Francoise Hardy

Francoise Hardy, "Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles"

Francoise Hardy, "Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour"

Francoise Hardy, "Tout Me Ramane A Toi"

Francoise Hardy, "La Nuit Est Sur La Ville"

Ugh, what a terrible ending to a great tournament. Italy defeated France yesterday on penalty kicks, becoming World Cup champions for the fourth time. I'm not gonna get into the game much, as I was watching it on TIVO and had the ending ruined by the screams of Italian fans in the LES. What I did see wasn't much to write home about. The players were clearly tired, the Zidane incident was bizarre and sad, and I'm not a big fan of penalty kicks deciding a championship. Congrats to the Italian team and its fans, as it was a great run for them and they deserved to win it all. I spent the night in Williamsburg, and it was fun seeing all of the people driving around in their cars with Italian flags, the block parties and people celebrating at bars.

I'm almost kinda sad to see the tournament come to a close, as it's such an amazing event and a great example of how sports can bring people together. From a selfish perspective, I'm gonna miss the chance to watch soccer on a random Wednesday, as it's a privledge that we in the U.S. don't get to enjoy. It's such a beautiful game, I'll never understand how Americans can't get behind it.

As a thank you to Les Bleus for a wonderul, unexpected run to the Finals, I figured that I would up some tracks from one of France's most wonderful, talented, beautiful ambassadors, Francoise Hardy. I must confess to not knowing much about her just a few short months ago. My knowledge of older French music was nearly zero, as I kinda believed the hype that there wasn't much to discover, especially once you've heard Serge Gainsbourg. I was wrong, and I owe it to an article in Filter Magazine to be honest. They had a two page profile of Hardy and her music (no archives, unfortunately), and it got me to buy this 2 CD compilation of her early work, The Vogue Years. I will do one more post on this anthology and talk about her and her music. In the meantime, buy the album here as it is an amazing deal and introduction to her music.

-Since it's a Monday and France lost, it seems like a good time get out some shitty news. Check out this amazing piece called "Death Trap" by Christina Lamb for The Times of London, where she looks at the declining situation in Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban there. It's both a frightening and upsetting piece, as this was supposed to be the success story of the war on terror. As for Lamb, she has done yeoman's work over there, an example of the courage and skill that foriegn reporters possess. The cowardly conservatives who criticize the people doing this job aren't fit to hold their laptop bags. [Via Talking Points Memo]

-Matt Yglesias has a great post on conservative foreign policy thinking entitled "The Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics." I did not solely highlight this one because of the comic book reference, but because it deals with the conservative's fascintaion with force and willpower. The frightening thing to me is that these people are determining foreign policy for us now, have learned nothing from Iraq and Iran and North Korea loom on the horizon.

-Finally, in one of the greatest radio moments ever, listen to Adam Carolla hang up on the disgusting, hideous Ann Coulter over at Crooks & Liars. She calls in late to his radio show, she cops an attitude and Carolla does what few would have the balls to do. It is magnificent, and put a smile on my face in spite of everything else. Thank you Adam.