Go figure, the World Cup is going quite well for Portugal and my words on the Football-fest have been non-existent, unlike what happened in previous football mega-events. That's the internet for you — others write about football much more, better, and I enjoy less and less being a passive relay/reblogger. Still, here are my World Cup impressions so far:

- Germany are looking impressive because they have been good and regular in their playing. Argentina are my faves besides Portugal, but their game against Mexico left a bad taste of their football.
- Brazil do not play beautifully as the advertising goes, and whenever I watch their matches I feel I want my money back. They seem to play a cowardly cattenaccio not unlike Italy's circa Euro2000. If it wasn't for otherwordly players like Ronaldinho, they'd be as exciting as Ukraine or Switzerland.
- France is the team to fear in the remaining rounds (although playing Brazil is as hard a job as they could get), silent assassins as they are in knockoff stages. Exactly the opposite of Spain. They would have been World Champions quite a few times if the World Cup was played in league fashion, but they just don't work in any kind of playoff.
- What I said about France, can be said about Italy, but in far less exciting fashion.
- That Ukraine is still in competition while the team that beat them 4-0 in the first round (Spain) is not just shows how unpredictable the game is. They're so boring I hope they go home, although there you go — is Italy in the semis the lesser of two evils?
- But has England been any better so far?

So, as for Scolari FC. I kind of understand that from a strict managerial point of view, L.F. Scolari's choice of treating the Portuguese national squad as a private club where only the players he trusts (not mattering how well did their season go, if they have been playing at all, etc) get in, treating them to a chain of seminars and thus building a stronger group than most other teams, does work. Just look at the results, Portugal would have never survived the battle against the Netherlands otherwise. But philosophically, is that what football is all about? For me, no. Being a mix of showbiz and sports, we the people want to see our favourite players, the ones that performed best during the season in the national team. Else it's just Scolari's Boys instead of the Portuguese National Team.

Even if they go home in the first round. It's just easier to sympathize. I'm not much the kind of person that jumps into a bandwagon when it's winning. I was a critical supporter of this national team and even if Portugal takes the Cup, I still would prefer another squad — I rather go for Olympic ideals in which the means are the end.

But alas I'm not at all surprised that victories make people forget that those are the victories of a closed elite group of players, not a victory that truly spreads to the rest of the country democratically as would happen should the national team be a team of sporting merit. This is a country that for most of a season was once full of honorary hardcore Boavista fans, after all. Of course, maybe the whole legitimacy of being there thing is to be an incentive to some players, that without much sporting merit in the last club season will have to show their worth in the World Cup (think Maniche).

So, I hope Portugal does feed the English tabloids pretty well next Sunday. Portuguese diving, allegedly bad referee decisions hurting the English, even a portuguese goal that didn't cross the line — we're all looking forward to displays of British sportsmanship making the headlines. That'd mean we won.···

Well those were a fun couple of weeks. After the avant premiere of Bad Day was done with (which was nice, the film, which isn't that good — or else wouldn't take a full year to edit into something functional — getting a degree of warm approval much thanks to the open air setting of the session) we proceeded to shoot my next short, which finished last Sunday.



At the moment it's referred to as Gloria, strictly a working title as I want to avoid the portuguese trend of movies named after the main characters, and besides, there's already a John Cassavettes movie of the same name (and a bad remake). It'll be the story of a woman's divorce and the (misleading) steps she takes afterwards. This time I'm more than happy with the material we shot, so this shouldn't take long to edit. Any title suggestions?···

Free entry. So be there. And also, Words and Thoughts in RGB will be included in a session at the Forum FNAC — Coimbra, Thursday the 8th at 22:00.···

Vintage computer brochures. The kind that inevitably ends up in expensive glossy hardcover coffee table books.···

The World Cup Mega-Blog.···

What do people photograph in Porto? Sometimes you get the obvious tourist perspective (meaning: Port wine cellars, the iron bridges, City Hall, views from across the river or the Casa da Musica). Sometimes you don't — that's the beauty of it.···

Via kottke, this is the kind of thing that inevitably will end up getting proper treatment and then on to some art gallery: An Unsolicited Commercial Love Story, or how you can build a narrative from the fact the same stock photo model constantly appears in spam and banner adverts for all kinds of products. Makes you start to look sideways at the trash you get on your inbox.···

Flash templates for Picasa. Or, good looking photo galleries for the lazy.···

Old early 20th century 78RPM records as MP3 files. Useful for that period film soundtrack, copyright-free.···

A catalogue of corporate logos and info on their typefaces and colors.···

Pictures of overloaded vehicles. Because reality can be stranger than Photoshop.···