Day 66 July 18

We Leave Manhattan, Sweat a Lot, and Watch Soccer

By Al

Today, Sally and I went to see the New York Red Bulls play the Chicago Fire.  For those who don't know, these are teams in Major Soccer League.  This is the top league in the United States.  They play in a stadium in Newark, New Jersey.  So, this was our first foray into New Jersey.  We went to Penn Station and took a New Jersey Transit train to Newark.  The Red Bulls then had a shuttle from the station to the stadium.  It is a nice stadium, built just for soccer.  We had good seats on the centerline.  However, the play was not very good.  I have not been a fan of MLS so I don't know how typical the standard of play was that we saw.  But I was not impressed.  The players didn't seem to have much motivation.  They just kind of passed a lot until they lost the ball and then the other team passed a lot.  Thierry Henery did have a very good shot and score however.  The game ended up tied and I think that was just fine with the players.  It was very hot, so that might have influenced their play.

There weren't many people watching the game.

Some of the little action in the game.

A New Jersey transit train.

Inside the train.

The train arriving at Newark Penn Station.

That evening, I was going to my Taiko class.  It didn't make sense to go home, and it was raining pretty hard, so I hung around Penn Station while I waited for time to go to class.  There were some amazing musicians busking at the Station.  There were two guys with a violin and cello that were amazing.  However, they stopped before I could record them.  Then, there was a guy playing jazz guitar.  Again, he was amazing.  Here is a recording.  The sound is not that great, but hopefully you get the idea.

Next, I went to Taiko practice.  I do enjoy Kaoru Watananbe as an instructor.   Sally's Day The soccer game was in Newark.  My only memory of Newark was the 1967 riots, which lasted for five days, and during which a lot of property was destroyed and about 30 people were killed. I believe the riots were centered on the lack of African-Americans in the police department.   From the small portion of Newark that we saw, it appears that the city is struggling, as the areas we saw were rundown, and had closed stores.  I read online that the percentage of African-Americans in the police department has improved, and the city has made lots of  efforts in race relations. I was very glad that no one had  a  uvazaala (large horns) that we heard over the TV during the World Cup.  Truly the most obnoxious sound in the world.  There was a section of fans doing the chants and songs we hear during the European games we see on TV.  It was fun to hear the chants in person It felt like a real adventure to leave Manhattan,  get on a passenger train, and travel to another state. I came home from the game sewed some more.

The section with the people doing soccer chants.  

The quilt top I finished tonight.  This will be a summer quilt because it has summer pastels and white.  I will use a light weight batting.  I started this when I came back from MN ( June 28).  80" x 88"

My friend, Darla, passed on an idea to me about scrappy quilts- divide your blocks into 4 piles with an equal number of each color in each pile.  This assures that the colors are distributed evenly throughout the quilt.  She makes scrap quilts in 4 sections.  I divided my blocks into 8 sections, and then sewed the sections together so that I only had two long seams. Thanks, Darla.