Year's recap

It has been an end-of-the-year tradition (particularly in the media) that a recap of the year that has passed is done as the year comes to an end. While I believe that it is a good idea to review the year's event (for sole purpose of learning something), I feel sort of apathetic about it, at least for the state of mind of that I find myself in while putting down these words. I think the origin comes from the fact that one is living in the 'now' moment and this damn thing which we call time cannot-unfortunately!- be turned back to change its course and it is even more unfortunate that we cannot predict what is coming toward us neither, so it is a quite peculiar situation to say the least.

Having said this and in line with self-contradiction, I would say:

On a global perspective, I think the most important and distinct event of the year was what happened a few weeks prior and mostly after this year's presidential election in our country which sparked a massive unprecedented unrest afterwards, some of which are still ongoing as of now. I think many would agree that this single event can be regarded as the turning point in the contemporary history of the country, some radical would argue that it was a an embryo of a revolution. Well, I am not sure about that and more importantly, that's not up for contest now either. It nevertheless consumed, to say the least, hours and hours of our energy and mental capabilities...generously spent on discussing the every possible angle of it from many different perspectives followed by a full, in-depth analysis. If I were smart enough and recorded all those long, and often inconclusive talks, I would have had rich material to fill a whole book or something. The rest of events that happened in 09 are not equally significant as they do not have of much of impact on MY universe, and therefore I decline to bring them up now, they can be easily found in everywhere now.

On a personal level, I would say that the global credit crunch did have an impact on my economy, not that much of a hard blow though despite facing some remaining deficits from last year. After surviving a wave of layoffs at work, we were forced to work less and take a pay-cut which gave me extra time to spend with a few guests that we had over during summer, my brother among them who was having his first visit after 9 years. The year contained a fair amount of traveling into new places and visiting some old friends too...always more than pleasant. In this year, I also reconciled with our elegant and beautifully rich poetry and modestly, started to set foot in the marvelous ocean of Persian mysticism thanks to poems of His Highness Mawlana. I should mention that the massive help that I received from friends and family in providing me with the resources of thought nutrition has been invaluable in his aspect. The ending months was also marked by something that can be defined as changing point in my life and I will talk about this, inevitably and gladly, more in the future :-)

To wrap thing up, here are my bests of the last year:

1. Best movie seen: Into The Wild
2. Best book read: Into Thin Air (maybe because I haven't read 'the other' book yet!)
3. Best album listened to: Passion of Rumi by Shahram and Hafez Nazeri

Vater und sohn

When I was about 8-9 years old, my brother, who happened to be my number one enemy back then- typical!, did something quite uncanny and gave me a birthday present: a book called "The stories of me and my father" in 3 volumes. It was the collection of strips by German cartoonist Erich Ohser aka E.O. Plauen and dealt with short adventures of a father and his son Eric. It was a wordless feature but, I believe for the first time, they had written the short plot in Persian on the opposite page. The father, even though depicted as a rough violent man with thick mustache and supposedly short temper was extremely light-hearted and kind in nature, the kid was a bit of small devil on surface but deep inside he was very thoughtful and sympathetic. They both had a established set of values like fairness in treating others, standing up for one's right, mutual respect and compassion and etc. Their small adventures had a moral lessen hidden behind them. The whole strip was educating, rich, amusing, funny and innocent - a perfect gift for a kid of that age. I enjoyed that book immensely and grew close to those characters. I remember that at the end of the 3rd volume, as an end was inevitable, their creator decided to send them to the sky (heaven): they walk into to the air as they are holding hands and eventually, the father becomes the face of the moon with a gentle smile while the son turns into the tiny little star beside him and thus, they become immortal forever. This sweet ending was incredibly tragic for me and made me cry a lot - and I still do when I think about it...I really had to battle through tears when writing this! I read in the introduction of that book about the cartoonist himself, that he was arrested for expressing anti Nazi opinions and committed suicide just before his trial. Had he not done that he would have possibly faced the death sentence anyhow. This also contributed more tragedy to the series ending...and even more tears as a result! Needless to say, I was -and still am as mentioned before- touched profoundly by this invaluable piece of artwork for children and this short note, is hereby meant to pay homage that great work. I am going to put some of these adventures in here every now and then to continue with my tribute -though it may be cut short as I don't have my books anymore :(- without intentionally conforming to copyright issues since the sources of them are possibly various places on the internet and it's hard to keep track them. I hope that it is understood that I mean well.

I remember that, on the back cover of the book, there was a small picture of Ohser during work while his young son, presumably at the same age of Eric, watching by. That truly showed their gentle relationship of a father and his son. I have always maintained that there is something special in the relationship of fathers and their sons and yet, I have much difficulty to pinpoint it with words. One small attempt in this sense would be a series of letters that a father carved on handmade radio and gave it to his son in the movie "Men of Honor" which read: "ASNF: A son never forgets!"

Juicy, eh?

Date: 2008-11-18

Time: 12:50 local time

Place: Tampa, USA

Snow

Well, here it is. The very first heavy snow of the year has landed and I don't like it a bit. You see, I am not like the rest of people around who are excited with snow and skiing and stuff. I can't care less for the Christmas mood. Winter is definitely not my favorite season, I like spring much better. All I think about now is the slippery roads and consequent ice everywhere in a matter of days, falling down and breaking your body parts (stupid!) and above all, the dirty slush that will be there for months staring at you and mocking your dislike of the season. Hell, allow me to freely state that I genuinely disgust it.

Postulate 1. Where the hell is global warming? Cuz, sure as hell, I don't see it around here!

Postulate 2. It never snows in Florida.

How to kill a normal to medium range hangover

1. Eat a moderate breakfast: 1-2 cups of semi-sweet coffee/tea, 1-2 toast bread with cheese/jam/Nutella, fresh fruits etc. Don't over eat!

2. After 20-30 minutes, take 2 Advil liqui-gel pills with milk or juice

3. Wait for about 2-3 hours, lay down and watch something preferably unimportant, avoid reading if possible, listen to some relaxing music e.g. Playlist 4.

4. Eat a moderate lunch. Avoid greasy, heavy food

5. Continue to rest for about 1-2 hours, take a nap or something, don't oversleep as it may ruin your whole day

6. Have some juice and cookies and then head to the gym

7. Run on the treadmill for max. 40 minutes (which includes 2 five minutes of warm-up and cool down) at the speed that suits you best, avoid running very fast. Alternatively you can hit the stationary cycles but follow the same scheme

8. Work out lightly at the gym for about 30 minutes, avoid heavy weights and intensity, drink a lot of water during the work out

9. Take a shower, you're good as new!

Black

Songwriters: Vedder and Gossard

Album: Ten

Released: August 27, 1991

Hey...oooh...

Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay

Were laid spread out before me as her body once did

All five horizons revolved around her soul

As the earth to the sun

Now the air I tasted and breathed has taken a turn

Ooh, and all I taught her was everything

Ooh, I know she gave me all that she wore

And now my bitter hands chafe beneath the clouds

Of what was everything

Oh, the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed Everything...

I take a walk outside

I'm surrounded by some kids at play

I can feel their laughter, so why I do sear

Oh, and twisted thoughts that spin round my head

I'm spinning, oh, I'm spinning

How quick the sun can, drop away

And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass

Of what was everything

All the pictures have all been washed in black, tattooed everything...

All the love gone bad turned my world to black

Tattooed all I see, all that I am, all I will be...yeah...

Uh huh...uh huh...ooh...

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be star

In somebody else's sky, but why, why, why

Can't it be, can't it be mine

[We belong, we belong together, together...]

Lay low with alternative

Playlist IV.

1. "Black" Pearl Jam

2. "Glory Box" Portishead

3. "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" Radiohead

4. "Glycerine" Bush

5. "Fade into You" Mazzy Star

6. "Creep" Stone Temple Pilots

7. "Iris" Goo Goo Dolls

8. "Something In The Way" Nirvana

9. "Lightning Crashes" Live

10. "Indifference" Pearl Jam

Stickball

Walter Iooss Jr.:"There's a famous picture taken in the 50's of Willie Mays playing stickball in Harlem. I played a lot of stickball growing up and always loved it. I wanted to replicate the Mays photo in Cuba because baseball is the national sport there. It's everywhere. Cuban children play ball in the streets like kids in U.S. cities used to do. It was my last Saturday on this trip and I was slowly weaving through the streets of old Havana, looking for kids playing ball, when I came upon this corner, La Esquina. If you study the picture, you see that every eye, not just the kids' but even the dog's, is on that taped ball. It's the decisive moment, and there's no way to anticipate when you're going to get it. I had a vision of a picture that I'd tried and tried and tried to find but hadn't yet, and I came within a day of not finding it. To me it was all about getting the photograph I'd been searching for and I did it in 20 frames.

I like to photograph kids because I still dream the way kids do. All those years playing those games were some of the best times of my life. I was a stickball fanatic. When school closed for the summer, we played 12 hours a day. All morning, all afternoon, went home for dinner, then played after dinner."

Photo from cnnsi.com

What the hell is going on?

In this season, my beloved Reds are doing a great job in achieving the records that have not been reached before:

- Worst streak in the past, I don't know, 50 years or so in the league
- Failing to advance to 2nd round of CL since 2000 or something
- Failing to advance in Carling cup (expected)
and many more but I refuse to mention them as I don't stand seeing their low. Like I have maintained before to my friends, here are the main reasons in my opinion:

1. Very poor performance when it comes to new signings in the past 2 seasons. We didn't manage to get the players that we were aiming for and we basically have kept the same squad. That is possibly due to financial burden from the current debts and owners' failure to live up to their promises which in turn, has forced us to sell some players as well.

2. Relying on the current squad given the busy gaming schedule has left us with a long injury list and that has done a substantial damage. We rely heavily on 2 key players i.e. El nino and Stevie G. and their absences from time to time has cost us dearly.

3. Last but not least, I personally think that the current low can be largely related to the after shocks of last year where we lost the league title in the very last round while leading the table for the most part of the season.

Maybe Rafa has lost his 'Mojo' or something, I don't know, it is still early to think about sacking him which is not a very good option given his recent contact renewal and that move, I believe, is fundamentally naive. Either way, he's got to do something because it seems like we are heading for the gutter and I don't like the smell of that a tiny bit! The good thing has been, however, that we just won the Merseyside derby last weekend (always feels great) and we thrashed Man U at home (even sweeter than the derby for me!), let's just hope for an improving trend from now on...as Rafa himself has indicated.

My first ever game console

Preface: My brother used joke about my father and say if he finds a side mirror in the street, he will go and buy a car to attach to it! I feel like I am more or less the same...in certain aspects though!

I bought my first ever gaming console some days ago, a PS3 of course, basically to check out the newly released game of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2". Maybe I should admit firstly that I have been a COD junkie since a few years back. Anyway, if it wasn't for this game, I may have not bought that neither...maybe! When the package arrived, much earlier than what I expected, I didn't open it for days because I had given my TV for repair, a ----ing noise that has been bothering me for ages! I had everything in place last week, so I set everything up and...man, wild stuff! This thing is mind blowing...just what I needed indeed, and it may easily be that my not-so-preplanned-absences from here and there, is blamed on it...foget 'bout it!*

*I am very much hooked up with this phrase these days for no particular reason. As it is explained by Johnny Depp, who plays Donnie Brasco in the movie "Donnie Brasco": "Forget about it" is like, if you agree with someone, you know, like "Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, forget about it." But then, if you disagree, like "A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it!" you know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like minga those peppers, "forget about it." But it's also like saying "Go to hell!" too. Like, you know, like "Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker!" and Paulie says "Forget about it!" And then, sometimes it just means forget about it!

SCREEEAAAMMM

At this very moment, I feel so angry, so...I don't know how to describe it, that I just want to go on a roof top and scream my lungs out OR, even better, like the guy in the Fight Club, destroy something beautiful.

Pass time in winter

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

- Rogers Hornsby

Important note to myself

Resolution 6. 2009-10-19

Elephant in the dark

پيل اندر خانه‌ي تاريک بود

عرضه را آورده بودندش هنود

از براي ديدنش مردم بسي

اندر آن ظلمت همي‌شد هر کسي

ديدنش با چشم چون ممکن نبود

اندر آن تاريکيش کف مي‌بسود

آن يکي را کف به خرطوم اوفتاد

گفت همچون ناودانست اين نهاد

آن يکي را دست بر گوشش رسيد

آن برو چون بادبيزن شد پديد

آن يکي را کف چو بر پايش بسود

گفت شکل پيل ديدم چون عمود

آن يکي بر پشت او بنهاد دست

گفت خود اين پيل چون تختي بدست

همچنين هر يک به جزوي که رسيد

فهم آن مي‌کرد هر جا مي‌شنيد

از نظرگه گفتشان شد مختلف

آن يکي دالش لقب داد اين الف

در کف هر کس اگر شمعي بدي

اختلاف از گفتشان بيرون شدي

چشم حس همچون کف دستست و بس

نيست کف را بر همه‌ي او دست‌رس

چشم دريا ديگرست و کف دگر

کف بهل وز ديده‌ي دريا نگر

جنبش کفها ز دريا روز و شب

کف همي‌بيني و دريا نه عجب

ما چو کشتيها بهم بر مي‌زنيم

تيره‌چشميم و در آب روشنيم

اي تو در کشتي تن رفته به خواب

آب را ديدي نگر در آب آب

آب را آبيست کو مي‌راندش

روح را روحيست کو مي‌خواندش

موسي و عيسي کجا بد کفتاب

کشت موجودات را مي‌داد آب

آدم و حوا کجا بد آن زمان

که خدا افکند اين زه در کمان

اين سخن هم ناقص است و ابترست

آن سخن که نيست ناقص آن سرست

گر بگويد زان بلغزد پاي تو

ور نگويد هيچ از آن اي واي تو

Party with Metallica

Playlist III.

1. "Battery" Master of Puppets

2. "Die Die My Darling" Garage Inc. Disc 1

3. "Enter Sandman" Metallica

4. "The Four Horsemen" Kill'em All

5. "Last Caress/Green Hell" Garage Inc. Disc 2

6. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" Ride The Lightning

7. "Breadfan" Garage Inc. Disc 2

8. "Hit The Lights" Kill'em All

9. "Fuel" Reload

10. "Whiskey In The Jar" Garage Inc. Disc 1

A link where you can download this playlist is available upon request.

NY Bombers: Love'em, Hate'em

Yankees won the world series again the other week...for the 27th times! No team in the professional sports has ever accomplished that.

Yes, it's true that the franchise has spent ca. 1 billion dollars since 2000 and they are notorious for their spending spree and overpaid/overrated/pass-their-prime players, conveying huge amount of distress to the people of NYC thanks to gigantic ego of 'The Boss' and his endless threats of moving the franchise to somewhere else than Bronx, destroying 'The house that Ruth built'- one of the trademarks of the the big apple- for a lavish, costly top-notch club house right across street and so on...

But the fact of the matter still remains, and I have to repeat myself, that they have won the world series for the 27th times and no team, I repeat NO TEAM, in the professional sports has ever accomplished such a milestone. For that, they do deserve awful lot of credit (and that includes everyone involved) despite the methods of club's executives have been (and will be?) highly questionable in the recent past years.

Eκβάτανα

A weekday, the sun is about to set in the western horizon of a tired, worn and heavily polluted city, people are mostly on their way home, chaotic traffic and its indefinite jams with its background music: the deafening sounds of horns, the sight of the so-called liberty monument which was originally a king's memory with its dazzling architecture and all those uncanny curvatures, the warmth of the air and the salty taste of sweat, the tired feet, the repelling smell of exhaust gases, the tight and uncomfortable rides, the sight of airplanes landing and taking off in the airport nearby, the heated half court basketball and the ice cold soda afterward, the chicken that was grilled on the balcony, the calm of the night and the sound of AC, the cold water in a metallic jar, the endless talks in the dark, the extremely loud snoring by someone, the poster of young MJ on the wall, the very strong home-made beer, the late 5-card-draw pokers, the surreal movie of The Wall, the harsh smell of freshly burned leaves...

Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there?

Source for the notes: www.streetmusician.co.uk

Missed his blog

There was (and still is) a mullah who used to be some kind of deputy vice-president...not very long ago. He was quite liberal and an open-minded reformist. He was possibly the first of his peers who entered the world of blogging and modern(!) IT era. He put up a site(or blog?) and started writing, blogging, whatever. I think I had seen that site, it was not too bad and quite interesting especially for those who knew him and his surroundings and the related events. In the aftermath of the recent unrest, he got arrested by the same regime which he was a representing and defending while ago (ironically!) and was sent to prison and was later put on trial and etc. I read somewhere, that he was granted very limited access to internet and managed to post something on his blog or maybe started to write memoirs or so, I don't remember exactly. Anyway, (here's the punch line) he said that in the midst of his interrogation, he suddenly thought of his site/blog and he missed it big time which I found that very cute!

I'd like to reach a point (not by being imprisoned or anything obviously) that I feel that I miss my blog so much. Right now, I don't miss it particularly much. I mean I like it very much but I don't miss it. There is something about this feeling that makes things very dearer. I guess human beings start to realize the real value of things as soon as they lose them, suck!

5 years

Thèse

Sometimes, I feel like that I am 5 years behind. I mean I should have been in this position in life for about 5 years ago, that is the social status, the family, the job, the belongings, the mind set, the money, the experience, everything should have been reached a while ago. While I must emphasize on the fact that I have been very lucky to have achieved almost everything that I aimed for, I just can't help wondering what it would been like if I was in the same spot as I am now only 5 years younger.

Anti-thèse

What is 5 years? It's nothing!

Synthèse

Well, it's not like that I do have a choice and can change things around, it's just a mind tickling that I get every now and then.

Time management

Resolution 5. The time spent 'wasting' (you know EXACTLY what I mean!) at the computer/internet X (minimum)2 = The time spent reading.

The time allocated for wasting will be monitored carefully.

I to U via H

Source: www.farzadonline.com

With a strong taste of Seattle

Playlist II.

1. "Rape me" Nirvana

2. "Killing in the name of" Rage Against The Machine

3. "By the way" Red Hot Chili Peppers

4. "State of love and trust" Pearl Jam

5. "Hunger Strike" Temple of the Dog

6. "Pillar of Davidson" Live

7. "Fell on black days" Soundgarden

8. "I stay away" Alice in Chains

9. "Be yourself" Audioslave

10. "Heart Shaped Box" Nirvana

A link where you can download this playlist is available upon request.

Shankly said

“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.”

Poles apart

Sitting alone in a otherwise full bus, I am on the road in very low quality high roads of the neighboring country...getting farther and farther from home and beloved ones...heading to a destination that may change the course of rest of my life...the 2nd trip on the same damn road, this ride eventually took slightly over 40 hours which was a progress compared to the 1st one which took 52 hours in a row!...passing by the mountains and the cold landscape...I am sitting by the window and staring at the half cloudy sky, completely drowned in my thoughts...Will I succeed this time? and if so, what will happen next? How will it go this time? How does it look out there anyway...out there in the very west?

Gilmore in my walkman says:
"Did you know...it was all going to go so wrong for you
And did you see it was all going to be so right for me
Why did we tell you then
You were always the golden boy then
And that you'd never lose that light in your eyes

Hey you...did you ever realise what you'd become
And did you see that it wasn't only me you were running from
Did you know all the time but it never bothered you anyway
Leading the blind while I stared out the steel in your eyes

The rain fell slow, down on all the roofs of uncertainty
I thought of you and the years and all the sadness fell away from me
And did you know...

I never thought that you'd lose that light in your eyes"

Re: What a relief and the 1st playlist

For about 7 months ago, I put up a poll in here asking my tiny audience if they would tune in if I started my radio show, a kind of show that I get to play my flavor of music and maybe just a little bit of talk, discussion etc. Everyone who responded, even though they were very few, said yes which was encouraging and discouraging at the same time. Then I ran into some technicality and laziness so I gave that up and reasoned that away in a post on 7th of Aug. I have got to be honest and admit that I didn't really let go of the idea specially when I received some good tips from a cool guy called JS who was doing more or less the same thing. So I thought I put up playlists here to have done the least and work on the technicalities in the parallel front and see how things go...as I had promised before! The idea is to have one playlist per week (fingers crossed!), so here's the first one...oh before I even start, some important rules:

1. Avoid repitition as much as possible...but don't sweat it!
2. Playlists consist of 10 songs, 1st and last are of the same band.
3. Playlists have a theme, musically and otherwise.
4. More rules may be added along the way.

If you have some tips for improvement, do let me know. So here we go:

Playlist I: Hors-d’œuvre

1. "Vicarious" Tool
2. "Creeping Death" Metallica
3. "Wasted Years" Iron Maiden
4. "Rust in Peace...Polaris" Megadeth
5. "Dead Skin Mask" Slayer
6. "Keine Lust" Rammstein
7. "The Beautiful People" Marilyn Manson
8. "F---ing Hostile" Pantera
9. "Roots Bloody Roots" Sepultura
10. " Forty Six & 2" Tool

Let me know if you want have this playlist and I will provide you with a link where you can download it.

Ode to Kli-pache

O' you Kli-pache
You blow my mind!

You look so grotesque
And yet I never get tired of staring at you...ever!

You are the definition of beauty at the peak of hideousness
Or the other way around

You smell so bad
And yet I enjoy being beside you beyond imagination
I want to spend the rest of my life with you

You have so many mysteries, so many dark and bright facets
And I don't want to explore any of them like Columbus
I just want to absorb you as a whole
Slowly and fast
With endless greed
And by doing so
Literally see my veins clogging of Cholesterol
Oh damn you Cholesterol!

O' Kli-pache
You simply blow my mind
So bad!

YNWA

"When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone"

Our passion, our pride, our glory.

I remember a couple of years ago, I was working at a small private company and they had a courier who was basically running the errands of the executives of the small company. He mostly went to banks and cashed checks and etc. He was too old for that job. He claimed to be a football player in the past (and probably he was, maybe a B or C player) and knew many of the players and managers...the celebrities of those days! You could easily see that he suffered from severe chronic depression, for example, I remember the day that his first child was born, a huge day in every man's life, he was trying really hard to look happy but one could see that he was deeply depressed to the bone. When I started to work there, he was very distant and kept his business to himself, arguing with his bosses every now and then (who didn't treat him with courtesy at times and he was genuinely very proud so the frictions were inevitable) and didn't mind others, specially me. Little by little, he got closer to me to a point that I felt like I was his best and the only friend in the world. I, however, tried to maintain a constant distance at all times for my own sake. He was talking to me and only me during his breaks, bad mouthing his bosses, his former pals who have let him down many times, his life, his failures...everything. But he was a THE biggest LFC fan that I have ever seen. Back in those days that getting the results of European leagues was not as easy as it is today as there were no internet or anything, people were still relying on newspapers and TV for the latest news, he used to follow every single league game and discuss them afterward with me. Now, I was a red fan from before, but definitely not in his scale (hell no one could ever match his devotion). I remember that one sad Friday afternoon in the fall, my father took me to the oldest stadium in town to see the reds of the capital thrashing their opponent 3-0, that was the first time that I watched football in a stadium and I will never ever forget that day. I fell deeply in love with the game at the age of 7-8 and I became, and still am proudly, a die hard red fan ever since. Looking for role models in football when the domestic front was failing or felt too boring, all the red fans around were turning to Man U and I somehow for some unknown reason, never liked them despite this turn was very natural, so I fell for the next red thing and that was obviously LFC. During the years that I was physically and mentally away from football, I still kept this childhood love in the back of my heart and it did not surface for long until a miracle occurred in Istanbul in 2005 (what a unforgettable night!). Back to my buddy, I remember he was very much at odds with then manager Hollier (1998-2004) and didn't approve of his style. Those days were not exactly the best days of LFC neither, swinging from a mediocre to contender spot in the table. His disappointment and sadness, on top of his depression!, were immense when a loss came up. His passion and dedication to LFC, for a guy of his caliber who has never even been to LFC game or any where near it, always watching it from TV from thousands of miles away was a great inspiration for me to follow this passion more consistently. He possessed the kind of affection that fueled the likes of Bill Shankly and Paisley and etc. A true devotee to "The spirit of Shankly"* indeed he was. I don't know anything about his whereabouts now nor I remember his name correctly. I just hope that he doing fine or at least much better than those days wherever he is now...if he is still alive. It would have a great shame for our world without a great fan like him.

The sound of the Kop singing YNWA, even though that I have never been there but I would very much like to, always gives me goose bumps, makes me feel big, huge, indefinite...like the ocean, like the sky, like universe. An inexplicable feeling, which is very important because as it was said before, "It's more important to feel strong rather being strong!"

I'd like finish for the time being with a famous story from the great Shankly to pay homage to all the fellow follower of his great spirit. This is also known as the scarf incident: one of the most iconic images of all was caught on television, when a Liverpool scarf which had been thrown at Shankly during a lap of honor was flung to one side by a policeman, in April 1973, when he and the team were showing off the League Championship trophy to the Kop. Shankly pounced on the scarf and reprimanded the copper, uttering the immortal words "Don't do that. This might be someone's life."

Source: www.wikipedia.org

* Spirit of Shankly: Liverpool Suppoters' Union