Germany Versus Argentina

On December 13, 1939 Argentina officials ordered the German heavy cruiser Graf Spee to sea. The ensuing battle between the British Navy resulted in the later scuttling of the Graf Spee. A week later Captain Langsdorff shot himself dressed in full dress uniform and lying on the ship's battle ensign. Today those two nations meet in the 2014 World Cup. Germany has lost to Argentina in 1986 and won in 1990. I've watched most of the World Cup fixtures over the past weeks. I haven't had a job. Thankfully I had the World Cup. It remains the beautiful game.

A Dead Man's Triptych

Last week Christie of New York auction off a Francis Bacon triptych for a record $142 million to an unknown bidder. The rich and even more rich were ecstatic with the result, since the high-altitude sale reinforces all recent purchases of trophy art by dead painters. The Guardian wrote, "There can be no doubt the night belonged to Freud as well as Bacon. When he sat for Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 1969, this painter of harshly real faces and bodies in sparse London rooms was ever so slightly in Bacon's shadow. Now they orbit one another as the two great British artists of the 20th century, and probably will always be grouped in art history as blunt individualists who defied the supposed inevitable progress of the readymade to paint like modern reincarnations of Velázquez."

Everyone in the Art world awaits the next grand coup, as the ultra-wealthy spend money like it was going out of fashion, however the masses of the world was working too hard to rejoice in the triumph of capital over labor.

$142 million could pay the monthly wages of the tens of thousands of Nepalis constructing the 2022 World Cup stadiums in Qatar for several years. Most of them are exploited for nothing. Hundreds have died in miserable conditions verging on slavery.

All to scrimp and save dinaris for the Qatari Museum of Art, which purchased the Francis Bacon work.

Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad al-Thani, the sister of Qatar's emir, is dedicating her family's fortune to establish her country as an international cultural power.

Here's another triptych.

The Nepali man is holding a photo of his dead friend.

That is the price of Art.

Dead people.

The days never belong to them in Qatar.

The Word Is Choke

I'm a Red Sox fan. Back in the 20th Century we lost in the 7th Game of the World Series to The Cardinals in 1949, the Cardinals again in 1967, the Reds in 1975 and the Mets in 1986. The Yankees denied us glory on numerous occasions, although none worse than Bucky Dent's homer off Mike Torrez in the 1978 playoffs. We have won two World Series in this century, but that long tradition of losing the big game has been etched into my marrow, so that I can commiserate with England fans. Last night England lost on penalty kicks to Italy. I knew as soon as Ashley Young approached the mark that he was going to blast the ball. It soared off his foot and hit the bleeding cross bar. The I-ties scored on their next attempt and their goalie blocked an easy shot by the next kicker. Game over. Hearts broken across England, which hasn't won a big international match since its World Cup victory in 1966. Forty-six years of losing. I know how it feels, but at least the Red Sox Nation could blame its losing streak on the Babe Ruth curse. The English can only fault its team and the name of the curse is THE CHOKE or Bill Buckner. That was the biggest choke in Red Sox history, then again the English don't give a shit about baseball and no one in the Red Sox Nation cares if the Brits lose for another forty-six years. Not one.