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

A memory from last summer

Location: exterior, downtown Seattle, close to James and 3rd, the presence of Washington state green is felt strongly everywhere
Weather: temperature around 22C, ca. 34% humidity, partly cloudy
Time: 17:42 local time, early August 09

Scene: 2 happy dudes in an old beige Toyota are driving in downtown and are having great fun catching up. Both front windows are open as the car has no functioning AC. The driver has just picked up the other guy and they laugh loudly at times. Car radio at mid volume sings in the background:

"Just dance, gonna be okay
Da da doo doot-n
Just dance, spin that record babe
Da da doo doot-n
Just dance, gonna be okay
D-D-D-Dance, dance, dance, just
J-J-Just dance..."

Uncanny resemblance 4

Norwegian football referee Tom Henning Ovrebo and the Thing of Fantastic Four

Freedom of what not

Resolution 4. Human beings are born free and shall live freely. They are free to READ, SAY and THINK exactly the way they please. No one has the right to force them to do so otherwise.

Same context exists in the articles of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

On social interaction

Resolution 2. Don't ever discuss politics with people you don't know or the people you are certain that you're at odds with, specially over a beer.

Resolution 3. If there are people that you don't like, don't ever forget the reason why.

He who is up there

"Let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He's a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift, and then what does He do, I swear for His own amusement, His own private, cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It's the goof of all time. Look but don't touch. Touch but don't taste. Taste, don't swallow. Ahaha! And while you're jumpin' from one foot to the next, what is He doing? He's laughing His sick, f---ing ass off! He's a tight-ass! He's a SADIST! He's an absentee landlord! Worship that? NEVER!"

Words by John Milton from "Devil's Advocate"

Source: imdb.com

A tribute

I am not sure but I think I dreamed of my late uncle the other night which writing this note inevitable. I barely remember him, he passed away when I was 10 after a long fight with a disease that had left him paralyzed for years. It's just very faint memories of him that are left from him with me. Well that, and his paintings and some other artworks which Lord knows its whereabouts, that is the artworks that survived his fire attack, you know he burned all his paintings once on the roof of his house and filmed it, why? Long story...

All I know is that he was a caring father, a loyal friend and a loving brother in his own particular artistic way. This is well confirmed by his best and closest friend; My father!

His younger son i.e. my cousin is now carrying his torch with his graphic works as well as his music. I would have loved to have access to his works (preferably digital) and put them here every now and then for myself but his official website is under construction for the time being so I have to settle with my cousin's work for the time being, something which I regard equally fascinating. I will try to put at least one work per month here just to remind myself of something thoughtful and beautiful in the form of visual art.

More info available at: www.farzadonline.com

Best 11.56 bucks I've ever spent

Time: 12:15 local time

Place: The Original Philly's, Seattle, USA