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“Squeaker” McCarthy

T R E 4 5 O N

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Soccer Thread: Alas, Poor Caxirola

Open Soccer Thread: Alas, Poor Caxirola

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(Warning: vuvuzelas begin at 0:19!)
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The Washington Post has what looks to be quite a comprehensive guide to streaming the World Cup (also a link to the complete TV schedule, and links to the Google & Outlook calendars Reddit users have written to make sure you don’t miss a match).

If you are watching at home (or possibly in your local bar) you can use your official FIFA World Cup caxirola. But you can’t bring them to the matches, per the New Yorker’s Ian Crouch:

…[T]he Brazilian musician Carlinhos Brown proposed an alternative noisemaker to the vuvuzela for his country’s turn as the host of the World Cup, which begins next week. Last year, Brown unveiled a brightly colored plastic rattle that he called the caxirola, named after the caxixi, a traditional Brazilian woven instrument filled with seeds. The mass-produced plastic version lacked its inspiration’s charm, but it had a few things going for it. Researchers found that the caxirola produced a decibel level significantly lower than the vuvuzela’s. Played together, caxirolas indeed made a joyful, mostly pleasant noise, percussive rather than droning like the South African horns. And like the vuvuzela, it’s fun to say: ka-shee-role-ah…

… A year ahead of the World Cup, the caxirola was a newer, better vuvuzela.

Until Brazilian soccer fans got their hands on them, that is…

Reader Interactions

31Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    Amir Khalid recommended “Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics” to help me have a better understanding of the game. I’m still working on it but I am struck by the rich history of a game that I know little about but enjoy just the same.

  3. 3.

    raven

    Crap, the schedule was unreadable on the iPhone this morning and I thought UK v Italy was Friday. Now we have tickets to a local production of Steel Magnolias on Saturday during the game!

  6. 6.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    @raven:

    If you’re looking to get into the aesthetics of the game rather than the Xes and Os, look for a copy of Bloody Confused by Chuck Culpepper.

  9. 9.

    ArchTeryx

    Hey, ANYTHING would be improvement over the Death Horns, and sure enough, the caxirola is. I can’t see how even Brazilian soccer fans could make them a tenth as obnoxious as the Death Horns.

  10. 10.

    boatboy_srq

    I read the link as “the steaming World Cup” – which, given how unhappy most Brazilians seem with the event wouldn’t be an especially inappropriate way to describe it.

  11. 11.

    jibeaux

    Soccer bores me to tears, but I’m going to claim it’s my principled opposition to FIFA as laid out by John Oliver causing my boycott.

  12. 12.

    ArchTeryx

    Upon reading the article, I have to say that it’s supremely ironic: the caxirola gets banned from the World Cup (despite being its official noisemaker)…but the Death Horns weren’t?

    You couldn’t invent a better farce with a gaggle of monkeys at a circus.

  16. 16.

    Haydnseek

    Here’s our chance to put into practice Lou Reed’s thought experiment. Give ’em all a cheap-ass Stratocaster knock-off and an amp, and let everybody hit an “E” chord at the same time………..

  18. 18.

    Thlayli

    @raven:

    That’s one of the three books I recommend to people new to the game. The other two are David Goldblatt’s The Ball is Round (Warning: it’s a 1000-pager) and Simon Kuper’s Football Against the Enemy.

  21. 21.

    Amir Khalid

    Per the BBC, football’s biggest corporate sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Sony, Visa, Hyundai/Kia and adidas, are demanding an investigation into FIFA’s awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, notwithstanding the investigation that FIFA’s ethics committee (believe it or not, they do have one) is already conducting. There’s already been talk of a re-vote on the award of the WC to Qatar — which would be unprecedented, and a major embarrassment to Qatar. But if we’re talking about corruption on a scale too big for even FIFA to hide or dismiss as business as usual, that would stain the reputations of these good corporations …

  22. 22.

    Suffern ACE

    @Amir Khalid: If it weren’t for the players suffering and all of the workers dying, I’d say that the WC needs to go on. What the companies should do is stop sponsoring it. Yeah, I know, I know, that would be hard for them to do. But until the revenue stream is turned off for FIFA, this isn’t going to end. Have FIFA sponsors be natural cures for incontinence and fake gold watches.

  23. 23.

    Amir Khalid

    @ArchTeryx:
    Well, unlike the vuvuzela, the caxirola is something an unhappy fan could easily throw onto the pitch and maybe hit a player’s head or the referee’s. I can see where potential missiles would be a bad thing to have in the crowd.

  24. 24.

    Ash Can

    I own a vuvuzela — which I purchased in 1969 from a street vendor outside of Wrigley Field. They were just called “horns” then. This was back in the days when ballpark rules were more lenient and people were allowed to bring them into the park. They didn’t catch on nearly to the extent they did more recently with soccer fans overseas, so were not as insufferable and did not get banned from the park until the rule changes that banned everything else that could be used to hit people over the head or be easily thrown onto the field. I still pull it out once a year, to blow out the front door on New Year’s at midnight. It has also been known to make appearances on those wonderful, rare occasions when the Cubs clinch a post-season berth or the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup.

  25. 25.

    Ash Can

    PS: Bottle Rocket took to the vuvuzela like a duck to water when he was about 7 years old. Nowadays, he’s doing pretty good learning the trumpet. Coincidence? I think not. :)

  28. 28.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    @catclub:
    Nothing can touch “chupacabra.” Now if they wanted to shake one of those or, better yet, blow into one, I’d be a World Cup fan. Otherwise, meh.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    @Suffern ACE:
    That toilet bowl landed on a spectator. It didn’t get as far as the pitch. I too have no doubt that an angry enough fan would try throwing a vuvuzela like a javelin. But I tend to doubt that a vuvuzela could be thrown as far as the pitch, unless from row A right by the touchline — not because it’s too heavy, as with the toilet bowl, but because it’s basically a hollow plastic tube and probably too light to overcome air resistance.

  30. 30.

    ArchTeryx

    @Suffern ACE: Chucking the things would actually be a huge improvement over using them for their intended purpose. Less harmful to the players, too. FIFA has the sort of portfolio of idiocy that makes Stimpy of Ren and Stimpy look like a genius. But the crowner, in my mind, is still allowing the Death Horns into the matches with no limits at all on their numbers or use.

  31. 31.

    John

    I really can’t understand why the Brazilian goverment certified caxirola at first and then they decided to get banned from the stadiums. They should think this through before. Also I have worked with them and I don’t believe that they are really dangerous. Even in the game where some fans throw caxirolas no one get hurt as you can see in the video.
    The sound is beautiful and I believe it will add to the fan experience in the stadium.
    John

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