Tag: Venezuela

Three Days A Volunteer At SoFi Stadium for Copa América 2024

I almost missed out on the Copa América this year. I attempted to sign up for a press pass as I normally do for a balompié tournament in the US. I say attempted because, unfortunately, the application page for credentials via CONMEBOL left me with more questions than answers I could provide to the ones listed on the request form.

As a friend of mine at ESPN noted: “dude it’s a mess lol – there’s gonna be mistakes and some angry people this summer haha.”

I’m not sure how many mistakes were made via the application…but there were plenty of questionable choices and decisions that the higher-ups at CONMEBOL made before and during the tournament, which resulted in the many ridiculous and/or terrible stories you may have already seen by now: from the insanely priced food served in the media press room at SoFi stadium to the horrifying scenes at the final in Miami.

I witnessed the result of CONMEBOL’s questionable leadership first-hand, early-on in the tournament during my brief stint as an official volunteer for the Copa América 2024. A journalist friend of mine at the L.A. Times shared information on how to enroll as a volunteer at the tournament. It was my best chance to at least attend the two group stage games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

View from VIP entrance 10 of SoFi Stadium adjacent to the YouTube Theater venue; a passenger plane flies in the sky.
View near VIP entrance 10 at SoFi Stadium, adjacent to the YouTube Theater.

The application for volunteers was mercifully easier to complete than the one for journalists. There were numerous categories listed for applicants to choose from depending on their skills and preferences. These were: Training Site, Competitions Support, Team Services, Antidoping, Security, International Relations, Commercial Operations, and Media Operations. The Media Operations option was divided into additional subcategories: mixed zone, conference analyst, press conference analyst, photo analyst, press conference support, and press tribune analyst.

Continue reading “Three Days A Volunteer At SoFi Stadium for Copa América 2024” →

Hugo Chavez Can’t Stop La Vida Boheme’s Dance Party!

I’ve been obsessed with La Vida Boheme’s debut album Nuestra for the past few weeks. I’m definitely not the only one enthralled by it as the lp was nominated for Best Latin Pop, Rock, Or Urban Album Grammy last night alongside the works of Calle 13, Gustavo Galindo, labelmates Los Amigos Invisibles, and Mana.

I learned about the Venezuelan dance-rock/post-punk quartet two months ago while listening to the FIFA 12 soundtrack, which includes LVB’s song “El Buen Salvaje.” I liked the song but wasn’t able to get my hands on the full album until a month later in early November when Remezcla put me in contact with Nacional Records. La Vida Boheme was in town and would I like to interview them? Heck yes!

In the Nacional Records office. Not pictured: the Flinstones rug on the floor.

From the interview:

D’Arthenay: The record [Nuestra], we made it while I was still in college. It was very troublesome because in 2008, we had some of the songs. We started recording it but we didn’t like the record, then went off to record it with another guy, but we still didn’t like it. In 2009, most of the songs had changed. When we recorded the master, it was in 2009. For some of the songs that we initially started recording in 2008, we didn’t feel that they were representative of the things we wanted to say so we made new songs on the spot. So 2009 was a reflection of what happened between 2006 to 2009.

With this new record we just recorded, there’s two songs in it that we were playing for a long time and the second half we made them in one month. We’re very unorthodox in that sense. We’re not willing to release something that we’re not proud of. A work of art speaks for itself. When it’s complete, you know it’s complete. Most of the times, songs are very difficult to get to that point where they’re finished and others, they just flow naturally. We struggled a lot with our second record because of that, and because we don’t want it to be sloppy — we want it to be better. It took us time but we’re very happy with what we have done.

Two days later, I made a trip to Las Vegas to watch LVB perform at Remezcla’s Latin Grammy pre-party:

The set was short but intense and the songs sounded even better live than their studio-recorded counterparts.

Keep your eyes and ears on La Vida Boheme in 2012.