How will we celebrate this upcoming World Cup, which like the grand state festivals of ancient Rome demands the rapt attention of every patriotic citizen to the exclusion of all else? The World Cup stands in an elite group of events which are so momentous in nature and so excessively grand in execution that they can only be held once every four years, for to hold them more frequently would most likely so much disrupt the natural progression of human life on this planet that civilization would surely collapse (indeed, it has been said by many historians that the fall of the great Roman empire was largely brought about by the bankruptcy and unproductivity which was the inevitable result of holding too many festivals), to say nothing of the risk of throwing the planet off its orbit.
In this regard, the World Cup sits at the same august table as the Olympic Games and American presidential elections. Magnificent events, all. But no matter how much they exhilarate us when they are upon us, and no matter how disheartened (if not heartbroken) we feel when they end and the next episode is an impossible FOUR YEARS away, I think we can agree that once every four years is quite frequent enough. Anything more frequent would only cheapen them.
So here we sit in one of those fortunate years which has been blessed with a World Cup. We must celebrate appropriately! I am no mathematician, but by my reckoning I calculate that our celebration of this should be at least 4 times that of any mere annual event. Four times the Superbowl! Four times March Madness! So I come back to my original question. How will we celebrate?
The US plays England at 2PM on Saturday, 12 June. Y'all wanna get together somewhere and watch?
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This is a link to the official US Soccer website. Apparently they have designated certain bars around the country as "official US Soccer bars." There are two in DC. Are y'all familiar with either?
http://www.ussoccer.com/Community/Official-Bar-Program-2.aspx
Fado Irish Pub & Restaurant
808 7th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 789-0066
www.fadoirishpub.com/washington
Summers Grill and Sports Bar
1520 N. Courthouse Road
Arlington, VA 22201
(703) 528-8278
www.summers-restaurant.com
I'm not sure if Dean will still be living there in a month, but he currently lives 7 minutes (walking) from Summers. Both places are pretty cool though. They will likely pre-sell tickets, and could very well sell out, so we should pull the trigger if we want to go to one of these places.
ReplyDeletehttp://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=uGd&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=courthouse,+arlington,+va&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Clarendon+-+Courthouse&gl=us&ei=vHPtS9j7BsP-8Ab39OD9Cg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ8gEwAA
I also vote Summers. I'm familiar with Fado, but it will be insanely crowded, I would think. It's dead-center downtown. Amar also makes the good point that Summers is a four-minute walk from my apartment.
ReplyDeleteHey! There's a Fado in Chicago about 10 blocks away from me. Since I take the boards on June 18, I'm not gonna be able to watch the first game on June 12 at Fado, but I will try it out sometime after that (maybe we can all drink at Fado together in spirit).
ReplyDeleteSummers it is! Can one of y'all check with them and see if there are tickets to be bought or reservations to be made at this point? You can count on eager participation from Arlene and me. And there will be much drinking no matter the outcome, so Dean you better warm up the ol' air mattress.
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