Come on Fulham

"Oh when the whites, go marching in,
Oh when the whites go marching in,
I wanna be in that number, oh when the whites go marching in."

Jetlagged in London at 4am. I guess I should blog about one of the most thrilling sports experiences I've had in a long time. I had requested to go to see a football game while I'm here... and voilà, my wish was granted!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending Fulham's first home game of this season versus the almighty local rivals, Arsenal. Lacenaire's dad, a lifetime Fulham fan for over half a century, scored us awesome seats. Fulham Football Club, founded in 1879, is the oldest professional football team in London. Their home ground is Craven Cottage, and their nickname is The Cottagers. Sadly, I was expecting the Cravenettes do their half-time dance routines but it's still very early in the season and I guess they're still practicing.

95% blokes, 50% of them lairy, 100% fun
You don't get this in America; seating sections are separated by support teams. There were loads of policeman in neon yellow uniforms on horses making sure everyone was behaving.


Billy the Badger, the cute mascot



It doesn't matter if you're playing Arsenal or Man Utd or actually Chelsea itself, this chant gets everyone going...

"We Are Fulham,
Super Fulham,
We Fulham,
FFC,
We Are Fulham,
Super Fulham,
We Are Fulham,
F*ck Chelsea."


Absolutely packed from the tube stop straight to the concession areas and then to our seats. Total fire hazard but it never got out of control; it was civilized really.

"Al Fayed whooaaa,
Al Fayed Whooaaa,
he wants to be a Brit,
And QPR are sh*t,
Al Fayed whoooaa."

I did my Veronica Corningstone chant ("power, power, powerrr") right before the game started and it worked. Fulham beat Arsenal! As we were walking back to the tube amongst tons of dismayed and disquieted Arsenal fans, I overheard a bloke say to his friend, "Gutted, I can't believe we lost to a shit team like Fulham." Ha!

On holiday...

Back in Hoxton.

That Child Is Kitty

I've just regressed back to my childhood in the best possible way ever. Was just running some quick errands in Little Tokyo and ran into Hello Kitty! Super kawaii!!!

Easy does it...

Trying to keep it together and stay sane in this last week before I go on holiday. Patience is a virtue I utterly lack.

These are my friends... to keep me company until then...

Endearing Tessa at Ooga Booga' 4th year anniversary party last Sunday. Congrats Wiggles! 4 strong years! That's like a high school diploma!


ds & I both needed some good hot broth as we were under the weather, so we had some pho ga after the "Beautiful Losers" screening. I think a kid would get a more inspirational kick out of this film than someone old & weary like meself.


Good times with Lecia, Stuart and Erin. When Stuart bit into the daikon salmon roll at Saito, he declared, "J'approve, j'approve, j'approve!" I'm gonna use this line every time I eat something yummy from now on. It's an encompassing statement really.


Another beautiful night in LA. Do you see the North Star Lacenaire?

I'm really into sincerity and righteousness lately and earnestness is just oozing out of these songs-

*Bonnie Prince Billy's new"Lie Down In The Light" record is so good, his voice is breaking my heart right now and the musicianship is exceptional: Easy Does It.mp3

*Two oldies but goodies, they never get old for Embrace is my Oasis: Come Back to What You Know.mp3 & My Weakness is None of Your Business.mp3

For he is...

I first saw Dune as a kid and loved it. Saw it again tonight. I don't know why I'm so into this film. It was on HBO last week, caught most of it by accident, then tivo'ed it the other night so I could watch the beginning and I ended up watching the entire thing. It's almost incomprehensible (so wrong that Sting's in it but hey, at least he was better here than The Bride) but it looks so good; a world so advanced that it barely requires 'puters while looking so 19th c. romantic... This is the kind of future I'm so looking forward to! Spice melange (would love some please), the Bene Gesserit (it's tempting but I'll pass on membership) and the Kwisatz Haderach (who wouldn't want to be this?) And I love this scene at the end! Love it! It's a funny film really.

1 yr anniversary

In the last year, I've been duplicitous when djing; I've been using my iTunes periodically instead of straight up using the turntables cuz' I couldn't be bothered to find certain records from my collection. You see, last year when I moved, during the Break Up, what once was a near-perfect complete collection of records, in alphabetical order, from two music zealots, became a scene similar to Ghostbusters, records flying all over the place; it was a ghastly muddle. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit here, it was almost civilized, almost... we tried to keep collections intact and they went to who loved it more but for a lot of titles, it was a tragic split.)

My records have become a burden. I don't have time to put them in alphabetical order again; I just can't. They've been just sitting there on the shelves, who knows in what kind of order; the thought of trying to find a record has become too imposing, cumbersome. I have a small stack which I hold dear to and that's about it. They've become boring now.

Sometimes, I just want to get rid of all my records like I did with my CDs last year. I'm slowly trying to simplify my life. I've been really into Dave Bruno's 100 thing challenge. I don't think I can reduce my life to a mere "100 thing" and I don't want to. I fancy the notion of feeling light and free and the ability to just move anywhere in the world at a moment's notice (well, you know in my own time really). This is what I'm trying to achieve these days... But I think the idea is not to be owned by material possessions; I want to own things I truly need and truly hold dear to... which when it comes down to, aren't many.

Alex, a burgeoning music pupil, offered to sort my records for me a couple of weeks ago. I didn't take him seriously at first. I mean, who would want to do that kind of drudgery? Well, the offer was offered again and again and so yesterday, he arrived right on time and meticulously sorted my records for me. It was enlightening to see how many "B" and "S" records I have. I guess I could go into the deep-rooted reasons why there are so many of these BS records but I'll save that for another time when I'm dry on words... But back to the amount of records... Daunting was the word! Alex kept his cool which made me keep my cool and I joined in on the "fun" and to my surprise, I found some records unopened, not realizing I had them in the first place. Record after record was played, and now I have a new Dublab set ready to go and they're all records! Yes!


Dear Alex had a lovely efficient system and in no time, we were finished and watched the Olympics wondering why gymnastics were created in the first place and admiring all the dolphin-like swimmers in the Water Cube.


My instructions: classical has its own section, so do comps and soundtracks and please sort by Last Name, from left to right, no need to sort by album title within artist name :)


And my cactus plant (the same one that bloomed its magnificent fuschia flowers back in May) bloomed again last night. This time it was pure white. Pretty magical. It's dead now though. Oh well.... nothing lasts forever as the Bunnymen says but the love for my records which I'm just rediscovering again. Merci beaucoup Alex.

How Can You Not Love Pork?

My third night in a row this week enjoying yummy Asian food. This evening, I went out to dinner with the gals (again) at Koraku in Little Tokyo as TED and I were craving the Shrimp omelette with gravy on pork fried rice (gravy on the side of course). No ramen tonight, too hot and humid.

I tell you, my diet lately has been very meat-heavy. I'm a bit concern; perhaps next week, I'm gonna have to try to lower my intake of pork just a bit. I'm thinking I'm gonna cut it in half, perhaps just 3-4 times?



This is simply one of the best things in the world to eat...

Let's Get Out of this Country...

That's what I'll be doing in a couple of weeks but tonight's dinner reminds me how great LA is. Spicy BBQ Restaurant, Northern Thai Specialists. Let's see, we had pork, and pork, and pork, and oh yeah, we added a couple of beef and chicken courses just to balance it out. Toothsome!




***
I've been heavily getting back into Tim Hardin lately; two of my current favorite tracks I've been listening to on a daily basis, nonstop:
Romantic, heartbreaking, this is a special song: If I Were a Carpenter.mp3



And "Lady Came from Baltimore"

My hero covers another hero: Dylan on Hardin

The rhythm of the weekend...