hull v. millwall

four months later and ten days before coming home i finally went to my first proper english football match. i have to say it's everything i thought it would be, replete with riotous fans. here are some fotos of the hull city v. millwall match. it was hosted here in hull at the KC stadium.


you'll have to forgive the brevity & low-fi quality of the video. i took it on a bad camera without trying to look like a foreigner. they say that american football matches are loud, notably denver's mile high coliseum. the KC stadium only seats 20,000 (as opposed to larger clubs like manchester united's old trafford with 80,000+ capacity) but i guarantee it gets louder than any football stadium in the US.


the pitch. hull city are in orange & black and millwall wears blue. it was the tigers vs. the lions, respectively.


home stands.


away stands. click on the photo and go to my flickr to see a larger version of this: the millwall fans are plagued by riots and post-match fights (instigated by them). four mounted police arrived after half-time and a line of police had to create a buffer between millwall and hull city fans.


the gang.

hull city won the match 2-0, giving millwall and their shit supporters a decent thrashing. the millwall fans are, if you're familiar with american football, similar to the fans of the oakland raiders. they're not so much there to enjoy a nice saturday match as start fights with the other team's fans. their motto is something like "if you can't beat 'em, kill 'em in the parking lot." they were allowed to leave the stadium after hull city fans left and under police escort to a private parking lot where they boarded coaches. pretty funny stuff.

-e pics n' things!

loose ends

a random selection of photos i've been keeping from everybody for no good reason at all.


thank god they're high class.


ice skaters at the tower of london.


white tower church.


den gamle by village in århus.


danish posters.


target practice at blåvand.

-e pics n' things!

intifada, globalized

courtesy zombietime.
this photo does not represent my thoughts but instead is meant to illustrate the increasing intensity of messages being fed into public view. it is so important that people not just treat this as another che t-shirt slogan and pay attention to what the implications of a globalized intifada are.

in the past months the united states has peacefully elected the most socially liberal president into office. barack has so far managed to maintain the image of one of the clearest thinking men in power anywhere and one can see this with the variety of people whom he has chose to serve in his cabinet. this, one would think, might reflect the maturing thoughts of a concerned peoples. if only it were that easy. across the states, however, there are contradictions and misgivings. gay marriage rights were voted down in california just after obama had won the elections in 2008.

earlier this month violent anti-war demonstrations broke out across the nation and indeed across the world. we are lucky in the united states to have not suffered from some of these more serious afflictions of belief. but that does not mean that we are less subject to a complete misunderstanding of the situation at hand. from california to florida to new york there are people compelled to replace the star of david with the swastika. it is impossible to separate opinion from this type of discussion, no matter how neutral you want to remain. i hope that, just for the moment, my orientation will be more translucent than usual. i also want to note that i am well aware that the vast majority of people either don't care (a sadness in itself, yet far different than the sort of sadness that over-zealousness often results in) or they don't feel the need to throw bricks through windows. i am perfectly aware that those who express extreme-left or right opinions often earn the spotlight but that doesn't mean that these issues should be disregarded. by dissecting what exactly people on the far left or right are saying it becomes easier to see that neither side fits everybody.

in the united states there has been an increasing amount of demonstration against the war in gaza. some of the more eager events appear pro-hamas. these often turn, however, less into pro-hamas gatherings and more into anti-israel demonstrations calling for, among the more polite suggestions, jewish businesses to be boycotted. there seem to be a great deal of palestinians at these rallies but what's truly frightening is the amount of middle-class white americans present.

feeling that they are making a difference in the world these people show up with little more than the desire to throw a brick through the nearest starbucks' window under the guise of campaigning for equal rights. some of the strangest phenomenon appears to be happening among other oppressed groups such as the LGBT organizations that are in support of a free palestine. a free palestine would result in a middle east that is completely intolerant of gays, to a point where homosexuality would be punishable by death (as it currently is under hamas). israel, despite a grotesque show of military force in the presence of civilian populations (air force strikes, etc. - though this is another issue entirely as hamas factions will use said civilians as human shields), is the last bastion of gay equality in the middle east. tel aviv was even named a new great place for gays to visit by out magazine.

this is really just scratching the surface of this argument and i can already feel some people's blood beginning to curdle. i'm not here to start fights. i suppose this post really is just me trying to figure out for myself just what the fuck is happening in that region. many thoughts here are only partially hashed out but i hope that by getting them in text form i can further understand what is going on. my own opinions are, for the most part, irrelevant but becoming better educated is not. there will always be more to learn and more listen to.

while discussing the topic last night my saudi arabian roommate said this: "hamas, PNA, israel, whoever. it doesn't matter. it's the people. their lives are ruined. how could you support anybody who ruins lives and knows they're doing it?"

-e pics n' things!

the beginning.

i'm playing with several different stories right now, each pretty different from the next. they're all only finished up through their introductions and i'm having a hell of a time getting past that point. i just arrive there and...nothing else after that. hopefully i'll get the energy to actually make a concerted effort at some of this stuff.

There was a smashing and crashing. Loud crunches erupted from the treeline and birds long extinct were rudely excavated from their still nests. Unborn chicks in unhatched eggs lay exposed, swaddled in sprigs and shoots. Bugs on the ground, now fossils, burrowed to avoid the shaking and snapping of twigs. Something looking not entirely unlike an aardvark slothed away, rolling its big eyes in its big head that had nothing much else in it (save the big eyes, of course). Monkey-type critters howled and leaped from trunk to trunk, avoiding the daily routine of not getting killed by something big. Green leaves were turned to paste and branches crumpled under forces rivaling most modern day hydraulics. Brontosaurus lifted his head above the canopy, chewing a mouthful of leaves, each larger than it ought to be. How come nobody ever wants to stay for dinner? He picked up his tail and plodded to another tree some distance away. What else was there to do but be selective about your eating? His feet made imprints that would last longer than him. They would last another several thousand years. Until the comet came, even. Until no piece of dust or dirt or bone or plant or shell was left unmoved or unburned. His feet sank heavy into the soil, pressing his presence into the world as a great author does with their opus. Maybe nobody will read it in years to come but that’s not the point. His close footprints reveal a creature not in a rush, a relaxed being content with finding just the best leaf. But nobody would be around to see his footprints and know the importance of them: know that a living thing made them, an animal with warm blood and bones. They would all get burned away, but not until he was gone. But Brontosaurus didn’t think about this. In fact it didn’t even occur to him that his footprints meant anything. Well, to be totally fair, he didn’t know he made footprints. He just was.

-e pics n' things!

this isn't supposed to make sense

angela
...i ate all the cake batter btw the way...

elliott
ALL OF IT?!
DID NOT YOU GET 700 PINTS FOR ME JUST BUT THREE DAYS AGO?

angela
i've been really craving ice cream!!

elliott
HOW DID YOU EAT ALL OF IT WITHOUT YOUR GUTS TURNING TO BLOWN OUT TUBES OF CREAM?
I LOVE CAPS
THAT IS O.K. AS WELL

angela
THE SAME NIGHT I ATE MCDONALDS WITH ALLY
I ALMOST DIED THE NEXT MORNING

elliott
THIS IS HOW I USED TO STAND OUT IN CHAT ROOMS AND PEOPLE WOULD ALWAYS SAY: "SPYEYES_01 PLZ STP YLLING @ UZ"

angela
HAHA
SPYEYES_01??

elliott
did we talk?

-e pics n' things!

already planning

this is great. february is looking to be a wonderful little month. here are some reasons:

1) finally get to see home and my favourite lady is picking me up from the airport on the 3rd! hopefully we will get to meet up with spencer in seattle.
2) i get to move into a cool ass apartment with a cool ass roommate and catch up with very missed friends in bellingham.
3) ang and i are heading to trout lake for a nice quiet valentine's day weekend. we will probably be in portland for at least one whole day. enter: jill. we'd love to meet up for cupcakes here if you want!(?)
4) ben, spencer and i are taking four days to go skiing in montana with byron. badly needed time with the boyz.
5) won't be going to school for winter quarter!
6) i'll be working and paying off credit cards and living and enjoying everything i can. i see absolutely nothing wrong with this.

february is, and i'm not even speaking in hyperbole here, going to be the best month in the universe.

-e pics n' things!

pulling up sticks, pt. ii

i now know what to do when you're getting ready to leave a country. a while ago i made a post asking the question of what a person is to do when they have to leave something they have only recently become accustomed to. in this case, what am i to do now that i'm leaving england in three weeks and i have just started to feel like i'm living here. i have a solution and it depends on the individual's denial-level. if you're, say, a novice and usually find yourself admitting defeat before you're given the chance to succeed at something, this may not be the route for you.

if you're like me and have become rather accustomed to pretending you'll never have to return to the real world then do i have the whet for your whistle. leave where you are and go home, just like you're supposed to. unpack your bags. take a hot shower. check your mail. doddle around the kitchen aimlessly for a day or two. pretend everything is normal.

and then pull up sticks and go on vacation.

in my case, plan a ski trip to bozeman with your chums and neglect to really think much farther beyond that. i know that, especially these days, we all need to be a little more careful and plan ahead. we don't know what's around the corner anymore so we have to choose our steps and be aware of over-zealous behavior. or not. or we deal with what may come with the awareness that we will be okay, even if things will get hard for a time. but there will always be something to be said about spurs of the moment. i.e. i can go without living what i think of as, oh, decently and respectfully for a few weeks if it means a couple days skiing with two of my favourite people in the world.

being overseas has taught me many things. don't get in a cab drunk and forget your address. don't tell a northerner he sounds like a southerner. don't miss your flights. but most importantly, don't pass it up. whatever it is. don't.

so, take a vacation. the economic crisis will still be here when you get back.

-e


ben, aubrey, bobby, than, myself pics n' things!

video(s)

because i have actually spent a lot of time recently watching music videos on chuffing youtube, i'm interested in what others are listening to. and this seems to be something about which everybody has something to say.

embed your favourite pop (or not pop) song video in a comment.

-e pics n' things!

underworld 3

the third installment of everybody's favourite vampire saga, underworld, is due to hit the states on january 23rd. all the folks that pitched in and made the first two so entertaining are coming together again for the prequel to the heavenly selene years. len wiseman, bill nighy, michael sheen and...not kate beckinsale.

what a damned shame that is. selene's non-involvement with this chapter is, chronologically speaking, correct as viktor has not yet adopted her as his daughter after killing her family. the only footage with beckensale's character will be bookend clips from the original underworld. a prequel. i can't imagine this franchise taking a more disappointing turn. too bad nighy signed on again because i have a hard time thinking that this isn't the end for the careers of all involved.

oh well, i'll see it anyways. for a laugh.

i just applied for a job at film is truth, too.

-e pics n' things!

pop music

i am tired of indie music.

i don't mean for this to make me sound like some salty old geezer, bent on destroying all that matters to people who most likely buy everything they can get their hands on that says "organic". i also don't want it to sounds like i'm a jaded hip kid trying to out-ironic the next guy who thinks it's cool to wear an iron maiden t-shirt and not be able to sing, or even name, one track of theirs. no, i just want to make a point.

so perhaps i should rephrase myself: i like disposable music.

having ended up in a country that really does take quite seriously celebrity culture, gossip mags, x-factor and take that i can't quite see what's wrong with pop music. unless, of course, it sounds like most of what is on x-factor or take that. but that is beside the point because there are plenty of decent top-40 bubble-pop club hits that don't sound like the backstreet boys but make you want to dance more than, say, elliott smith. comparing artists such as elliott smith to throwaway stars like rhianna is a bit like comparing your 4 year old nephew's recent finger painting to a 15 foot tall portrait of Charles I - you're not really supposed to do it. and i'm fine with this. except for that elliott smith can't make me dance like rhianna can. and, let's face it, sometimes finger painting is much more fun than stuffy portraits that are so old that if they touch air they catch fire.

no, i love disposable music. i love having this one song stuck in my brain, rattling around like the marble in a spray can. of all the groups in the world to remind me how fun it is to listen to a song that just, well, has fun with itself, sigur ros blew me away. "gobbledigook" is some loud, crashy, shouty 3 minute romp in a forest or a dance hall or an empty city street. it can be listened to through headphones or live in an arena but it should never be quiet. just like kings of leon's "sex on fire" or mgmt's "kids" or rhianna's "disturbia" it should be as loud as fucking possible. it should be so loud that if the family cat were to blunder in front of the speaker it would find itself suddenly confused and making sick on the new carpet uncontrollably for the next week. these songs should be played with friends around. or while you're alone. naked. and dancing.

i have my andrew birds, my m. wards, my band of horses...eses. but i don't necessarily want to listen to my favourite songs from each of these artists for fear that they will wear out (it should be noted, however, that i have been listening to post-war a few times a week for a couple years now and it has not wearied). but with this pop crap you can just listen to "black and gold" 85 times on repeat, throw it away and wait for the next one to come along. but this, and this is important, is the distinguishing factor: good music makes you dance, memorably good music has staying power. that is the difference between my sigur ros and sam sparro.

just because you listen to pop doesn't mean you like axe body spray or are a business major (i have yet to conclude my study on whether the inverse is true: does using axe body spray make you a business major?) - it just means that you probably like to have a good time. and most of the people i've met over here like to have a good time.

-e


sam sparro's black & gold


black & gold on bbc radio 1 pics n' things!

spoiler alert

there is a big problem with being named game of the year by umpteen gaming sources. you may have the physics engine perfected (for now). you may have gotten liam neeson, malcolm mcdowell and ron pearlman to voice act. you may have gotten scorsese to write and direct the storyline. you may have created one of the most mind-bogglingly immersive worlds created since the first seven days. you may have all of these things.

but, eventually, as most good and decent things do, the game must end. what then? not so "game-of-the-year" now, are you you fucking assholes? two major complaints: 1) how dare you place the level-up cap at 20 rather than, say, 3029.1? or at least 30? i understand the initial logic: eventually people will cap out, explore the map, finish all the side missions, etc., lose interest and the game will burn itself out. however, 2) this directly results in the game ending with the storyline. maybe this works with games like gears of war or halo, the types of action/adventures reserved for guys who spend most of their time shooting cans in the backyard with a .22 rifle, but it sure as hell doesn't fly with the kind of character creation one encounters in fallout 3. i had schematics for the railway rifle and bottlecap mine as well as many of the nuka-cola quantums for sierra petrovita saved up. i was going back for the t-51b armour. i was going to be somebody, not just some paradigm of humanity. i coulda been a contender!

the whole storyline is very well constructed, the world realized beautifully. the map is easy to get lost in and does require a little attention paid (for the first time ever i actually used the in-game maps provided. thx pip-boy). the atmosphere shines when the sun is out and when you're inside little specks of dust float by, just out of soft focus. the report of the shotgun is different than that of the pistol. there are details in this game beyond comprehension but it means nothing when you can't keep going.



...

what should i name my new character?

-e

ps. i have been doing homework and the new andrew bird album is tugging at my heartstrings. pics n' things!

pulling up sticks

how do you begin wrapping something up which you have only just become accustomed to?

-e

[edit] and on that very poignant note, i just finished fallout 3 and have simply no clue what to do with the rest of my life. except for write that paper that's due on the 22nd. but god, i won't stop thinking about that game. too bad there's a massive consequence at the end. bethesda keeps you from just wandering aimlessly about the wastes... pics n' things!

to honour a resolution (or make a new one)

2009 is, for a single good reason, the International Year of Astronomy. it has been 400 years since galileo became weary of looking at the bird feeder in his backyard and decided to have a poke about the heavens. he turned the brass, lathed the wood and polished the mirrors on his telescope. galileo mapped the moon, found saturn's rings and opened up one of the most curious endeavours in all of humanity.

this year take some time, even if it's just one evening, to have a look up. turn off the lights and learn a new constellation, find your favourite star or memorize the order of the planets if you didn't bother in 3rd grade. just look (and marvel) at everything that surrounds us.


fox coat, the unicorn & the christmas tree. can you find them all?

-e pics n' things!