by Helen Macrae

Summer is most definitely, sweatily, meltingly here, and no doubt you’re trying to make the most of the hot weather. Here’s another handy hint to save you money, so you can spend your funds on more important summer essentials like ice lollies, cold beer and deoderant.

Get your parents over

Well, you’ve been in debt to the Bank of Mum & Dad since you were born so you might as well borrow a little bit more now. Invite them over to Madrid for a relaxing holiday, and while they’re out seeing the sites they can pay for you too. And treat you to dinner afterwards at one of those fancy-looking restaurants you’ve never been able to afford. And then maybe a few expensive cocktails after that.

Some of you might feel bad sponging off the wonderful beings who brought you into this world, but really, you can’t ignore those fantastic interest rates and indefinite repayment periods. Plus they get to see their beloved son/daughter and you get to see the city for free. Everyone’s a winner!   

by Lewis Husbands

As we enter the last week of International Tests, here is the roundup of the weekend’s matches and the fixtures for this weekend.

The first match of the day was the second encounter between England and New Zealand.

England made several changes to their line-up in regards to their match the previous week. The main change was that Toby Flood replaced Charlie Hodgson after Hodgson’s poor performance in the last game, but Tait also replaced Brown in the starting position whilst Noon started ahead of Barkley and Varndell ahead of Strettle, Care instead of Wigglesworth, whilst Narraway, Rees, Haskell, Palmer & Mears were all shifted about. But these shifts and changes did little to unsettle the Kiwi’s game and within minutes they had points on the board after Lee Mears was penalised for holding on and Carter easily put the ball between the posts. England did attempt to take the game to the Hosts and Varndrell & Haskell put them under pressure with pace to their game but the All Black defence managed to hold them off until they started on their own offensive. Whilst England’s energy seemed to seep from their play and despite switching their game trying an up and under, but it goes too far and New Zealand pick up and take it to the visitors. Carter fires up the flank and breaks off from a challenge by Noon and scissors with centre Richard Kahui who crosses for a try on his first International appearance- Carter converts.

Attacks follow from both sides but eventually England slip up as Borthwick gets caught on the wrong side of a maul following a line-out to which Carter takes the points.

A minute later and as Carter fails to misses an up and under Narraway releases to Varndell on the flank and the winger crosses in the very corner and the decision goes to the video ref, which rules that that Leon MacDonald had managed to push Varndell out of bounds.

The All Black come back and Carter on the offensive after a tap and go, is eventually denied by the Video Match Official who deemed it held up by Tait. New Zealand Captain Richie McCaw hobbles off injured but that doesn’t stop Carter who seconds later he takes a chance, spotting a gap and successfully crosses the line.

Flood, not fully recovered from a bad knock earlier in the match and is forced to retire from the pitch.

Minutes later Tait makes an awesome run going himself and then chipping over the defence to collect the bouncing ball, but at the last second the ball gets away from him. New Zealand get the scrum and Stevens gives away a penalty allowing the All Blacks to put the ball up field.

The score of 20 – 0 to New Zealand lingers ominously over the heads of the English players as they go back to their dressing room at half-time.

England come out with fighting spirit, but New Zealand come back with winning spirit. Haskell gives away a penalty for a stupid mistake and Carter needs no invitation to sink the ball even from over 40metres.

Then less than 10 minutes into the second half England win an advantage after a bad five-metres scrum from the Kiwis and scrumhalf Danny Care taps and goes, storming over the line before the All Blacks can sort themselves out, taking the score to 23 – 7 after Barkley knocks over the tough conversion.

Minutes later, however, New Zealand are back in business and they score an awesome try which Carter converts.

Five minutes later England bring on Joe Worsley and Tom Croft in an attempt to spice things up a bit.

England make an attack but lose possession and after Tindall gets sin-binned the Hosts make good from their five-metre scrum and Lauaki picks up and crashes over all too easily.

But minutes later England are back on the offensive and Ojo, last weeks try-scorer and Haskell both make dents in the New Zealand defence as the All Blacks hold on but the ball gets out to Tait who reaches Varndrell on the wing who makes it good in the 65^th minute to bring the scores 37 – 12.

As the game draws to an end both teams make substitutions, with Tindall coming back from the sinbin, but worst of all a collision between Tait and Kahui sends a messy Tait off on a cart.

New Zealand continue their pressure and for a while England hold them off until the 80^th minute when Jimmy Cowan goes over and is awarded the try by the VMO and Stephen Donald adds the two to leave the final score as New Zealand 44-12 England

Also this weekend Italy were in South Africa, to which the final score was 26- 0 to the home team.

Next weekend’s fixtures will be as follows (

Saturday, 28 June 2008

Argentina v Italy

Australia v France

-both matches kick off at 12.00 (GMT+1)

This will conclude the Summer International Tour matches.

But don’t worry it won’t be long now until the Tri-Nations kick off on 5th July.

Until then…

by Lewis Husbands

The following weekend Wales were again confident a win was within their grasp and that all would not be lost. Only a few changes were made since the previous week, but one major change of switching James Hook and Jamie Roberts seems to have paid off. Although Wales did not win, an awesome try by Shane Williams and another second half in which they turned up the pace bought Wales the respect of the Springboks. At 60 minutes Wales edged into the lead with a penalty by Stephen Jones, but the South Africans wasted no time in their comeback turning up the pressure on Wales and then sealing the deal by making 5 substitutions, in an attempt to top up energy levels and keep the power flowing in the build-up to the end- one of which (Bismarck du Plessis) scoring a try in the final minute to leave the final score:

South Africa 37 – Wales 21.

Meanwhile that morning England had been in New Zealand for the first of their International Test Matches against New Zealand, with England fielding a slightly different team than we saw in their 6Nations matches- undoubtedly due to the change in management in the England camp. England similarly were first to score, and for the first quarter they competed well with the score at 6 – 3 to England but shortly after any fight in their game was killed by a try from Conrad Smith. The only and meagre consolation came from two errors made by New Zealand that Topsy Ojo (on debut) managed to turn into tries. This was in no way enough to combat the All Black’s four tries leaving the final score at New Zealand 37 – 20 England.

Australia and Ireland’s match played out somewhat differently with Australia taking a try after only 6 minutes of play by Berrick Barnes but Ireland stood strong and on the 15^th minute Dennis Leamy crossed the Australian line to score a try, which Ronan O’Gara converted to take the visitors into the lead. This accomplishment was short-lived however as Australia struck back 6 minutes later with James Horwill scoring a try which was this time converted and then followed by a penalty (both) by Matt Giteau that took the Aussies into a 15 – 7 lead at half-time. In the opening minutes of the second half Australia looked as if they were simply going to stretch their lead with another penalty by Giteau but this seemed to spur Ireland on and a try by Ireland’s prodigal son Brian O’Driscoll which took his side within 6 points of Australia, but due to an injury O’Driscoll had to leave the park shortly afterwards. Despite periods of pressure for both sides the score remained Australia 18 – 12 Ireland at full-time.

The last of the day’s matches was in Buenos Aires as Scotland were in Argentina’s backyard in an attempt to beat them for the first time in 18 years and for 59 minutes Scotland dominated play to establish a 19 – 0 lead. However in the 60^th minute Argentina struck back with a try and looked to be on the offensive only to narrowly miss out on a second try only five minutes later. This wake-up call seemed to clear Scotland’s minds and with a sweet interception by Dan Parks they managed to score another try which Patterson easily converted from in front of the posts giving Scotland the score of 26 – 7 with less than 10 minutes left on the clock. However on the 80^th minute Scotland’s luck caught up with them and Haracio Agulla scored a try for Argentina which was narrowly converted by Federico Todeschini making the final score Argentina 14-26 Scotland. Meaning the Scots only just missed out on the 16 point lead they needed to attain a place in the top 8 of the IRB World Ranking, which would have meant they were where they needed to be to gain a favourable seeding for the next World Cup[i].

The Top 10 in the IRB World Rankings now stand (as of 16^th June)

Position (last week) ¦ Team                             ¦ Rating Points 

Meanwhile England were in New Zealand for the first of their Test Matches against New Zealand, with England fielding a slightly different team than we saw in their 6Nations matches- undoubtedly due to the change in management in the England camp. England similarly were first to score, and for the first quarter they competed well with the score at 6 – 3 to England but shortly after any fight in their game was killed by a try from Conrad Smith. The meagre consolation came from two errors made by New Zealand that Topsy Ojo (on debut) managed to turn into tries. This was in no way enough to combat the All Black’s four tries leaving the final score at 37 – 20 to New Zealand.

Australia and Ireland’s match played out somewhat differently with Australia taking a try after only 6 minutes of play by Berrick Barnes but Ireland stood strong and on the 15^th minute Dennis Leamy crossed the Australian line to score a try, which Ronan O’Gara converted to take the visitors into the lead. This accomplishment was short-lived however as Australia struck back 6 minutes later with James Horwill scoring a try which was this time converted and then followed by a penalty (both) by Matt Giteau that took the Aussies into a 15 – 7 lead at half-time. In the opening minutes of the second half Australia looked as if they were simply going to stretch their lead with another penalty by Giteau but this seemed to spur Ireland on and a try by Ireland’s prodigal son Brian O’Driscoll which took his side within 6 points of Australia, but due to an injury O’Driscoll had to leave the park shortly afterwards. Despite periods of pressure for both sides the score remained 18 – 12 at full-time to the Home Side.

The last of the day’s matches was in Buenos Aires as Scotland were in Argentina’s backyard in an attempt to beat them for the first time in 18 years and for 59 minutes Scotland dominated play to establish a 19 – 0 lead. However in the 60^th minute Argentina struck back with a try and looked to be on the offensive only to narrowly miss out on a second try only five minutes later. This wake-up call seemed to clear Scotland’s minds and with a sweet interception by Dan Parks they managed to score another try which Patterson easily converted from in front of the posts giving Scotland the score of 26 – 7 with less than 10 minutes left on the clock. However on the 80^th minute Scotland’s luck caught up with them and Haracio Agulla scored a try for Argentina which was narrowly converted by Federico Todeschini making the final score Argentina 14-26 Scotland. Meaning the Scots only just missed out on the 16 point lead they needed to attain a place in the top 8 of the IRB World Ranking, which would have meant they were where they needed to be to gain a favourable seeding for the next World Cup[i].

The Top 10 in the IRB World Rankings now stand (as of 16^th June)

Position (last week) ¦ Team                             ¦ Rating Points 

What can only be described as a disappointing weekend for all Northern Hemisphere teams involved was answered with many promises of retribution to come in the second week, but there was still the feeling that we had heard all of this before…

by Lewis Husbands

Later than expected here is my update on all the rugby as the Summer Tours draw to a close.

It has been an interesting few weeks in which we have seen the rugby world dominated by the Southern Hemisphere teams. One of the first matches was undoubtedly one of most anticipated in which South Africa (the World Cup title holders) were to take on Wales (the 6Nations Grand Slam Champions). In the end South Africa unexpectedly walked away with such a convincing victory it can only be seen as frustrating and embarrassing by new coach Warren Gatland, it did possibly putting a slight smile on many England fan and player however after their opening defeat to Wales in this year 6Nations.

After such performances by Wales this year and talk of their return to greatness many people across Wales including those wearing the jerseys would have fancied their chances but South Africa proved their worth as the deserved titleholders with the satisfying score of South Africa 43 – 17 Wales.

 New Zealand & Ireland had a much closer match, with a half-time score of 8 – 8 there was everything to play for. But by the end New Zealand answered Ireland’s only Try (and two penalties) with 2 tries (one converted and three penalties) to leave the score as New Zealand 21 – 11 Ireland.

That evening Scotland were in Argentina for their (untelevised) International Test match. Despite Scotland being first to get points on the board, by way of Chris Patterson (astutely dubbed “the Kicking King”)’s boot, Argentina soon equalised and then shortly after made the first try of the match. Patterson’s boot crept up on Argentina to leave a half time score of 10 – 9 to the “Pumas”.

The Scots made a short-lived comeback in the early minutes of the second half (again courtesy of Patterson’s penalties), but two successful penalties for Argentina followed before a final try sealing the deal in the 85^th minute (!)  -thus leaving the score as

Argentina 21 – 15 Scotland.

This month, European Vibe Magazine’s art director and biggest football fanatic Phily McIvor brings us his all-time top ten football-related songs.

6 - Del Amitri - Don’t come home too soon - (Scotland World Cup) 1998

5 - Luciano Pavarotti - Nessun Dorma (Nobody Sleeps) - (BBC theme) World Cup 1990

4 - Andres Calamaro - Maradona - 1999

By Will Cade

Before coming to Europe, I never had a passport. At 23, I applied for one, so I could make that great trip across the deep blue yonder. Once I got mine in the mail, I was rather pleased - so pleased, in fact, that when I saw a leather passport wallet with “Passport United States of America” written on it, I had to get it. Now, in Europe, not a day goes by that I don’t regret doing so.

To be honest, I’m scared to travel as an American, and I don’t want people being able to read my nationality every time I buy a sandwich. So far no one has found me out because of my wallet (although when a cashier in Italy saw “US Bank” on my credit card, she was rather surprised) but I have had to learn to say that I’m an American, but I don’t like George Bush, so can’t we all just get along?

Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t always work, or I don’t always have the time to say it. When I was traveling in Prague, about 2 days before Kosovo declared independence, I met two other Americans living there who offered to show me around the city. I usually preferred to hang out with non-Americans (because there are plenty of Americans in the U.S.) but I couldn’t say no to tour guides with local know-how.

One night, they brought me to a café with traditional Czech food, explained the different dishes, and even ordered for me. After the waiter left, a man in a shiny silver suit, yelling a conversation into his cell phone in a Slavic sounding language, sat down at the table next to us, avoiding the other tables in the mostly empty cafe. My new friends tried to carry on as usual, but I started to get a funny feeling about this guy.

He finished his call, and after a few minutes of listening to our conversation, he leaned over our table and asked, “Where are you?”

“I’m sorry?” my friend replied.

“Where are you?” he repeated.

“Where are we from?” my friend offered, and the man nodded.

“The U.S.,” my friend said.

“U.S.?” the man asked, confused.

“The U.S.A,” my friend clarified.

“U.S.A.?,” he questioned, before piecing it together and waving his finger at us disapprovingly, “I Serbia. In Serbia, they no like U.S.”

He commenced to list the death tolls from the Kosovo bombings in the 90s and explain to us why this was “big problem, big, big problem for U.S.” I started to think it might be best to go elsewhere for dinner, or not eat at all, if it meant we could get away from this guy, who didn’t seem to be getting any more cordial.

“I special police,” he then told us, “I shoot 12 Muslims, no problem.”

At this point, our food came, but my appetite had left me. I still picked up my silverware and tried to look normal, but for some reason my hands couldn’t work together to get the food onto my fork. The man started looking at my plate, and just I was starting to believe he could smell my fear and was preparing to attack, he leaned across our table, pointed his finger to within half a centimetre of my food, and excitedly said, “This, good dish. This very good dish. When I child, I eat 12 of these.”

“Oh, really?” I asked politely while crossing my fork and knife over my food to keep his hands away, a bit confused by his sudden change of mood.

“Serbian women… the best!” he continued, winking to us.

“I’m sure they are,” replied one of my friends, who seemed to be getting a kick out of this guy.

“What you do here?” he asked us shortly afterwards.

My friend explained that the two of them lived there, while I was just a tourist, and then asked our Serbian friend what he did.

“Me? I… I…” he responded, searching for his words (or his story), eventually gesturing something with his hands and saying “houses.”

“Oh, you build houses?” I offered.

“Yes,” he said, but I didn’t quite believe him.

As we finished our meal and made our way out, leaving our Serbian friend at his table, I told my friends that it was a little strange how he could carry on a conversation in broken English for almost an hour, but he didn’t even know his own profession, usually the first thing someone learns when they start to pick up a language.

My friends didn’t think too much of this, nor did they share my fear of him following us out of the restaurant. But, then again, they only had to catch a bus next to the café, while I had to walk back to my hostel by myself, fearfully looking down every alleyway (or refusing to look) in case the ex Serbian special police “house builder” dressed in a shiny silver suit decided he had a few more “big, big problems” he wanted to bring to my attention.

Then again, maybe I was overreacting. Maybe he was just a lively debater, and my creativity was getting the best of me, like it does at times. Maybe he saw a group of Americans and thought he could help open our eyes to the things our country had done. Or maybe he just wanted to mess with us, and he had never even held a gun before.

Or maybe my prediction was correct, and he was angry, incredibly angry, and he wanted to make us personally responsible for the horrible things he had seen in his life, because my passport read “United States of America.” If that was the case, I don’t quite agree with his approach, because I couldn’t even vote when the Kosovo bombings were taking place and didn’t have much political influence in grammar school.

After travel experiences like this, I wonder what European travel must be like for Americans who do have a direct and immediate influence on international affairs. It just so happens that George ‘Dubya’ is taking a European Tour at the moment, but I doubt he has had the type of experiences that I have had.

When Air Force One landed at Heathrow this week, it was accompanied by two other jumbo jets carrying a fleet of almost 30 limousines (surely bullet-proof) a Black Hawk surveillance chopper, and the presidential chopper, so the president could comfortably make his way about the city.

While Bush was leisurely strolling about, shaking hands with Gordon Brown and having tea with the Queen, a crowd of 2,500 was protesting in Parliament Square, trying to make their way past the police barricades at Whitehall onto Downing Street. Riot Police and Police on horseback arrived on the scene, beating the protesters back with batons.[1]

Some 25 protesters were arrested, but most have been released. Two men - aged 21 and 26 - are being charged with obstructing police, and a 61 year old woman, god bless her, is being charged with indecent exposure.

I’m not sure what’s stranger: a 61 year old woman “protesting” the best way she knows how; an American college student harassed for an event which happened before he even hit puberty; or 25 Brits being arrested for speaking their mind in a democratic country. Or, even more so, as all of this hoopla is being sorted out, George Bush is probably on Air Force One watching ESPN and making up his own ingenious commentary on the sports world, after wreaking havoc on the political world.

I’m still not sure which is stranger, but I won’t be so scared of my U.S. Passport once Bush no longer has the luxury of cruising across the globe in Air Force One, his destruction and chaos left in the jet stream.

War torn Pristina, Kosovo. 1999

By Will Cade

About 6 months after 9/11, before Iraq was even on the horizon, I went to Washington D.C. for a political exercise with other high-school students from across the country. We were divided into groups of 24 and then assigned positions within the U.S. military and government, starting with the president and working down the most important posts. I ended up with a worthless position, Ambassador to the UN in fact, while the lucky ones ended up being President or Secretary of Defense.

Each group was then given the same national crisis and a 48 hour period in which to develop a national strategy. The crisis ended up being an international oil-shortage, beginning with soaring prices at the stations and protests in the streets, followed by the threat of the transportation system crumbling, eventually ending with the industrialized world starving because the food couldn’t get from the farmers to the groceries.

We were given a dossier on possible solutions within the international political climate of the time. Then the exercise took place in “real-time” with political upheavals and shifting alliances, just to spice things up a bit.

My group thought of either drilling oil reserves in Alaska or building pipelines all over the place. I ended up proposing the idea to build one from Azerbaijan through Georgia (the country not the state) into the Black Sea, where there would be fewer restrictions on transportation. Granted, Russia wasn’t exactly peachy keen when western powers meddled with its ex-soviet satellite states, but I was pretty sure they wouldn’t go to war over it. And hell, we needed the oil.

Our advisor, a Harvard graduate, liked my idea, but thought it was a bit risky tempting Russia into war and assuming they would back down. But what did he know? It took him three tries just to get into Harvard. And before my father, all of the men in my family were either preachers or soldiers, so between God and the U.S. military, I thought we’d be well taken care of, at least in this exercise.

Once the allotted time was over, each President chose one aid from the group and went before opposing groups to defend their plan. Our President ended up choosing me, and together we stood before God and our fellow Americans. At one point, someone asked, “And how will Russia respond to this?”

In the best political manoeuvre of my life, I responded, “Due to the theoretical nature of this exercise, that information is unavailable,” and everyone nodded their head in agreement, slightly impressed with my adept bullshitting ability.

If international politics were only a game, I think I could win, in a very George Bush kind of way. As I look back on how the American government has acted between then and now, though, I can’t tell whether it is a game or not, but I am surprised at how much real life and this exercise have mimicked one another.

Even though history didn’t follow my plan perfectly (being that the U.S. invaded Iraq instead of building a pipeline through Georgia) many aspects of my little game strikingly resemble current affairs, especially the recent protests from the rising price of oil.

For the past week, a large minority of Spanish truck drivers have been protesting about high fuel prices. Many protesting truckers, who the Police have tried to stop, have attempted to converge on Madrid and have also prevented other truckers with normal runs from reaching the city. The missed deliveries - intentional and not - have caused food prices to soar, factories to slow almost to a halt, and gas stations to run out of fuel, both in Madrid and throughout Spain.

Monday three major associations representing the truckers called off the strike to prevent further damage to the transportation sector, while maintaining that the government must deal with this problem at its core. In regards to Spain, that refers to laws and agreements between the Spanish government, the drivers, and the associations which deal between the two. But is the that the real problem?[1]

Some say we’re not even running out of oil, it’s only oil speculators that create this sense of crisis on the oil markets to drive the price up. Others say we’ll run out soon, so we best seek out alternative energy sources. And then others say this is all liberal mumbo-jumbo that old hippies have made up, like the scientifically backed threat of Global Warming, just to scare good God-loving Americans. Even those wanting change sometimes say that the technology doesn’t exist, and even if it did, how could the world revamp its transportation systems and energy practices on such a massive scale?

Conservative or liberal, most everyone agrees that the industrialized world has become incredibly dependent on oil and that it will take a crisis of some sort to break it from its habit. If it receives the proper motivation, though, I believe the technology and logistics will take care of itself. After all, at the start of WWII, aviation technology consisted of a few adrenalin junky gear heads stumbling around in the sky shooting at each other, yet in under a decade jet fighters were engaging in spiraling dog fights almost at the speed of sound. I just hope this time a monetary squeeze will be enough motivation to change, so another War in Iraq (or worse still) won’t become necessary.

by Katie Chavez

A new entertainer has come to town, swooping down from Barcelona. His name is Luis Pardo, and the trade he plies isn’t your standard rabbit-out-of-a-hat magician’s brew. He’s a mentalist (we’ll get to that later), and a resourceful one at that – the audience doubles has his prop.

During his introduction (this is before he almost shoots himself in the head or pulls a string through his neck), Luis Pardo says that he hopes to change your perception of the world. If you’re a skeptic, he hopes to make you more open, perhaps, to the powers of the human mind. Ever heard the “mind over matter” aphorism? Yeah, me too. Well Mr. Pardo takes his money and puts it where his mouth is.

Apparently he won an award as “mentalista of the year” in 2004. So we’ll call him a Goya award winner of mentalists. And what is a mentalist, anyway? According to Wikipedia, “Mentalism is an ancient performing art in which its practitioners, known as mentalists, use mental acuity, principles of stage magic, hypnosis and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psycho kinesis, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control.” In other words, it’s a performing art with a tradition dating back to the 16^th century, meant to entertain and astonish, and to make one wonder, maybe just a little bit, about the true extent of life’s possibilities.

While some may confuse it with being a psychic, mentalism is different. A psychic sees into your mind, a mentalist claims to control it. A psychic professes to have extra-ordinary capabilities, while a mentalist only says that he trained very hard. From what I can tell, “mentalism” is more about control and discipline than flash and flair. As Mr. Pardo points out (and as we all already know), we only use a very small portion of our brain’s potential power. And of the portion that is used, an even smaller portion of that involves our conscious mind. What Mr. Pardo does, it seems, is to expand and to master those portions. The resulting show, while sometimes predictable and ho-hum, is also sometimes mind-boggling.

The mise-en-scene of Kasual_mente could use some revamping — flash and flair it certainly isn’t: upon entering the theatre we see a red backdrop, a small patch of screen to the right of the stage on which we see live feed of performer and audience throughout the night. A small table, a chair, and a few large black box-like objects complete the scene. These boxes are covered with Mr. Pardo’s logo for this particular show: a brain with a large question mark with a comic -type explosion coming out of it. (Holy mind games, Batman!) The stage is small and the setting intimate: one can easily see the other members of the audience and Mr. Pardo himself. The camera serves as a cinematic close-up of sorts, allowing us to examine each prop and determine that no; it does not appear to be a fake.

The show itself plays out like standard magician’s entertainment with a dramatic arc from smaller surprises to increasingly astonishing tricks, all of which involves manipulating members of the audience, inanimate objects, and his own body using only his mind. If you’re expecting innovative dramaturgy, this isn’t it. There are, however, a number of events that take place that make this show interesting to witness. I’ve seen a video of Balinese dancers in trance poke giant sticks through their cheeks and removing them without a trace on the skin, and knew a man from Mali whose father could walk from Providence, RI, to Boston, MA, faster than the time it took to take a train. This is just to inform the reader that I am not necessarily skeptical about the human mind and its possibilities.

So you should take that with a grain of salt when I say that what impressed me about Kasual_mente was Mr. Pardo’s ability to work that hard. The whole show was in many ways a simple repetition of the same idea: anyone can do this; everyone has mental capabilities that they don’t bother to use. But we of the western civilization persuasion don’t usually do much more with our minds than perhaps getting into medical school to impress mom and dad or cranking out that novel. I’m not saying that we are not a civilization of noble pursuits (not that the notion of “western civilization” as a cohesive unit exists anyway), but rather that we are trained to think on the straight and narrow, so to speak. We more often accept our limitations than test them, so I do find it interesting to witness people who attempt to step beyond that boundary. This show is not particularly impressive in any way except the abilities of its performer, and it knows that. The sound quality was poor, the light design unimaginative, the film footage grainy, and the spoken dialogue portions often repetitive and trite. But the point is somehow I managed to stay engaged and entranced the whole time anyway.

By Will Cade

When I first came to Europe, the Presidential Election in the states was just beginning. I have always been skeptical of politics in general, and after Bush was reelected for his 2^nd term, I just about cried. Since that day, I haven’t wanted to have much to do with American politics, but as an American in Europe, a lot of people have asked me what I think.

I’ve had loads of conversations on the topic, but my favorite took place in Murcia this fall. I lived on a main street by the Ayuntamiento, and a group of African immigrants always hung out in front of my apartment building. For the first few months, I watched them with suspicion, because I assumed they were in the country illegally (although technically I never knew). They never really bothered me all that much, but at night they could get rather loud. Sometimes I couldn’t sleep, and other times I was just annoyed when I was smoking my last cigarette out on my balcony before bed.

One night when I was finishing my routine, they were particularly boisterous. I thought about calling the police for once, because I had class early the next morning, and I doubted they would stop anytime soon. I was still smoking my cigarette, so all I could think to do was glare down at them, hoping they would see I meant business.

I looked down and saw a skinny Caucasian guy with red hair right in the middle of them. After a second more, I realized that this was my Scottish friend Ron. What the hell is he doing down there, I thought, and yelled down to say hello. Ron, not knowing where this voice was coming from, looked to his left and to his right, swinging his beer in one hand and his cigarette in the other. Eventually one of the Africans saw me and pointed Ron up my way.

“Will, man, what are you doing up there?” he asked.

“I live here, dude.”

“Come on down then, join the party.” he said, and off I went.

I didn’t have much time to party, but I did want to say hello. When I came outside, Ron started introducing me to the different guys in the group, but he did all this in English, which surprised me. I had been in Murcia for a few months, and let’s just say trying to find an English speaker in the street had been like trying to find a store open during the siesta, yet here was this group of “illegal” immigrants speaking the best English I had heard outside of my university friends. They ended up being a pretty cool group of guys, but I had to go back up and get some sleep.

From that day on, I always said what’s up to them and chatted for a minute before going up to my apartment. During one such what’s up, one of them asked me what I thought about the elections.

“The Spanish elections?” I replied.

“No, the American ones.” he said.

I had learned by this point that if the topic of American politics came up, I needed to make it clear from the get go that I didn’t like George Bush. This statement usually disarmed people from hating me right off the bat, as it did in this case.

“So you like Obama or Hillary?” he asked.

“Obama” I said.

“It’s great, man. The United States will have a black man or a woman for the president.” he said, and I just chuckled to myself.

Now it looks like the U.S. might have a black man for president and a woman for vice president. To make things worse (for conservatives) this black man has a Muslim sounding name, and this woman’s husband spilt his seed in the oval office. Although I’m petrified of another Republican in the White House, I want to at least try to imagine how conservatives must feel.

I grew up in Nashville, TN, south of the Mason Dickson Line, and right within the border of the Bible belt. To give you an idea of the demographic, Tennessee is Al Gore’s home state, and he even lost it in the election to George Bush. Suffice it to say I know about racism, sexism, and religious extremism. I would love to be David right now with my trusty sling shot and do battle against the Republican Goliath. But it’s probably best if I let he who is free from sin cast the first stone, which sure as hell isn’t me (if I even believed in sin) because I’m no perfect angel when it comes to racism.

I always thought racism meant using racial slurs and telling racist jokes. I never thought it meant unconsciously judging people because of their ethnicity, without having a clue who they are or where they come from, as I did with my African immigrant friends. I’m learning, though, that I have these pre-conceptions, in large part because of where I grew up, but it still is my responsibility to recognize them and try to be open-minded. Of course, the old bugaboos will always reappear, sometimes momentarily in my head, and sometimes in the words that slip out of my mouth.

But I am not the only American who has to watch what slips out. Michelle Obama, Barack Obama’s wife, is currently receiving media attention for an alleged tape of her repeatedly referring to white people as “whitey.” Whether this tape exists or not is yet to be proven, but what interests me the most about this is how her husband is trying to remedy the situation.

Yesterday Obama launched the website www.fightthesmears.com, which will unite and empower his supporters in rebuking any unsubstantiated personal attacks against him, his family, or his campaign. He will post information on this website, allowing an unprecedented level of visibility into a politician’s personal life. The website currently has a picture of Obama’s birth certificate, stating he was in fact born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to refute allegations that he was not born in the U.S.[1]

Up until now, Obama has pledged to refrain from smear campaigns and instead has attempted to unify the country through hope and workable solutions. This is something I have never seen a presidential candidate attempt in the past. I can only remember rhetoric of one form or another, never having to do with something as intangible and powerful and hope.

For whatever reason, I believe him. This could be part of his plan, some type an anti-rhetoric rhetoric. But when I look at Obama, I see someone who carries with him an intuitive sense of hope. I cannot argue the validity of this before a court of law - but when I imagine what the U.S. will face in the next four years as it deals with the unstable international climate it has created for itself, I believe it needs hope more than anything else.

By Will Cade

My girlfriend has an Xbox, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. Granted, her brother gave it to her after buying a 360, but let’s just say that now it’s pink. When I learned this, I wondered if any of the paint had seeped inside the console, possibly damaging the hardware or clogging the fan, which could cause it to overheat. I doubted that she had considered the safety of the machine before the paint job, and for a second I thought the responsible thing for me to do was to protect this poor thing from my girlfriend’s destructive, feminizing grasp. But then I realized that it is just a machine, her machine even, so it doesn’t care what color it is, and she can do with it whatever she wants; realistically, only my masculinity is squeamish about a pink Xbox (but let it be known that black is the most appropriate - or possibly army green, but only if it’s a special Halo edition).

I have to admit that mixing girls and video games is a sensitive subject for me. Yes, at times, I gain a certain pleasure when girls are annoyed by guys playing video games, much in the same way boys like throwing mud at girls or showing them frogs on a playground. In either situation, the girls are outsiders, and the guys are free to play foolish games.

Come to think of it, the few times I have played video games with girls have never ended well. I can still remember my older sister and I playing Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo in the 80’s, with that massive-block-joy-stick-controller which seemed to weigh as much as I did. Whenever my sister was trying to get Mario to jump across a hole, she would sling the controller over her left shoulder to inspire Mario to jump just a little bit higher. Being young and inexperienced with video games, I got rather excited by all of the commotion and watched the screen quite intently. I didn’t notice that with each jump my sister slung the controller a little bit faster and a little bit further, nor did I think that sitting to her left might not be the best idea… not until she clocked me on the side of my head with the controller’s hard plastic corner.

Even when I got a little older, mixing the two never worked quite right. Once I tried playing a multi-player action game with my cousin. She was pretty good, but when I said, “Dude, you gotta kill those guys on the left, or else we’ll never get through this level,” she said, “Don’t tell me what to do” and eventually quit. All the guys I had ever played with coached one another, but my cousin didn’t seem to like that too much. And then, of course, there was the one time I tried to play Grand Theft Auto 3 with my high-school sweetheart, which lasted all of 10 minutes, before she said, “This is boring. Can we play the one where you drive around with Mario.” I was mortified: not only did she not enjoy the special effects and graphic violence of GTA3, she didn’t even know that it was called Mario Kart, or that it was for a totally different system.

I suppose that times are changing, though, at least in the video game industry. When Playstation 3 came out a little over a year ago, gamers around the world stood in awe at the tall black tower, wielding the most powerful graphics in the history of personal gaming. It may have cost $500, but it was worth it. Why would someone even bother dropping half of that on a Wii - which had also just come out - with its lame white case and kid’s games?

A few months later, the Wii was outselling Playstation 3, as if the dark knight had been slain by a pale, sickly child. What amazed me, though, was how I kept hearing women in their 20s talk about the Wii. “Yea, they had it at a party last night. That tennis game was so fun!” Instead of focusing on hardcore graphics and first person shooters, Wii games have been designed for various audiences - male and female; young and old. They have a physically interactive interface which allows you to swing the controller like a tennis racket or a sword and watch your movement on the screen (just please be mindful of those around you). This approach has made the Wii a party favorite among women.

Now the Wii is stepping into new territory, one previously unheard of in the gaming world: exercise. “Wii Fit” was recently released - with 40 exercises from yoga, balance games, strength training, and aerobics - along with an interactive Balance Board sold separately. The game basically serves as a physical trainer, allowing you to chart your progress, find problem areas with your movements, do different types of activities, etc. The activities range from skiing and leg extensions to yoga positions and hula hoops. Although the official website shows a woman, a man, a teenage boy, and a young girl playing in the four respective categories,  the image on the game’s cover is centered around the silhouette of a woman practicing yoga, obviously targeting the female market.[1]

If video games are being marketed towards women, then a market must exist for them. If this market continues to grow with the increasing popularity of the Wii, I suppose I will have to learn to let women into this masculine, video-game world of mine. But who knows, maybe it could even be fun to play with them. I just hope to god they don’t beat me.