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As everyone knows, this is the most important weekend of the entire sporting year: NFL Draft Weekend. As this blog aims to be the internet's premier source of information on Lausanne and the NFL draft, it is time for our annual Draft preview. The NFL Draft is particularly popular amongst football fans in the Sangiorgio household, so much so that it frequently receives more attention and interest than the following NFL season. The reason for this seemingly paradoxical attitude is simple: the NFL Draft is the physical manifestation of the eternal optimism of the human spirit. On Draft day, everyone is a winner. Potential All-Stars are added to your team, roster holes are filled, and intriguing possibilities abound. When compared to the harsh realities of the actual sport (and for Charger fans, the realities are usually harsh), the Draft shines brilliantly like some sort of Platonic Ideal. There are of course bad Drafts. Between 1994 and 2000, the Chargers (thanks to being run ...

My Italian labmate, Giuseppe, sent me a link about this bizarre occurrence. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an English website, so French it is: Un mystérieux rideau de pluie trouble un quartier Here is the google translated version, which makes a few comical mistakes A mysterious curtain of rain a neighborhood disorder What's awesome about this story is that the whole thing occurred less than 2 blocks from my apartment -- I live on Avenue de France! My favorite part, though, is the way that they mention -- for no reason in particular -- that the inhabitants of the quarter are "mixed." I guess that's true, but I'm not sure how it's relevant. I guess you can't expect the highest quality writing from a newspaper that spends most of its lifespan on the floor of the subway car.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before on this blog, but one of my favorite pastimes is being an uncle. As I already have the world's most adorable nephew, it was only fair that eventually my sister (and most likely my brother-in-law as well) got around to producing an inevitably equally adorable niece. After 9 months of getting fatter and fatter, my sister finally came through. On April 17th, 2009 in beautiful Torrance, CA, Veronica Giovanna Barbarie was born. Fig. 1: Mother and child. Soph, I know you probably aren't happy with me putting a picture of you with your hair all messed up here on the web, but trust me, you look fantastic. Fig. 2: Grandmother (aka "Mumsy") and baby burrito. Fig. 3: Grandfather (aka "Grumpsy") and child. From what I hear, Veronica has not opened her eyes up a whole lot. Given what she had to look at, she's obviously wise beyond her age. A big thanks to my Aunt Donna for the photos. Hooray Baby!

To paraphrase Harry Doyle: this ain't the best blog about Lausanne hip hop for nothing. Want to know who the latest sensation on the Swiss hip hop scene is? Well, you came to the right place! Now, most of you are probably rolling your eyes and saying, "Duh, this is just going to be an update about how Stress ( my previous favorite swiss rapper -ed. ) has a new album that just dropped on April 3 and how he is coming to Lausanne on the 30th for a concert." Wrong. This blog isn't about old info that you could find anywhere; this blog is about what is happening right now on the streets and what everyone will be talking about next . Wanna know who's next? One word: Sisma . (p.s. do not click on that link unless you actually like myspace pages). Fig. 1: Proof that wearing a bandanna does not automatically make you cool. Sisma is from the mean streets of Bellinzona, aka "B'Zone", population 17,111, in Ticino but has recently relocated to Lausanne, p...

One of the constant pleasures of living in Switzerland is receiving bills that just do not make any sense. For instance, when Christine mailed me an official "Google" jacket, along with some other small items, I had to pay a bribe of 55 CHF at the post office in order to pick up the package. Why? Well, customs had opened the box and determined that the jacket was worth 300 CHF (ha!), then charged me tax on that value (25 CHF) and a "customs fee" of 30 CHF for not properly declaring the item. Lame. Although I have received countless packages from my parents without any customs costs (maybe because they ship to my work address), the same thing happened again when I ordered a pair of shoes online from England. After receiving the shoes (which were about 100 CHF), two weeks later I got a customs bill for 60 CHF. Not only did I pay tax and "customs fees", I also had to pay "administrative costs" and "commission." Super lame. I could g...