Spain WON!!!!! (Spain is in the FINAL!!!!)

Sunday:

WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1-0.

It was an awesome game, the Spanish had a strategy and they played as a team. As a born-again footballer, I was mesmerized. And yet again, the whole nationalist frenzy attached to rooting for one's team led me to consider the parallels between the game and Miss Universe. Loved it! And I also ask everyone why it is that people are so rabidly nationalistic about their teams yet so many of the players hail from other countries? 

It was Spain's second win and the first was in 1964, when they beat the USSR. Franco had refused to give out the prize to avoid possibly having to award it to the Communist enemies of his dictatorship. It was a big propaganda coup for the "25 Years of Peace" campaign, Franco felt vindicated after decades of claiming that it was the contubernio Judeo-Masonico-Marxista that led him to volunteer to defend Spain from these three dangers. Today, Zapatero pointedly stated that he was the first democratic Prime Minister to witness a Spanish victory. Nice. 

________________________________________________________

I am looking forward to the game on Sunday, when Spain will defeat Germany.

Until then, a football fan far more schooled than I could ever be has shared this:



if you want the specialist point of view go to

http://www.vivalasuperliga.com/

Puerto Rican Female Impersonator Interviews Hector Lavoe, 1984

I died and went to heaven when my Boricua friends introduced me to Cuca Gomez, who had her own TV show in the 1980s, after I departed the Island. Here she is in all her splendor, interviewing salsa legend Hector Lavoe, who gamely plays along with her drag act. FABULOUS!!!!!!!!

Merengue Cristiano

I discovered the joys of local TV watching in PR. There is a show called "No te duermas" which is basically a hybrid dance party/chat show/soft porn spectacular. Reguetoneros and musicians of various local musical forms play while practically nude women gyrate in g-strings. The Puerto Rican neutrals are of course very much in evidence, as are massive coolans with lots of cellulite, extremely lengthy acrylic nails, bootleg weaves and unnatural hair dyes, and heels of stratospheric heights. Bizarrely, a Christian Merenguero called Tu Amigo Miguelito chose this venue for an interview. Apparently, this is a very popular genre as is salsa cristiana. 

Ingrid Marie Bombs at the National Costume Competition

It's one of my favorite times of year: Miss Universe!!!!!! This year, I will be in Spain and won't be able to host my Second Annual Miss Universe Watching Soiree to which you must come in your country's national costume, or don that of another country you love. While in PR I noted the complete and constant coverage given to each day's activities in the days prior to the contest. Ingrid Marie donned "Taino" garb as her National Costume. It looked more like a West Indian Carnival outfit and I don't think we know what the Tainos wore, but we can guess that women went topless. Meanwhile, there was some bochinche about dueling Ingrid Marie handlers - she disliked her manager's mediocre work vis a vis the media, and another man on her team also argued with this woman. This man was interviewed in a local TV show "Te Lo Vendo Al Costo" and he was INSOLITO. First of all, he was wearing a polyester pinstriped shiny suit with pointy shoes and he kept saying that he was FUSTRADO (like saying one is FUSTRATED) by the situation. This can only cause me to feel dread about the people taking care of her in Vietnam. This would not happen to the Cisneros-led Miss Venezuela organization. However, here is the good news: a local Vietnamese paper singled Ingrid Marie as one of three front runners and Miss Venezuela is not pretty. So maybe we have a chance.