Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

Okay...went to the "Nightmare on Congress Street" on Saturday.

You know, these are becoming a bit ridiculous. I think, if I may delve into a soccer term, our local scene is suffering from "fixture congestion."

Over the last few months, we have lived through, among others, TapeOpCon, Club Congress 21st Anniversary, Fall Crawl, Big AZ Music Festival and this. It is cool to have a situation where you are stuck deciding between, I dunno, The Jons at Che's or Sonic Titan at Congress. But man, to plunk down twelve or fifteen bucks and then end up having to shuffle between two or three stages to see what is cool...only to do it again a week later...se chupe.


That said, I got to catch two good bands, English Beat and Mission Creeps, and pieces of shows by the Gin Blossoms and the Zsa Zsas.


English Beat...okay...no need for much of an introduction for y'all. They did "Save it For Later" and "Mirror in the Bathroom," because there would have been a riot if they did not. They also did "Stand Down Margaret." The song isn't that relevant anymore, but they did it. They even threw in the line, "and she did!" near the end.

Margaret Thatcher "Stood Down" in 1990...around ten years after the release of the song. Let's see how this worked. Thatcher was speaking to her PPS and said, "I know the band broke up eight years ago, but I finally heard a song from these young men from Birmingham asking me to 'stand down,' I think I shall do so."

They also did the General Public song "Tenderness." Tell me, does it count as a cover if the band that did the song is wholly contained in the band that is performing?

I couldn't tell if Andy Cox and David Steele (both of Fine Young Cannibals) had taken their places with their old band, but the Beat's website notes that Lynval Golding of the Specials was in the band.


Mission Creeps, they rock. There is no more to say than that. You must check these people out.


The Gin Blossoms...I only went in to look for someone. The place was packed. I heard Jesse Valenzuela tell the audience that there were still two songs left before they played "Hey, Jealousy." I realized I'd never find my friend, and I'm still mad at that band for something that happened in 1989, so I left.


The Zsa Zsas were, unfortunately, not up to their usual standards. It may be because Gene Ruley doesn't actually live here anymore so it probably cuts down on rehersal time. The Zsa Zsas count a great deal on humor, so it is easy to forget how tight they are and how great the musicianship is. With Ruley commuting, it makes it harder to maintain that.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

New England Revolution coach Steve Nicol on yesterday's victory against the Chicago Fire:

I’ve been saying all along the players got balls, and they showed them tonight.

Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Do New England fans get to put up a "Ivan Gazadis: Dead To Us" banner?

I'm sure that Prairie Rose Clayton can come up with something better though.


Okay, here is the story for the three or four of you that read my soccer posts. By the way, a great deal of effort goes into writing these. Y'all could appreciate a bit more. Just saying.


Shalrie Joseph, who played in the first playoff game against Chicago Fire after an injury, was suspended for violent conduct for an incident involving him and Ivan Guerrero. It would be one thing if the referee saw something wrong, but the referee not only didn't see it as a red cardable offense, but appeared to make an advantage call in favor of the Revolution.

Despite the fact that a man who was actually on the field saw no problem, Gazadis and the league's disciplinary committee decided to mete out a one game suspension against Joseph. This means that the lynchpin of New England's defense will be unable to play in the second leg of their playoff. Se chupe.

A perusal of the event that prompted the call shows that Guerrero was grappling Joseph, and Joseph flailed around to get out of the hold. Guerrero, of course, fell like he'd been shot in the face, but was miraculously cured moments later. The referee, who was only a couple of yards away, didn't see that there was a problem, why should the league?

I could see a fine (however, no punishment was meted out to Guerrero for the holding or the theatrics), but a suspension is, in essence, a red card given by a league committee after the game. What's next? Are league committees going to make offside calls? Maybe they can retroactively re-set a free kick too?


I am not one of the Rev fans at Big Soccer who think this is some league conspiracy against the Revs. I do, however, think that certain players, rather than teams, are protected. I can't see similar actions being taken against, say, Landon Donovan or Pablo Mastroeni.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Today is Pablo Picasso's birthday.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

November 18th, Arizona Roller Derby will be travelling down here to do battle with our Tucson Roller Derby. This will not be a Saddletramps vs. Tent City Terrors scrum, however. Instead, it will be three mini-matches between the individual teams.

AzRD is pretty darned good. The Tent City Terrors, their select squad, piled up a record of three wins and a tie in the opening round of the Dust Devil tournament and made a strong run until they finally fell to the highly regarded eventual winners, Texas Roller Girls. However, their performance against Tucson teams has not been very good lately.

I saw one Phoenix match last year between the Surly Gurlies and the Bruisers. I didn't think that their blocking was as well organized as I've seen from VICE Squad on a good day or that their speed could match any of the teams from Tucson. This may have changed over the last year, so who knows?

The match will be three distinct (singleton, as one physics professor used to say) half-hour matches between Iron Curtain vs the Surly Gurlies, VICE Squad vs Bad News Beaters and Furious Truckstop Waitresses vs the Bruisers. Reportedly, AzRD wanted even shorter matches, but the game is at TRD's house, so their rules.

Frankly, I would have rather had full matches scattered throughout the season. I don't know if the problem their was logistics or just that AzRD didn't want to imagine the point spreads that would have happened from full matches.

Why not a match up in Phoenix? Worried that you will get beaten at home, ladies? Sorry, that was just me in taunting fanboy mode.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Too much this weekend: a wedding, roller derby, MLS playoffs...people ought to schedule these things better. Y'all get together on this and get back to me.



This weekend was the Saddletramps intersquad "Black and Tan" bout. These are subdued affairs, since it is a bit hard to get too riled up for one team or another when, heck, you don't even know who will be on which team.

Even the folks who root for fights are out of luck, since Jezebelle runs the show for these things and wants clean play. Not that there are not hits. These are "Forbush Dinnerware" hits...every hit is a clean hit. Even the fouls were not particularly horrible. Although one hit against Fisti Cuffs looked really bad when she fell awkwardly, but it turned out that it was just something funny that happened with her kneepad and she rejoined the game in the next period.



Oh, and Fisti spend an awful lot of time in the penalty box. What is up with that?



Oh yeah, my Wheelies photos that I posted here ended up in the program. Well, TPM attorneys will be working on a strongly written letter to the league on that one.


The Revs...geez, guys. Well, they have another shot at it next weekend. And Chivas USA beat the team that everyone picked to win it all, Houston. Remember when Chivas sucked, I dunno, last year?



Best wishes to Celeste and Geoffrey, who got married this weekend.

Sto lat, sto lat niech zyje, zyje nam,
Sto lat, sto lat niech zyje, zyje nam,
Jeszcze raz, jeszcze raz,
niech zyje, zyje nam, niech zyje nam

By the way Geoff, you still have my pen.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

I heard an old interview with Elektra records chief Jac Holtzman on Fresh Air today.

He said something like, "if Rock and Roll was architecture, the Doors were the Bauhaus of 60's rock."

Come on, Jac. Everyone knows that Bauhaus was totally 80's.




So, along those lines, let's make a return of the TPM Music quiz. What do the following bands have in common:

• The Doors


• Sleater-Kinney


• White Stripes


• The Presidents of the United States of America

Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Given that this conference was in Manchester, wouldn't it have been more appropriate for, I dunno, Buzzcocks or the Smiths?

Maybe Freddy and the Dreamers.

Or, the Fall. The Mighty Fall always deserves a mention.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

I stopped by a Quik Mart on the way to work, picked up some stuff so I wouldn't have to do a fast food lunch again. That fast food goes straight to my hips and I'll never be able to wear a bikini to the beach again at this rate.

I brought the items up to the counter, and the total came to $6.66. Yep.

But get this, the guy got a little nervous about it, charged me an extra five cents so it wouldn't be THAT number. I didn't realize he did that right away, so I gave him exact change (I had a bunch of nickles in my pocket.) Then, he handed me five cents back. His drawer will be off now, 'specially since he was too worried about the Whore of Babylon or the Tribulations to actually see how much money I gave him.

Does the guy know about what they found out at McGill University back in May? Apparently, some older copies of Revelation give the number as 616, which is also an area code in Michigan. Not for Hell, Michican though.

I didn't have the heart to tell him. I should have, maybe I would have gotten my food for free.

I wonder if he worries nearly as much about the homeless guy that was sleeping out front as he does about what number comes up on the register?


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

After the Revolution's tight but adequate victory over the Columbus Crew (great tip into the net by Khano Smith), I got to catch the end of the Kansas City v New York Red Bulls match. I got to see quite a bit of it even though it started at the same time as the New England game, since the end of the first half was prolonged by twelve minutes of stoppage time. If the league keeps track of such things, that has to be a record, no?

The game turned into a disaster for Kansas City, as two of New York's goals came from penalty kicks. Needless to say, this meant that Kansas City fans took issue with some of the calls from the referees. Upon reviewing some of the calls, commentator Jake Dancy said that they didn't look like penalties to him.

Jake Dancy.

Given the way this guy used to play, I can see that his threshhold for a foul may be a bit different than the rest of us.

Dancy used to play for the MetroStars, Kansas City Wizards and the indoor team, Kansas City Comets. He also did some time with the US National under 20 team. That came to an end in a 1997 exhibition with DC United, when he punched United player Brian Kamler, who was running toward him at full speed at the time. The emergency room doctors said that the injuries were similar to those sustained in a car accident. Kamler, who recently retired from playing at Real Salt Lake, to this day has five metal plates in his face.

Dancy pled no contest to felonious assault and was effectively banned from playing for the US National team. Kamler sued Dancy and the USSF for $7.3 million. This figure dwarfs the $3.2 million that Rudy Tomasavich sued for in a similar infamous incident between him and Kermit Washington in a 1977 NBA match. Needless to say, Dancy was found not to have sufficient funds to pay.

So you can see why I am not too keen on following Dancy's judgement on what should be allowed on a soccer pitch.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

The TRD Saddletramps "Black and Tan Brawl" is set for next Saturday at 6:30, over at Bladeworld, of course.

This is time for all of us to set aside the FTW/Vice Squad/Iron Curtain rivalries and just cheer for mindless violence, but not so much violence so that our ladies in skates to injured to go after the real enemy...

...Phoenix, which the TRD Saddletramps are set to meet in November. We'll see if they show.

Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Those Wednesday night shows. So well attended.

Last night's show featured a band called Jumper, who I had never heard of, plus Mozart's sister and the Gunrunners who I had seen before.

Jumper was a sort of female version of early power pop/punk bands like the Buzzcocks or Stiff Little Fingers. Some of their stuff was even reminiscent of, dare I say it, Sleater-Kinney's first album.

The second band was Mozart's Sister. By the time they started playing, there actually was a bit of a crowd. The sound was a heck of a lot better than it was the last time I saw them at Heart V. Phil Hemmo's guitar was a bit muted, but it made it a bit easier to hear Amy Muñoz's excellent vocals.

The set included all four of the songs off of their EP, including their contribution to the "I broke up with you so you suck" portion of the Rock lexicon, "(I Didn't Know Your Girl Was a) Crack Whore."

The crowd seemed to stream out before the last band played, the Gunrunners. Oddly, the Gunrunners basist is also Amy Muñoz. It seems whenever I see Mozart's Sister, one of their members is playing with another band on the bill. For example, they are playing October 21st at the Surly Wench with Sara Bellum; both bands feature Julie Bonner on drums.

Where Mozart's Sister is more on the pop side of the Rock spectrum, the Gunrunners are more hard rock in that slightly country fried sort of way. I have a special place in my heart for them because their lead vocalist is named Ted.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Slate magazine has an article up about the new show Friday Night Lights. The reviewer bemoans the fact that despite the quality of the show, it has low ratings and faces almost certain cancellation.

Yes, this would be a tragedy because we don't have enough shows about overly pretty high school kids on television these days. Compound that tragedy with the fact that there isn't enough recognition of the accomplishments and daily struggles of high school football players, especially of those in Texas.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

I injured my foot during Friday night league. Ya know, all of the places that they put padding, ever notice that they never put any on top of the foot? It could be helpful.

Anyway, the foot didn't get any better until Monday. I had a great deal of trouble walking until then. One person told me that the thing to remember is RICE: Rest, Ice and Elevation. The C stands for something to but I can't remember what it is. Cohabitation? Cadmium? Cyrenaca? Conjunto?


So, Sunday I stayed home and watched soccer. Being as though soccer is what brought me to that condition, I don't know if this is an indication of broader mental illness. I flipped between the Atlante - Pumas game and the US - Iceland game. The Atlante game stopped interesting me after a while so I stuck with watching the US game.

Iceland has gotten a lot better, even over the past year. It used to be that a game against Iceland would be a 6 - 0 rout and would involve a lot of hard fouling on the part of the Iclelandic players. The Icelandic defense, led by 'keeper Thora Helgadóttir, bottled up the US for far longer than should have happened. For some reason, it seemed like they were holding back. Abby Wambach finally scored in the 34th minute, but unfortunately, the US were content to bunker for most of the rest of the game.

The commentators noted that all it would take in a one goal game is a slip up or a penalty to even it up. So, of course, this happened. Heather Mitts tripped Greta Samuelsdóttir in the box and earned a penalty kick for Iceland. This was the one of the few times when US 'keeper Hope Solo (love the name) was actually tested. Margret Lara Vidarsdottir was able to catch the back of the net and the score was tied.

The US finally decided to turn on the jets and Wambach was able to score the winning goal in stoppage time.


One of the thing that gets me about the fandom for the Women's team is that criticism seems impossible. In the past, I have posted criticism of the Women's team on Big Soccer and I get met with a flurry of brickbats. I don't know why this is. They are athletes just like the New York Yankees or Arizona Wildcats. As a fan, it is my duty to criticize, right?

Okay, so here I go. There were a lot of shots on goal, but not too many on target. It was hard for me to tell if the quality of Iceland's defense was forcing bad shooting, or if our women are just getting sloppy. Maybe the fact that they just beat Chinese Taipei by the gridiron score of 10 - 0 may have made them soft. This was an opponent that has never qualified for the World Cup, and we came dangerously close to losing.

I hope that the coach gives them a talking to about taking even games like this one seriously. I didn't get the sense that they were "up" for this game.

Couple of signs of hope though: this is the second time I have seen Hawaiian-born Natasha Kai play. Her shooting needs a bit of polishing, but she forced Helgadóttir off her line to make a save only minutes after going in. She may be my new fave now that Brandi Chastain is gone. I'd like to know the story with that tatooed right arm.

This is the first time I have seen Hope Solo play. The team has been dependent on Brianna Scurry for so long, I am glad to see that there is an able back-up. She was not tested very much, but the only thing that went in was a hard to stop penalty kick.


Random outrage that makes the game fun to watch: Edda Gardarsdóttir was subbed out (Iceland used all of its subs) and proceded to taunt the officials from the bench. She was ejected and spent the rest of the game moping in the stands.


Silliness that further proves that players never actually know the rules: Commentator and former nats midfielder Julie Foudy remarked that the penalty kick should not have been called because Samuelsdóttir was headed away from the goal. It doesn't matter if she was taking a Greyhound to Cleveland, what makes it a penalty kick is that it happened in the box. Check the rules on that one.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Friday night was Tucson Roller Derby's Wheelie award ceremony. I wasn't too agressive on the picture taking, but I got a few.

Towards the end, I got a call from a friend who needed help...so I had to cut out. Then I had a game. More on that in another post.

A complete list of award winners are available at the TRD website.

But, they are all winners, aren't they?



Aja Consent (Vice Squad) and Penny Tenchery (Vice Squad)



Fisti Cuffs (Furious Truckstop Waitresses) and Sloppy Flo (Furious Truckstop Waitresses) Did I tell you that it was a costume ball too?



Jezebelle Jonez (Furious Truckstop Waitresses)



Vice Squad MVP Whiskey Mick



Peaches Rodriguez (Furious Truckstop Waitresses)



Dirty Teri (Vice Squad) and Bolshe Vixen (Iron Curtain)


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.