The Final Four and Ping Pong

Ohio State have made it to the "Final Four". This is a big deal. They play Kansas on Saturday night in the Superdome, a 75,000 capacity indoor stadium in New Orleans. The final four is the culmination of the NCAA tournament and what every college basketball team in the country will have hoped to reach when the season started back in October.

I was never particularly bothered by basketball before coming here to the US, but this tournament has converted me to college basketball. What is especially appealing, and seems pretty unique in pro or collegiate sport here in the US is the potential for huge upsets with no comeback, and in this respect the closest thing to the FA Cup over here.

Pictured above is CJ McCollumn on the way to two of his 30 points against Duke. He plays for Lehigh, which has a student population of about 7000 students and were seeded 15 in their region, ie the second to worst; Duke were seeded two and had the winningest (that is a real word) college basketball coach on the sidelines for them. Lehigh came out on top 75-70 to make it only the sixth time a 15 seed has beaten a number two seed. That was it, Duke were out, as were Missouri (2) courtesy of tiny Norfolk State (15).

Still on sport (kind of) I have remembered how much I enjoy table tennis. Except here it is called Ping Pong and you play with a paddle and not a bat. Bar Ping Pong seems to be gathering popularity so much so that at the bar where I've been playing for the last few weeks, the paddles have Pabst Blue Ribbon (not very tasty, popular lager) written all over them. My Friday evenings in the Chard Baptist church hall seem to have stood me in good stead and I seem to be able to beat a good few opponents, even if it is happy hour at the bar.

Super Lemonheads Tuesday

A couple of days ago it was SUPER TUESDAY here in Ohio and the US. Ohio was one of ten states that were going to the polls to try and decide which of the four republican candidates they wanted to run for president. It was said that should Mitt Romney win the nomination here in Ohio that'd be it. We wouldn't have to listen to Newt, Rick or Ron anymore and Mitt would be the Republican nominee. Turns out he didn't win by quite a big enough margin, so the battle goes on. Probably time for another debate.

More interestingly we were off out to see the Lemonheads at a new venue for us, the Basement. Before we got to the Basement we had a quick stop off at Barley's Brew Pub. I decided against one of their own brews and went for "The Reverend" an effort from Avery Brewing from Colorado. At 10% I went slowly, but did thoroughly enjoy the dark, caramel-y taste.

Arriving at the Basement it was pretty clear that there were lots of pillars and the stage was lower than most of the rest of the venue. After we had waited out the openers, we maneuvered (without being obnoxious) and got a decent spot. They arrived on stage and in pretty much no time at all played "It's a shame about Ray" start to finish. Evan Dando seemed pretty together, though he seemed to keep getting his hair in his mouth and carrying on as though it was no big deal. He came back and did a few by himself, including "The Outdoor Type" and then the rest of the band came back. Kristen was holding out for "Into your Arms" but what she got was set closer "Style". She wasn't impressed, songs about drugs and getting high don't really do it for her, and it was a bit of a disappointment to finish what was a pretty fun, relatively tight set.

Seeking temporary Employment

It has been a long time since I last tried looking for a job with the help of a temporary employment agency. It might be America, it might be the fact that I was only ever looking for a job in a microwave meal factory, but here it all just seems a bit desperate.

After a recommendation, I signed up with my second agency. I didn't hear anything for a week and then an email out of the blue asking me to come along as a major company was setting up in Columbus and they were in need of 200 people to start in customer service right away. I made my way over and after filling out my first batch of paperwork and handing over two forms of ID I met with Allison. We came to the conclusion that I wasn't really made for the 3-11pm shift call center work that they had on offer. We talked about some other exciting data entry opportunities and she said she'd forward on my computer tests to determine whether I was any good at data entry.

After a load of tax paper work I didn't particularly understand, the differences being you could either claim jointly and they take less and give less back, or individually and they take more, but give more back, I went for the former. Then it was time for the drug test, oh yes. I signed something and then a chap appeared and escorted me to the men's room. I peed in the cup and after an awkward moment of us both waiting there in the bathroom, it was determined by the magic testing cup that I was drug free, what a relief.

Nearly there now, just my video CV to get through. I think this worked out OK; I answered a couple of questions into the webcam and tried my best to seem like someone that would do a really good job entering data for someone. I'm still waiting for the call.

TV and Radio

There is a war waging on late night television here. It is an ice cream war. Stephen Colbert started by getting the chance to design his own Ben and Jerry's flavor. We gave it a go the other week as it was $1 off in the local supermarket (still $4, but hey you've got to treat yourself now and again). It was decent and I think I favored the caramel swirl a bit more than the waffle pieces; it is though, long gone. We're yet to try the flavor by Jimmy Fallon (his late-night TV competition-cum-ice cream nemesis), but our alliance lies more naturally with Colbert, mainly because he is on an hour earlier at 11.30pm and we (well, normally, I, since K has usually passed out by then) usually catch his half hour of amusing satire. Staying up until 1.30am to watch Fallon does seem a bit much, even if you don't have a job to go to the next day.

Last weekend was the season premier of Celebrity Apprentice. As you may well know, the "boss" of this nonsense is Donald Trump (no relation to former Somerset off spinner Harvey). Obviously Alan Sugar is bad enough, but I feel like the BBC and the "celebrities" involved have the decency to sod off after one program. Not so here, 18 contestants are set to battle it out for, what I'm sure, will feel like forever. On the two hour premier they were to design sandwiches and sell them for a lot of money. The men didn't do all that well, but one of them (that hosts a program about motorbikes) had a friend that donated $300,000, so they won pretty easily. Simple as that. In the boardroom, when Casandra from Wayne's World treated the competition with the contempt that it deserved, saying she wasn't too bothered if she was brought back into the boardroom, the music changed and the sense of trying to turn something very innocuous into major drama was trying very hard to be played out. Trump of Orange gave her a stern talking to and she tried her best to look like she took him seriously. I'm not too keen to see how the guy that was second on Pop Idol a few years ago and the old Incredible Hulk fare in the next weeks, so that's it for me. Sorry the Trump family.

Finally, I've been a bit slow to try our local radio here in Columbus. The alternative station is called CD101 and can be found on 102.5 FM--confusing eh? I found out that they have a show called Independent Playground on Sunday and Thursday nights where only bands from independent labels get played. I gave it a go and there were some good choices; sadly, though, I couldn't tell you who these people were as there was no DJ telling the listeners what he or she had just played. I did later find out that they list each track online as it is played, but I kind of find it hard to believe that everyone in central Ohio was listening online and I was the only one listening on an actual radio. Could be wrong, though.

Mardi Gras and Theatre

So, we had a pretty fun weekend here in Columbus. Friday was my first opportunity to experience some sort of Mardi Gras celebration. Three or four New Orleans expats hosted the party and even threw in some pretty tasty fare: grits, gumbo, greens, and grillades. Those that new the score knew to wear beads and a mask. We were kind of in the know, but didn't really have any sufficiently tacky looking beads. Instead we made masks from an old cereal box. I was fairly happy with mine, though the fumes from the purple dry-erase marker pen may have had some sort of unwelcome effect on K's head.

Saturday brought us our first trip to the Garden Theatre in the Short North area of town. The building had opened back in 1920 and since then has served many purposes, including a movie theatre, a strip tease house, a home for prostitutes and a local church. We were here to see a performance of the "The Marvelous Wonderettes". As the main auditorium is still undergoing renovations and the temperature inside was pretty similar to the temperature outside, the smaller "Green Room" was used for the show. The first half of the show was centered around four girls and their 1958 high school prom where in between a bit of a story there was a whole lot of singing! It was a fun time, and after the intermission we were moved forward ten years to their 10 year high school reunion. There was a bit of audience interaction, but we thankfully managed to avoid getting up on stage for an awkward dance....

We rounded off the weekend by getting to Michael's Goody Boy Diner, which if you're going to eat somewhere on the strength of a sign alone, surely this place is a strong candidate. I had a pretty hefty Greek omelette and wasn't in too much need of much else to eat. Kristen thought the speed of service wasn't very diner-esque, but they were good enough to extend their brunch time past 2pm for us; might go somewhere else for our belated Valentines day meal, though.

Zambia, Champions of Africa

This has nothing to with America or me really, but it does have a whole lot to do with the underdog winning out.

Ivory Coast were very much favorites to win the Africa Cup of Nations before the tournament started and in all likelihood they were going to have to beat Ghana to win the title. Ghana only made it to the semi's where they were knocked out by Zambia. Zambia may have struggled to get out of a group containing Senegal and the co-hosts Equatorial Guinea, but get out they did and two weeks later they've won the whole thing...

Feel free to skip through the penalty shoot-out above. My personal favorite moments are the following:

00:30 - The Ivorian keeper lay out some sort of towel behind the goal line, and then nearly tripping over his own feet in an effort to save the first pen.

2:15 - One of many moments of audible singing from the players.

3:11 - The Zambia keeper's save being disallowed for him moving off the line. This not happening again.

8:15 - The Zambia keeper taking their fifth pen and calmly slotting it into the corner like it's no big thing.

10:25 - One of the best pens ever, top left, keeper no hope.

11:45 - Didier Drogba engages in a bit of sportsmanship before Zambia's seventh, no worries, slots into the corner, 7-7.

13:40 - £120,000 a week Kolo Toure having his pen saved.

14:45 - More singing.

16:00 - The hugely foreheaded, £90,000 a week Gervinho firing wide.

17:02 - Frenzied prayer.

17:15 - TP Mazembe's Stophira Sunzu, possibly on as much as £3,500 a week (a lot for a team from the Congo) scores the winner.

Herve Renard the French coach of the Zambian team spent a couple of months managing Cambridge United in their last season in the football league in 04-05. This is his first title. Good on him and his lucky white shirt he wore for every game of the competition.

The Super Bowl and Ace of Cups

Last night was my first Super Bowl in America experience. It was a good one. I chose to start watching the broadcast just an hour before the game itself actually started, knowing full well that there was probably a good 3 1/2 to 4 hours of entertainment to come.

Kristen was more excited about the first of the commercials to be broadcast. This didn't take long and in amongst a few for movies that are coming out in the next 3 or 4 months there were a good couple for Doritos (our fave above). This particular commercial struck a chord as we've recently been having a similarly massive dog roaming our street. In the last few days it has worked out how to get over the gate that is supposed to keep it locked away. Its owners don't seem too bothered and the neighborhood cats are being kept on their toes.

By the time half time came around, we sorted ourself some beers and hot wings. We didn't quite comply with the many commercials, in that our wings were vegetarian and the beer wasn't Bud Light; we were happy with our selection though. The half time show was impressive more for all the putting up and taking down of the stage than for Madonna's gyrations and MIA's finger to the millions.

After one pretty amazing catch for the Giants, they got down the field and scored giving the Patriots just under a minute to work their way all back down the other end. With the last play of the game Tom Brady put up the hail mary pass, but it couldn't be completed and the Giants went away as "World Champions". (I know that there aren't many other nations that play the sport, but it still grates just a little bit, doesn't it?)

We started our weekend with a double header at our favorite local venue Ace of Cups. The highlight of Friday's big bill of bands and DJ's was Cleveland's Bill Fox. I can't think of a good way to describe his folky gruff, so you can listen to him here instead and read an article about his reclusive ways in a McSweeney's piece about him here. On Saturday night we were dancing to some mostly 60's tuneage at "Heatwave" an all vinyl night the cool kid from school DJ's at. We've been a few times before, but they were queuing around the block to get in when we left, having still not been able to dance to Donovan's "Mellow Yellow."