I picked up this brand new button-down shirt from Faconnable for under £15, a real bargain. Faconnable make high end mens and womens fashionwear, with the onus on ‘elegance’. Well, I’m built like a docker with an underactive thyroid, so while ‘elegant’ is an epithet that would never be used to describe me, I’m not too fussed and can fill a shirt out just as good as anyone.
The Albion have just signed two young Argentianian midfielders on a Bosman. Exciting stuff, and with Poyet, Taricco, and slippery old Calderon already at the club, it’s looking like a Spanish/Latin tilt at promotion may not be such a pipe dream this season after all. It should be a flair-filled campaign either way. Tengo gusto!
The day after the day that wasn’t, eh readers? A funeral march would be more appropriate, but I’m losing myself in some Underworld instead. From their 2007 ‘Oblivion With Bells’ album, this is the Audiojack remixed ‘Holding the Moth’. There’s a throwaway line in the tune that goes “Keep it simple”, well the Germans did and that was that.
‘Taxi for Capello!’
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Picked up yet another pair of white trainers, I really have to re-think my white leather fetish. But at least these are special, a BNIB pair of the 2009 re-issue of the adidas Kegler Super.
The original Keglers were innovative in that they introduced to the world the ‘Peg System’ – which allowed the wearer to change the feel of the shoe to suit whatever activity they were partaking in. Oddly, no-one ever explained what these settings were; what was best for walking, playing footy, climbing trees or even being on your toes after nicking sweets from the corner shop? So, a gimmick, but a nice harmless one.
The 2009 re-issues were in a blue-red-blue colourway and the leather was perforated, and they sold out in no time. So, I’ll be treating these with kid gloves – no trekking through the mud between the Station pub to Withdean in them. It will be hard not to slip them on more, because these are the most comfortable and good-looking trainers I’ve worn in many a year.
"It's a soccerball stadium stoopid!"
So, that’s that then. “Falmer” has now become “The American Express Community Stadium”, or “The Amex”. Fair enough, for that is the way of that there modern football – corporate sponsorship, and no doubt swarms of badly suited and be-quiffed Amex funboy employees crawling all over the corporate areas of the new stadium. Not a big shock – it could have been The Heinz Beanz Basin, or The Durex Blobs Arena.
But it’s not being American Expressed like that here friends, not never; the Hovian will fight a rearguard action, and this shall be the last post where “Falmer” is called anything other than “Falmer”. See you all in Falmer next season but one then.
Monday morning, when life’s just a drag and you sometimes wonder about the banal meaningless of your very existence in the face of a cold, indifferent universe. Or, the start of the working bastard week and you can’t be arsed to crawl out of your scratcher – either way it’s a time that we all dread. You need a pick-me-up, how about setting it to a soundtrack? That’s what I do, and I’ll share what’s getting played the most on my iPod each Monday am.
The Stone Roses were, for a fleeting moment around 1989, the Coolest People On The Planet™, and Ian Brown was the coolest Rose, long before he slipped into self-parody with his ridiculous faux scally simian years of ‘Monkey Man’. I was in my late teens when Acid House kicked off, and it took me a little while to get into the Balearic/House music scene. Bands like the Roses and the Happy Mondays made the transition from guitar music to electronic beats that much more smooth than it otherwise would have been. In this video from The Other Side of Midnight, the Stone Roses were a cut above anything else that was being done at this time, the sound and the look were unique, and a welcome relief from the wilderness of Stock, Aitken & Waterman pop tarts and farts. Enjoy.
A very recent acquisiton this, bought for next to nothing online. A “cag in a bag” from Sierra Designs. I think this is pretty rare, and it’s a nice fit – ideal for when you’re caught out in those be-yootiful Sussex summer showers.
It beats those horrible blue placcy bags with the BHAFC logo on that the club hoik out for £1 a go at Withdean. Just because it’s raining doesn’t mean you have to look like a whopper.
…because the Football League One fixtures for next season came out this morning! Forget about that oddball tourny in South Africa, with its cold (fucking cold! in the World Cup?!?!) fans and their stupid horns and clothes, the real football starts with a quick gander at where the Hovian, trusty camera in hand, will be marching into from August until May 2011.
It’s the last ever season at Withdean, and I’ve finally got around to purchasing my season ticket in Block H. This of course should guarantee me a decent seat at Falmer in 2011/2012, but enough of that, it’s too early to worry about it. I’m now also working shifts, which will surely make me miss some top games I’d otherwise be travelling to; but I really want to get to Scumhampton again, and get my arse over to Bournemouth and Plymouth. Oop north for Wednesday at Hillsborough is another one, and Notts County is another awayday I’ll be sniffing at.
So you can keep your overpaid metrosexuals, your bandwagon-jumping “celebrity football fans”, your fake-tan slapper WAGs, and your vuvuzelas (a free pint all season courtesy of yours truly for the first chap to knock out any whopper blowing one of these at our match), the real thing is almost here again. Bliss.
It’s World Cup time! I’m off with a crate of lager (I know, I know, but not everyone likes real ale and it’s a time for sharing) to watch the first England game at my mate’s flat. Thought about the pub, but it will be rammed (there might be a bastard vuvuzela or two there anyway, enough to make me murderous), and I’m working on Sunday.
Below: vintage zip up trackie from Gabicci, “Bowie Low” tee by Casual Connoisseur, ED47 selvedge jeans by Edwin, Top Winners by Puma.
The Hovian 