Victor in clover

On Sept. 12 at Toronto, I saw two French films I didn’t much care for — Breillat’s THE OLD MISTRESS and Chabrol’s GIRL CUT IN TWO. Fortunately, I got vicarious revenge that very day.

France 0, Scotland 1.

I couldn’t watch the game, but I celebrated by getting extra-hammered at a late-night gathering with Theo and a couple of Americans. And I’ve since watched this clip a hundred times:

But this one, which beat the French last October in Glasgow, I did see live (well, in a Washington sports bar, but going mad with it in real time):

This double victory over the French, who haven’t otherwise lost a tournament qualifier in almost a decade, gives us a real chance at qualifying for the Euro 2008 by claiming one of the top two spots in a Euro qualifying group that features the two reigning World Cup finalists. Looking at the standings, I’d feel better if Italy hadn’t won 2-1 in Ukraine on the same day as Scotland’s second victory over France. If the Ukrainians had “held serve,” Italy would have three fewer points and I’d be prepared to stick a fork in it. As it is, we’ve got three games to go and we’ll need to get results in our two home games with Italy and Ukraine (both of whom beat us 2-0 in their country). I’m confident we’ll do that, but I’m worried about the trip to Georgia, which is exactly the sort of game against an “easy team” or the exotic or unknown that has tripped up Scotland frequently in the past. (Yes, in Scotland, even the Catholics are Calvinists who expect the worst.)

By way of explanation

I have not abandoned my film blogging, as some of you have asked me upon seeing that my longtime site is no longer available.

I probably have abandoned that Blogspot site, though. This move to WordPress was completely unplanned and forced on me last night. To make a long story short, I was trying to delete a G-Mail account that I don’t use, without realizing that it was also the email address that the Google-Blogger merger had made my “official” address since it was the one attached to my Google account. (Though I always had been logging in with the same Yahoo email address I’ve had for years.) So when I deleted the G-Mail account late Sunday night … all my sites were gone, along with several posts in “draft form” including my nearly done Day 8 TIFF capsules.

To cut another long story short, I tried to get some technical help and found myself completely at sea. I really am not a technically unsophisticated person, but being told to post something in a public place and hope for a reply and being directed to FAQ sthat might not (in this case, weren’t) on point and with no opportunity for either phone or email contact … that’s not helpful.

After a day of waiting I decided not to wait and to try to reconstruct what I’ve lost. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be using Google Cache and Web Archive (plus hoping Blogger will get back to me) to recover and repost here, with manipulated time stamps, as much of the last five years of my writing as I can. I’ll also try to put together my links again, if someone can tell me how to subdivide them by category as I had done.
I have already put up my 2007 Toronto postings (and added pix, something I wasn’t able to do up there) since that was so recent and I know people. I’ll do my best to finish the capsules over the next week.