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Fogged Out

Fog ruled the day in Liverpool as the game was postponed due to the soup at Anfield. No word as of yet on the reschedule. League Two (i.e. 2 levels below the Premiership) side Wycombe beat Charlton 1-nil and will meet the eventual Liverpool / Arsenal victor. That is the beuaty of this competition wherein every pro football team in England is invited to attempt such David v Goliath clashes... only such tournamnet in the world. No US equivalent, though it would be like a tourney wherein any and all college football teams in the States had a tourney... i.e. NCAA Div 1 teams playing NAIA teams, etc... The FA Cup in England is also such a competition! And even better! I guess the closest US version is the NCAA College Basketball Tournament... but that is still all Div 1 teams... Reds v Gunners should be a good match when the fog finally lifts...

Carling Cup quarters

We play at Liverpool in the Carling Cup quarters this afternoon! It is clearly 4th in line in terms of desired trophies, but it is the only domestic one Arsene has yet to win. Both sides will likely feature their "young" lineups, so one shall see? A win would be mega, but a 4-nil spanking is almost as likely!

Wrap up later, eh!

One more item to add to my Christmas list... Hey! It's only $1,019 a square foot!

Off to work then... Toodleloo. bwb.

Better Late Than Never?

After not giving up merely the FIRST, but the first and SECOND goals Saturday, the boys showed some serious heart and put 2 in the net in the second half! However, we should have scored more and given up less... more defensive lapses and more questionable use of the 4-5-1... Tomorrow at Anfield against a newly confident Liverpool in the Carling Cup... Wenger will likely rest many of our regulars so who knows...

Although it did Gooner Nation no good, this strike by Drogba is pure evil baby! (max the volume).

A MySpace for art folk? Check it out! bwb out.

Fat Wreck Chords sampler

Fat Wreck has issued a sampler with unreleased / rare tunes from a number of their bands. Highlights include as yet unheard tracks from The Loved Ones and my boys The Lawrence Arms.
Listen and/or download here.

Dutch Courage

Another vague Poison Idea reference... anyway, Arsenal has drawn Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in the first round of the Champions League knock-out stages. First leg on Feb 20/21 2007, second leg March 6/7. 16 best football clubs on the planet... may the best attack win! My fave Italian side AS Roma drew french masters Lyon... could be a short stay for Totti and company. Lyon probably the odds on favorite to replace Barca as Champs of Europe! Speaking of Barcelona... Liverpool gets them first! Ouch! Good luck Reds!

All the matchups here!

Hear "Do You Want To Be Loved" from the latest Samiam opus below friends!

Have a good weekend folks. bwb.

RIP 11 Spring St

The Great Wall of China, The Mecca, heck, The Wailing Wall of Graffiti Art is soon to be no more. This Times article talks of the illustrious history it has in the annals of street art and the recent sale of the property that will bring about it's demise. Check it out... as Jean Michel and big Keith roll in their respective graves.

Lord knows, we need more condos!

The Gunners "won ugly" to say the least at Wigan yesterday. Fabregas came on late to send a long pass to Adebayor who's excellent first touch  led to a neat little poke into the back of the net! We must get over this love affair Wenger seems to have with playing a 4-5-1... the help it provides in defense is not worth stifling one of football's best attacking sides! 4-4-2 please Arsene please!

We are now 3rd in the table with a run of 6 straight games (1 down, 5  to go) against lesser teams... getting all 18 points would be spiffy! A great looking Portsmouth visit on Saturday with the subtext of it being dear old Sol Campbell's first trip back after departing this past summer. He was a monster in his time with Arsenal and here's hoping the fans show their love and then the lads go out and run him into the pitch!

Good day! Only 10 shopping days until Christmas! Hey!!!  Brave readers out there!!! I wouldn't mind a 2006 Arsenal "away" kit... medium please! or... a 2006 Porsche Cayman S!

bwb.

King Dork photos

Awhile back someone sent Dr Frank a photo of herself reading his fantastic debut novel King Dork. It has since become a tradition to do so. Noteables who have submitted include Mick Jones (The Clash), Rick Neilsen (Cheap Trick) and Rhea Perlman of Cheers fame... he finally made a little gallery!

Draw at The Bridge

After Flamini put us ahead just before the 80 minute mark I believe my dear daughter thought Daddy was having a spell of some sort, what with the yelling, screaming and yes, dancing of various jigs! Five minutes later she must have thought our dog had run off after Michael Essien blasted home the equalizer! They then went on to twice strike the woodwork... thus we may have gotten out of West London ahead of the game with a 1-1 draw. True enough Hleb shot way high when a mere wee flick would have insured glory... so fair enough. A draw away at Chelsea is pretty good folks! They have not lost at home since Senor Mourinho took control as Manager 2 plus seasons ago. Carry on.

Tomorrow we visit Wigan in the next chapter of what has become a frightening trend of playing down to lesser teams on the road. We cannot come home with anything less than 3 points and harbor any hope of challenging the Big 2!

Oh yea, if there's a bigger bunch of childish whiners than Chelsea, please show yourselves!! Geeeeezzzz! Word has it Mourinho urges them to give the refs a hard time so late calls may go their way... not unlike what many NBA coaches do, but pleeeeaaaasssseeee... I used to like Frank Lampard, but he is pathetic, and Drogba, cat is like 6'4', 220 and he falls down with a brush of the shirt... gee, wonder why everyone outside west London despises Chelski...

Hannibal Rising, the new opus from Thomas Harris is quite good, albeit a very quick read and therefore leaves one thirsting for more... which will likely never come. Also, i dearly want to dig into Scott Smith's The Ruins, but I detest the awkward nature of hardbacks so I will wait for the July 2007 paperback release. Meanwhile I'll re-read A Simple Plan to revisit his particular sort of suspense thriller genius.

Oh yea, on the Hannibal novel... it only came out last week and the film is already well into production. The casting of the boyhood maniac should be interesting, as should be the WWII sets, etc. Read it first good people! Promise me.

In the "I sure as hell can't relate" department...
The Goldman Sachs Group announced Wall Street record earnings this year of 9.34 Billion, also announcing they would be setting aside 16.5 Billion (yes, with a B) for salaries, bonuses and benefits. That reportedly equates to $622,000 per employee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The trickle down effect is supposed to cause quite a boost in the NYC holiday economy. Probably 80% of these folks will buy a Manhattan apartment, loft or some sort of 2nd or 3rd residential property, not too mention a new Bimmer or Merc Benz! Wow! I'm sure the dude in Sudan who just walked 8 miles barefooted to get a shot at surfing the internet for a couple minutes will fondly browse that story on the NY Times site.

Now that I'm "spin the chamber" depressed, I bid you adieu!

bwb out.

Blank Blackout Vacant

Or any number of Poison Idea inspired thoughts...

Just wanted to write so as to not fuel any rumors of Arsenal match related self inflicted gun shots, etc.

Not a great deal of food for thought lately which is in itself quite sad really, but such as life sometimes. I have however been juggling Thomas Harris' Hannibal Rising, Thomas Mertons' The Seven Storey Mountain, and of course The Iraq Study Group tome. These pieces will certainly provide some food for fodder (?) in the days and weeks ahead. I was wondering... ya think the majority of the Iraq Study Group were mostly hanging out pulling bong hits and playing Xbox whilst ol' Jim Baker did most of the work?... cause I've been in study groups ya know! Many of which had much less obvious conclusions than this one. Iraq a bloody mess, ok, that about wraps it up, you fellas have a great Christmas and such...

The Gunners visit Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday in what will hopefully be a very good / hard fought match! A win would be brilliant! Though we have not beat them in the Mourinho era.

Latest news indicates... wait... gotta pick up Milo as me daughter is puking non stop... gotta go!

State of the new US Soccer coach mess discussion asap!

out. bwb.

Change of Luck?

After a run of games wherein it seemed any controversial call went against us, we seemed to have benefited from a dodgy penalty on the weekend. It did not give us the game as Adebayor had already scored in open play and the second penalty was a no brainer... bottom line: Arsenal 3 - 0 Tottenham! Hu-friggin-ray!

Now we travel to Portugal in a "must at very least draw" Champs League match versus Porto! Should be interesting as we will one again be without Henry though it seems Baptista may get a start and vanPersie and Addy make for a pretty nice strike force. Go Gunners!

In politico news... Barack Obama's "maybe I'll run for the White House" comment has led to utter chaos among the Dems... just tune any cable news network and it will be there shortly.

You'll be relieved to know Wal-Mart has launched a new "employee appreciation" initiative you can peruse the details of this gleeful document here. Interesting to note they just suffered their first ever earnings dip in November.

Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, The Godfather... now we have this to add to cinema's notable offerings: Skateboard Girls! Cool!

Have a pleasant day folks,

bwb.