The other side of the World Cup

JAKARTA (JP): Go go go, Alez alez alez. Like fingernails on a blackboard, those lyrics stop me in my tracks every time.

The soccer epidemic is, thankfully, almost over. All we have to get through is the semifinals, third-place playoffs and the finals. Like a fever that peaks before the infection is fought, so we have get through this week.

Of course, after the finals there will be the painstaking, time-consuming analysis of why this team lost, or that team managed to get goals or why the final elite 11 beat the odds to clasp the cup in their hot little hands. But at least we won't have that song played again and again, over and over, seven days a week.

I can actually feel sorry for Ricky Martin. Having a song so popular it makes people cringe can't be good for the ego. But then maybe that's what ego is all about. Unfortunately, there is always that threat that if you make a song so popular people are either going to go into raptures over it or feel like throwing the radio/television out the window. When I commented to a friend that I couldn't wait for the finals to be over, she said: "But have you seen the film clip? Have you watched him sing it? When the camera swings around to get a back view of him?" No buts about it, she likes the clip.

It's for this reason that I have never seen Bodyguard. First we had the song. Whitney Houston bellowing soulfully away day after day after day about how she'll always love him. By the time the movie was released here, I couldn't imagine anything worse than sitting through Bodyguard anticipating when I Will Always Love You is performed. Give me Dolly Parton's version anytime.

Then, of course, there is Celine Dion, femme fatale of love songs. Just as with Bodyguard, I have not been able to bring myself to watch Titanic. Sacrilegious as this may strike some, Leonardo DiCaprio just doesn't fit the majestics of the what the theme song seems to mean; and, near and far, of course it also has been played to death.

It makes me wonder about the mechanics of PR companies. Is there such a thing as getting too much of a good thing for them? Obviously not, if you look at soccer fans. All the television stations here, state and private, regaled us with the opening of the World Cup. Did it really need to be on all channels? Couldn't they decide that, "OK, you lot telecast the opening and you lot put good movies on for people who don't like soccer." You might think that sounds petty seeing that the opening was more of a fiesta than a soccer match, but surely not everyone wanted to see it.

Then, of course, we get the matches telecast live every evening. Just when I'm ready to sit down and watch my favorite show (which I must admit there are not many of) its spot has been taken over by a soccer match. It's the same when the local television awards are on. This exacts its own pain, from embarrassment as the artists try in vain to emulate their American cousins.

I guess with the soccer matches it is unavoidable that they are shared among the various stations; there are so many of them. Unfortunately for people who don't like soccer, these matches have been in abundance while the teams cull the herd to prepare for the final week of semifinals/playoffs/final.

And let's not forget the telequizzes. Telecom must be making a fortune. After my last phone bill I know I've banned the kids from calling the quizzes. Indonesia is in a crisis, where is all this prize money coming from? Surely the money could be used for worthier causes than soccer quizzes.

But I guess what it all boils down to is your personal soccer threshold. Love it or hate it, it's going to be in our face for the next week, with extra time for the soul-searching and earnest postmortems. Which begs the question: Do you really want it?

-- Martina Haller