Ten Things to Know: Culture Club is Coming to Washington DC

1) Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, NY, will be staging the play "Steve Martin's The Underpants," which depicts a young man who literally drops his drawers and is dealt with public humiliation. The play will be the troupe's season opener and it will run from Oct. 21-Nov. 8. Bill Fennelly directs.

2) The Both: A Rock duet consisting of veteran performers Ted Leo and Aimee Mann performs at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, on May 5th.

3) "While We're Young," a comedy directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts opens at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., on May 2nd (there is a concert there on May 1st).

4) Pauline McKee, 90, was refused a $41.8 million jackpot for Miss Kitty at a casino in Iowa, according to the BBC.

5) Bayern Munich won its 25th German title; the team faces Barcelona FC with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

6) The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC, named the best bookstore in Raleigh/Durham by "Indy Weekly" will be one of many bookstores celebrating Independent Bookstore on May 2nd.

7) Culture Club will be performing at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., a Washington, DC-suburb on August 10th.

8) "The Toronto Star" is reporting that the Canadian province of Ontario will give $1 million to relief efforts for the devastating earthquake which struck Nepal this weekend.

9) According to What the F*** Facts, the top export in America is cars, the top import in America is also cars. You do tend to see lots of Kia, a South Korean car, on the roads these days.

10)  Today is the 39th birthday of British actress Sally Hawkins ("Blue Jasmine," pict. bottom)

http://syracusestage.org/

http://www.catscradle.com/

http://www.thelyric.com/

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/

http://www.wolftrap.org

http://www.culture-club.co.uk/

World Cup Soccer Lists (4 of 4): The Names We Will Remember

Wow! We didn't realize that Arjen Robben of The Netherlands and Tim Howard of the United States look like twin brothers! For more info on world soccer, we recommend a true expert Ahmet Bob Turgut:

http://turkeyfootball.blogspot.com/

And, kudos to Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir for calling an excellent game yesterday in Argentina's penalty shoot-out win over The Netherlands, but I suspect we will see much more of Robben, who plays for Bayern Munich.

Here is our list:

1) Joel Campbell. 22. Costa Rica. Olympiacos (Greece; pictured top)

2) Arjen Robben. 30. Netherlands. Bayern Munich (pictured center)

3) Tim Howard. 35. USA. Everton (England, pictured bottom,)

4) Marouane Fellaini. 26. Belgium. Manchester U.

5) Thomas Muller. 24. Germany, Bayern Munich

6) Rais Mbolhi. 28. Algeria. CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria, where he plays goal-keeper)

7) Luis Suarze. 27. Uruguay. Liverpool (I guess we can objectively say he is the most scandalous futboler on the planet)

8) Faryd Mondgram. 43. Colombia. (no club team, he is the oldest player ever to play in a World Cup)

9) Xherdan Shaqiri. 22. Switzerland. Bayern Munich.

10) Mathieu Valbuena. 29. France. Marseilles.

11) Angel di Mira. 26. Argentina. Real Madrid.

Quote of the Day- Franz Beckenbauer

Today, in our series of quotes from famous Germans, we quip the great German soccer player Franz Beckenbauer, 66, who was credited with inventing the modern sweeper/libero position and who is one of many legendary soccer players who played for Bayern Munich.

Beckenbauer helped then West Germany win the World Cup in 1974, and he helped Bayern Munich win three straight European soccer titles from 1974-76. The German soccer great also played in the first incarnation of pro soccer in America with the New York Cosmos from 1977-80, '83 (Today's MLS team in New York is called the Red Bulls).

Here is his quoteL

"Certainly, it is a different world for players nowadays. But, it depends on the individual."

SIDEBAR: Many of today's top German soccer players are of Turkish origin. These players often get caught up in the politics of whether to play for Germany or Turkey. Interstingly enough, the current roster of Real Madrid, believed to be the best team in Europe, consists of three such players in superstar Mesut Ozil, Hamit Altintop and Nuri Sahin.

Ozil chose to play for Germany, while Altintop and Sahin chose to play for Turkey. In a 3-0 defeat to Croatia on Friday, Altintop reportedly made an amazing dive which has become popular on Youtube. Hamit Altintop's twin brother Halil Altintop plays for the Turkish team Trabzonspor, which is also competing in the UEFA Cup.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Lyon Has Won 7 French Titles

In our 13th profile of 15 world soccer teams, we turn our attention to the French soccer power Olympique Lyonnais, which is known simply as Lyon, the same name as the city they play for.

Lyon did not win its first domestic title until the 2001-02 season, but they made up for it by winning a staggering seven French premiere league titles in a row.

During the 2009-10 season, Lyon also reached the semi-finals of the coveted UEFA Cup, before bowing out to German power Bayern Munich.

Lyon is playing for the current UEFA Cup as well, but their hopes of advancing to the next round seem given their home loss Spanish power Real Madrid 2-0, both goals in the match were scored by Portuguese superstar Christiano Ronaldo, earlier this month.

Thus, Lyon is in third place behind the Dutch team Ajax Amsterdam (the last team we profiled), in Group D. Lyon visits Amsterdam on Nov. 22 when Real Madrid will face the Crotian team Dynamo Zagreb, which is in last place.

In domestic play, Lyon last played arch rival St. Etienne and the team prevailed
2-0. Lyon is reportedly in second place in the French league behind Paris St. Germain which tied Bordeaux 1-1.

The captain for Lyon is Brazilian player Cris (Cristiano Gomes), 34, and the team's goalie is French player Hugo Lloris, 24, (pictured), who is vying to become the French national goal keeper.

On Friday, the French national team beat the United States 1-0 in a friendly. Since I carry an American passport, I could gripe about this, but hey the French gave us Asterix the Gaul. Having said that, I hope we beat the living daylights out of them next time (that is a joke; I'm not a Republican).

SIDEBAR: Closer to home, Martinsburg High School (Martinsburg, West Virginia) decked Woodrow Wilson High School from Beckley, West Virginia, in a home game played on Friday by a score of 49-13.

PS-The answer to our Rabbitt Ears quiz was C) Boulder, Colorado, which is where "Mork and Mindy" took place.

Things We Learned on Google Today- Bayern Munich Has Won Four UEFA Titles

This is the seventh entry in our series of looks at professional soccer teams. So far, we have looked at teams from two continents: Europe and North America.

Today, we turn our attention to the German Bundesliga where Bayern Munich has reigned supreme over the decades. The two has four UEFA titles, including three in row from 1974-76, and another title in 2001. The team was runner-up in 2010.

In addition, Bayern has won 22 German titles, and 15 domestic cups.

Yesterday, Bayern beat their long-time rival Kaiserslautern 3-0, a week after they destroyed Hamburg SV 5-0. Yesterday's game started at 9:30 a.m. yesterday, east coast American time.

We are featuring an image of Mehmet Scholl, who was a star player for the team in the 2000s, and he was among the first players of Turkish heritage (Germany has the largest Turkish population outside Turkey) to become a soccer superstar in the Bundesliga.

The team's most legendary player is Franz Beckenbauer who played during the '70s and helped Germany dominate world soccer internationally (well, there was also Brazil which featured some guy named Pele) during his career.

Bayern's current roster includes German players Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez as well as Dutch star Franck Ribery, who once played for Turkish soccer power GalataSaray (a team we featured earlier in the series).

SIDEBAR: Yesterday, in the English Premiere League, Didier Drogba of Chelsea, one of the star player in the league, suffered a 30-minute concusion in the 71st minute of play in Chelsea's 3-1 win over Norwich City.

SIDEBAR TWO: Our congratulations go out to American tennis player John Isner, of Greensboro, NC. The 'local boy' won the Winston-Salem Open over Julien Benneateau of France in a match that somehow did not get rained out due to Hurricane Irene, which battered the North Carolina coast yesterday.