Do people still write, and read, blogs? When I used to do this it seemed like everyone was blogging about something. Nowadays I rarely read blogs. Maybe everyone’s attention span got shrunk by Twitter’s character limit and Snapchat’s expiring photos. After three years of personal upheaval I feel drawn to this blog again. I am…
Fever Pitch
I had a Nick Hornby moment yesterday. We went to a farewell party for a colleague of a friend. It was a beautiful, warm Southern California afternoon. Spring had a spring in its step. Sunshine, birds were singing, there was a slight breeze. The party was outside, in a park near a river. People were…
Liverpool’s season starts tomorrow (again)
There have been numerous predictions of a new start for Liverpool FC this season. The actual start of the season, the 6th game after they had stumbled through 5 tricky opening games, and there is another new beginning tomorrow. For two reasons though this really could be the beginning of a change in fortunes for…
AFC Wimbledon against the Man
Living in the USA I have had to get used to the possibility of sports teams, sorry, franchises, moving from one city to another one, possibly on the other side of the country entirely. This years’ World’s Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants, were once the Giants of New York. Their rivals in Los Angeles…
Bolstering the left-wing dimensions
I recently saw an interview with Gabriel Kuhn, whose book, ‘Soccer and the State’, was part of the inspiration for me to write the Political Footballers XI posts last year. If you haven’t read the book I recommend it wholeheartedly. Kuhn highlights some of the key stories and people from football’s prickly relationship with politics. Here…
The most important task facing Brendan Rodgers: restoring Liverpool’s identity
During the past season being a Liverpool fan was difficult. Most of us wanted to believe the best of our players, management and administration staff. The allegations and subsequent charging of one of our best players, Luis Suarez, and the vehement defence afforded to him by the club and some fans, were difficult to watch. …
Thailand: From a small boat
Gavin Young wrote in his autobiography that the following quote from Joseph Conrad’s ‘Youth’ is a stunning invocation to travel and adventure. I heartily concur. “And this is how I see the East. I see it always from a small boat… I have the feel of the oar in my hand… And I see a bay,…
The Beastie Boys – RIP MCA
After hearing about the death of Adam Yauch I was moved to write something about my own memories of the Beastie Boys. I was 1o years old when License to Ill was released in England and all I knew of its existence was the news reports of this wild rap group from America provoking violence…
What’s up with the euro?
I recently caught up with a podcast from NPR’s This American Life show. This one, entitled ‘Continental Break-up’, is based on the seemingly never-ending economic crisis of the eurozone. And oh what a tangled web is weaved, from French dreams of union, via German fear of hyperinflation and a secretive bond trading firm in Southern California, to…
The mercantilistic history of Athletic Bilbao
In the next post in this series attempting to explain International Relations (IR) theory through football I will be looking at the similarities between the international political economy theory of economic nationalism, also known as mercantilism, and the history of Athletic Bilbao. Mercantilism was how the emerging nation-states of fifteenth century managed their trade and inter-state relations,…
Political Footballers XI: Striker Cristiano Lucarelli
In recent weeks football has demonstrated once again that is has now come a tremendously long way from its beginnings as a public school method of transforming the weakling children of the British upper classes into gentlemen ready for the trials of Empire. Even its second and more influential incarnation as a pastime and escape from…
Rainy running – keep the streets empty
It doesn’t rain very often in Solana Beach but when it does it looks like this: I just got back from a run on what I think is the rainiest day we have had since I moved here in May. There is a little over two months before I am due to run my first…
In Sun and Shadow 