Somehow I found myself immersed in soccer this last week. There is now a pick up game 4 times a week for me: Wednesday evening and Saturday morning at Summit Park Elementary, and Thursday and Sunday evening at Northwest Park. I am still playing in the indoor league on Fridays. I am hoping to get in good shape by the end of the summer at this rate. Though I haven't played the Saturday game yet, I find myself sleeping past 10 on Saturday lately.

In addition to that there was the Confederations Cup tournament where US surprised everyone and advanced to the final and almost defeated Brasil. I didn't watch it but I got swept up in the excitement. All of this reminded me about Baltimore's own professional soccer team - Crystal Palace USA. They play in the USL-2 league, the lowest level of US professional soccer. Their season is in full swing and I decided to attend a game on Monday evening.

The home games are held at UMBC stadium. Tickets are a little pricey at $16 but at least you can bring your own food and beverages. There wasn't a big turnout - I'd estimate no more than 200 people at the peak. The few fans for the opponents - Real Maryland from Rockville - were louder than the home crowd and had those annoying air horns. The game lacked excitement in the first half aside from a bunch of yellow cards. I really missed instant replay and commentators because I couldn't figure out what the cards were for most of the time. A lot of the fouls happened away from the ball. In the second half Real scored and Crystal Palace were pushed into action. They finally started putting shots on goal. An ejection of two Real players helped them create more chances and there were a couple of really close ones. At one point a header from 20 feet, in front of an open goal, bounced off the ground and went over. The game finished 1-0 and we left a little disappointed.

Arguably the biggest soccer event to hit Baltimore is coming July 24th when European giants Chelsea and AC Milan will face off in a friendly at M&T Bank Stadium. At first I wasn't going to go because I didn't think a no-stakes friendly game would be that exciting but the match could be an important part of pre-season preparation and where else will I see stars of such caliber? I still have a problem of who to support. I hate both clubs. Chelsea are the Yankees of the Premiership - buying up stars to win the championship. This is done with the ill-gotten gains of a Russian oligarch in exile. AC Milan has been demoted and fined for referee bribery and other violations and are owned by Berlusconi, the corrupt Italian prime minister and media magnate.

The 11th installment of the Maryland Film Festival took place May 7th - May 10th. The festival keeps growing and this year was marked by the addition of many foreign films. The festival had a tradition of bringing the filmmaker to each screening but they were willing to sacrifice that for a wider selection of films.

I volunteered this year and I would highly recommend it. It felt like I got more out of it than the festival. Volunteers get a free t-shirt, a voucher good for one ticket to a screening and more. Joining the Friends of the Festival is also a good idea. For only $50 a year you get the chance to see about 30 films a year for free before they are released to the wider public, and help the festival.

Now on to the films I saw.

• It was great but I was ready to go home - I was kinda falling asleep through this so I can't judge it honestly but I liked that this had little dialogue compared to other "mumblecore" films (especially that aimless umm-ing). You get to follow two young women on a trip to Costa Rica and experience the realization that these trips are never quite as fun and full of spontaneous moments of excitement as you imagine. Nevertheless, there's always something to remember after the fact and a warm glow remains.
• Punching The Clown - this was really funny. Kind of like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" but with a very likable lead (he endears himself within a few moments) and not relying on embarrassment so much. The film follows a self-described satirical folk musician, the attempt to describe what he does being a running joke through the movie, during his stint in LA. Fictional but loosely based on real experiences of the protagonist who is playing himself. You get to see Los Angeles from a slightly different perspective than usual - the small, out of the way places that still feature the scrabbling for table scraps characteristic of this land of failed dreams.
• Mock Up On Mu - my neurons were firing like crazy during this. This really was something different and I am grateful to MFF for featuring such experimental fare. It's a very dense narrative about the hidden history (though "everyone in California knows this", according to the director) of the Beat culture of California. The story is conveyed through a furious collage of images from b-movies, classic films and newly shot footage with the audio barely coinciding with the images on screen. Hundreds of films and soundtracks are used as material and the film also functions as a critique of popular film-making. The filmmaker was a blast - talking a mile a minute and so enthusiastic about his work and cinema in general.
• Narrative Shorts 2 - my recollection of this is very hazy. "The Line" was good but almost too much. Very heavy.
• Daytime Drinking - a great comedy from South Korea. I was worried that the humor wouldn't translate but I laughed a lot, though who knows how much I missed. The film follows the misadventures of a recently broken-up young man as he makes an ill-advised trip to a pension somewhere in the mountains during the winter. A lot of drinking takes place.
• Modern Love Is Automatic - the one miss in the festival for me. Nevermind the blown out sound, this movie just wasn't engaging at all. The main character was a complete void. The film suggests that the action in it was just a strange, exceptional episode in the heroine's life so it cuts off the need to explain anything. Without context the actual happenings weren't very interesting. The protagonist's foil was somewhat engaging and pathetic.
• The Immaculate Conception Of Little Dizzle - I was worried about this, thinking it would be another "Blood Car". But I was wrong. This was hilarious. The characters were very dynamic. The movie concerns an anarchic crew of office cleaners who get involved in the testing of an experimental product (a self-warming cookie) that produces hallucinations and leads to some bizarre places later. The preposterous and not very funny main plot point didn't get in the way too much. And it looked great. There was some pretty overt subtext about morality and the search for God but I don't it's all that interesting even though it winds up denying any possibility of a divine justice. What I liked was the bittersweet realization that good times don't last and one has to move on.
• Nollywood Babylon - a documentary on the third-largest (by volume) film industry in the world. The actual "film" industry in Nigeria isn't that interesting. Or at least didn't appear very interesting from how the filmmakers presented it. I am not sure if it's present, but if there's a "mondo" element to the whole enterprise they should have definitely played it up because otherwise the films are just soap opera with third-rate visuals (actually the special effects are hilarious - think Flash animation done by a fifth-grader). The more interesting aspect of the film was the daily life in Nigeria, the glimpses of poverty and ruined buildings (from civil war), the consequences of IMF policy on the economy. But the most interesting aspect (and this is what infuriated me the most) are the ties between the film industry and evangelical Christians and how that ties in with the economic ruin, the urbanization and the struggle between traditional beliefs and the urban Christian religion. A lot of the films (or at least what we see) are financed by these preachers who have hundreds of thousands of followers all hoping to get rich by joining the church. Of course the only people to get rich are the preachers. The whole model is of course imported from America and it's very sad to see this virus spread.

For a couple years every first Thursday at the Baltimore Museum of Art a film was screened as part of a film series run by Eric Hatch. The focus was 60's and early 70's films (both foreign and Hollywood) as well as new films that were influenced by them or had the same spirit. Many films were not available on DVD. I attended many screenings and though many left me scratching my head, I looked forward to each one and liked the challenge. You can find the list of films on the petition page. Last year the BMA canceled the series. Justin Blemly, webmaster of Beatbots, started an online petition to draw attention to it. Even if the BMA does not pick the series back up it may at least arouse interest from another venue. Please sign the petition. But use an e-mail address you don't care about. It seems that the website may sell your information to third parties.