Salon.com > Pete L'Official

Score one for the Yanks

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:25:00 +0000

From where I was sitting in the epicenter of the Ghana-fan section, three seats away from drums that never ceased beating, American defender Oguchi Onyewu's foul didn't look like much of one. Indeed, my neighbor to the left seemed as puzzled as I was. But referee Markus Merk (now the most famous retired dentist in the world) was certain Onyewu had fouled Ghana forward Razak Pimpong from behind, and awarded a penalty kick to Ghana. Ecstasy broke out around me as midfielder Stephen Appiah fired home the shot that would send the West Africans into the next round and send the United States packing.

There was no ill will in either direction, though, not from Americans who felt they had been robbed, nor from triumphant Ghanaians gloating over their toppling of a superpower. A political superpower, that is. Despite its corniness, the motto for the 2006 World Cup -- "a time to make friends" -- was alive and well in Section 1b of the Nuremburg Frankenstadion on Thursday. I felt it throughout Germany in all the bars, trains and super-populated public viewing spaces I visited during the first two weeks of the world's most popular sporting event.

Ode to an Ol’ Dirty Bastard

Tue, 16 Nov 2004 23:35:00 +0000

Outrageous. Unpredictable. Deranged, possibly. Irresponsible, certainly. But I don't care what anybody says. Ol' Dirty Bastard was avant-garde as hell.

"Avant-garde" was originally a military term, referring to an advanced group forging an assault on the enemy ahead. And O.D.B., whose given name was Russell Tyrone Jones, and his fellow members of the Wu-Tang Clan were way ahead of the rest -- a radically unique collection of some of the most charismatic and creative rappers ever to rhyme two lines. Their 1993 album, "Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers," not only did more for Timberland boots and black ski masks than any corporate ad campaign ever could, but put East Coast rap firmly back on the map, a full year before Puff Daddy and Bad Boy Records wrested the mike away from the West Coast's Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and Suge Knight's Death Row Records.

Wu-Tang artists RZA, GZA (Robert Diggs and Gary Grice, cousins to Jones), Method Man, Raekwon and Ghostface, among others, went on to have solo album success both critically and commercially, and the Wu were among the first groups to get involved in the licensed hip-hop fashion bonanza with their label, Wu-Wear.

Naked (and clothed) came the porn stars

Tue, 09 Nov 2004 20:00:00 +0000

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders made his name photographing luminously iconic portraits of the artistically and intellectually accomplished. Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Orson Welles, Toni Morrison, Sidney Poitier and Hillary Clinton have all appeared before his camera. His photographs manage not merely to capture but also to powerfully radiate with the intensity of his featured subjects -- their personalities pour forth from the frames.

Greenfield-Sanders has now re-focused his lens on a whole new crowd: porn stars. His latest book, "XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits," released last month by Bulfinch Press, features 30 startling diptychs of some of porn's most famous performers, gay and straight, shown in their day clothes and their birthday suits. (The photos are also on display through Dec. 18 at the Mary Boone Gallery in New York.) Jenna Jameson, Ron Jeremy, Tera Patrick and Gina Lynn are among those who strike twinned poses for the photographer, in some cases revealing far more confidence in the buff than in their blue jeans. The book also features 15 essays, both erudite and eccentric, about pornography and culture from a remarkable group of writers, thinkers and performers, including Gore Vidal, Francine du Plessix Gray, John Malkovich, Nancy Friday and John Waters.