history if I'm not mistaken). I was working. Like last Saturday, when I performed at one of those concerts professional musicians are forced to attend once or twice a year. Far removed from the regular stuff—baroque, period performance in a familiar venue with familiar...
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This is dedicated to all those football people who, either for work or family obligations, have asked themselves the question: Is it ever okay to miss a big game?
Back in May of 2005, I found myself in Connecticut singing with a choir at a Jewish cantor's convention (don't ask) during the Liverpool-AC Milan...
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But when you're pretty sure you've witnessed a player who might just be the Diego of your day score four goals in a CL quarterfinal, when you hear one of the funniest on air bust-ups ever heard on radio, live with Stan Collymore, when you come home to find your When Saturday Comes stuffed...
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I repeat: AMSL isn't going anywhere. Not ever. I will write this blog until I am dead and in the earth. And even then there are no guarantees: Anyway, sorry for the longer pauses between posts, but this is the time of year I ...
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Hi all. When I started this back in December of 2007, I had no idea it would grow into the mid-sized wonder it is today. Writing A More Splendid Life has in many ways allowed me to live a more splendid life, connecting with other passionate...
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This is the age of permanent record, and as such there is now a growing desire for the sort of personalities that will somehow lift the banal stream of day-to-day news roundups into capital H 'History.' It is a yearning for the age of "Great Men"...
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Do you want to hear me blabber on about this and that with only a semblance of coherency for over forty minutes? Then pull this string.
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