Pitchers, Pianos, Riots, Reds, Football and Fighting.....
Best Weekend Ever....so far...
This weekend has been a cultural experience to say the least. The flatmates stuck together, and had a great time. Friday was a clubbing night, while Saturday (still going on, actually) was our first trip to the Forest football match, and a very calm night of decompressing back at the flat.
Last night we made our way to Lace Market (area of the city, former lace manufacturing area) and hit up Tantra, Pitcher and Piano, and Dogma. Tantra is, as it sounds, a semi-swanky club complete with red/black lighting, a great dj, and couches and pillows everywhere. It was atmospheric to say the least, but impossible to hear anyone. Pitcher and Piano is a landmark as far as i'm concerned. Built in the center of an old church, it's amazing. I took some video of the inside, while a couple danced across a suspended bridge, and you can see the huge gothic arches and stained glass. The DJ was lame as crap, but it was kinda fun to hear old US hits (Neil Diamond, Grease, Michael Jackson) while sitting in such an awesome space.... Finally, the girls were told to meet up with their 'new friends' from Pitcher at a club down the street called Dogma. It could have just as easily been called "Roscoes UK".. the basement was dark, sticky, and dingy. The music was really good, but at this point, we were tired and ready to head home. After walking for blocks trying to find a cab to take 7 people home, we managed to flag down an oversized Mercedes Taxi and make our way home. I stayed up entirely too late IMing and Skyping friends from home, and 5 hrs after hitting the pillow, it was time to get ready for the Forest game. While these pictures are awesome and the videos help to illustrate, there were so many differencs from the typical American Sports Experience, that LIST form is the only way to portray: 1) there was no announcer... people were there to watch the game and support their city. no need to be entertained by some talking head. The cheers and chants were entertaining enough. 2) no music either. why sit through crappy 80s music when all you want to do is watch the players play? I take that back, at halftime, they played The Scissor Sisters, and You've Lost that Lovin Feeling...to which the entire stadium sang along....
3)No food or beer inside the stadium. In the concourse, people could eat, but otherwise it was pretty dry.
4) similar to 3, no one left their seats. at all. at most sporting events in the states, people are always milling around... here, not the case.
5) finally, the merchandising machine that is the US has no bearing here.... while there is admittedly a lot of random crap you could buy, most people who were wearing the Forest Red had one of three jerseys on... the white, the red, or the blue... no crappy tshirts or old world series sweatshirts, no ballcaps....just team jerseys As far as the game went, it was incredible. The fans from Bristol were about 4,000 strong and were forced to sit on the left of center, while the Forest fans held their own (about 20,000 strong) in the Brian Clough Stands and the Trent Stands... the atmosphere was electric, not a bad seat in the house, and the cheering and yelling was constant. The best part was, you could actually hear the players yelling to each other on the pitch. We had 'crappy' seats, but could hear everything, and see it all- even the sweat spray every time a player headed the ball...
Forest won 1-0 on a penalty kick in the first 15 minutes of the game. The place went catatonic when we scored....
Afterwards was when the magic happened. If you call rioting and fighting magic. We had some inclination that action might go down as early as last week, when the Juggins told us of the importance of the game. After seeing a man get punched in the parking lot just 3 ft away as we walked in, we knew that something was going down after the game. However, we had no idea what kind of fighting we would witness...
After the game was over, we made our way to the bus stop. Along the way, we had to cross through a group of thuggish-looking older gentleman (think Green Street Hooligans, and seriously, it's all true), and I was called the 'c-word'.... Avoiding being beaten, we walked towards the main street, and heard yelling and saw some angry looking Bristol fans run past... minutes later, we heard more yelling, glass breaking, and what sounded like poles and iron rods being clanged....Turns out, they had not only found the Nottingham firm, but decided to use metal chairs from the outside cafes on the street as weapons. The video below is a pretty accurate representation of the crowd-involvment and interest in the fights, but it was still totally surrreal....
There were hundreds of people watching, taking digital pictures, and complaining about how crappy the police were. The police finally arrived, as this video shows, to the cheering of the onlooking crowd.... Pretty crazy, but definitely what i would call a 'cultural experience'. For more info, head to a local Blockbuster and rent Green Street Hooligans. I've mentioned it before, but never thought that it could possibly be even close to as graphic as the movie implies... yet, it almost exceeds it....
Tomorrow we head to Chattsworth, a Great Country Home in the Peaks District, basically a rich house in the countryside..... Followed by homework and an awesome field trip for class on monday....
these videos are made by the Icelandic group Sigur Ros. I had seen one or two of them before, but not until Brandon brought them to my attention this year did i go on Google Video and YouTube to see more for myself....
This post is entitled "Parental Advisory", not because it's in any offensive, just because i'm not sure my parents and g-parents, who regularly subscribe to my rantings, are interested in hearing my Pub Golf exploits....
Since my last post (a whopping 2ish days), i finally got my hair cut, i went on a pub golf crawl across the "Campus 9", and managed to make some facebook friends along the way. I know, Facebook is the ultimate test to a successful night....
Mary cut my hair at about 2am on Tuesday, while Brando and Hil watched on and took in some amazing Sigur Ros videos.... honestly, i might have to post them here... there's something about them that-as Brandon will attest, being the one that introduced them to me- are moving, incredibly well timed and, although random and artsy, find a way to convey a message even amongst made up languages and icelandic crazy talk... Otherwise, Wednesday was packed. American Lit dragged on while our prof again generalized about America and the religiously alligorical framework that every book is written in, and in Traditions of Islam, our snooty prof explained the huge controversy (a word they pronounce in hilarious ways here) over Jack Straw's comments about Muslim women wearing the headscarves- how it "hinders acceptance" and is a "threat to security"....good stuff...
After taking a huge nap instead of practice (don't worry, i got my running in later), i took down an amazing indian chicken dinner (complete with nan, flatbread that will 'change your world'), and busted out the door. Hil and I have decided that, in all future endeavors with the socials down at campus, we will ride bikes- it's about 1.5 hrs faster, but more dangerous in heels (hilary, not me, what the hell....) A quick bikeride in Robin Hood attire later, we arrived at the first pub to find people in much better getups than us... all in all about 40 runners and friends showed up, and the Golf began around 8ish. PARENTAL ADVISORY IN EFFECT... The rules are simple: each pub is a 'hole'. each hole is worth a certain number of 'strokes' or drinks... that is to say, if you chug the drink, it's a hole in one... any pause or breath is the end of one, and you count the next.... AKA, you chug all the drinks, you score a 9... every time you go under par (usually around 2 for guys, 3 for girls, depends on the drink) you go under par.... just like golf... Each guy was paired with a girl, and out of all 20 guys at the game, Hilary was lucky enough to be paired with.....me. so much for meeting new people. The word lucky here is intended... you'll see why later. The pubs were all located in the dorms, a crazy sight for the avg American, under 21 or not... some were amazing, one had a huge big screen, one had about 30 guys cheering for Chelsea in the huge game vs. Barcelona (hell yeah, Chelsea won 1-0).... The sight was something to behold, 40 skinny runners dressed in green, trodding across the dewy Nottingham countryside from pub to pub. Each hole also held a secret task- be it silence until the drink was ordered, a piggyback ride from the next pub, holding hands, taking pictures with random people, or trying to pick up an 'outlaw' to go to the next pub... We hit a snag in one bar, in which the bartender claimed that "This is a bisto, not a bar... we can't serve you here...." The idea being, after last year, when 14 bars on campus were open so many people got sick doing the "Campus 14" that they closed some and turned others into low-key bistros that were more like coffee shops.... To the scoring: Hil and I won. flat out. I scored a 9, she scored something like a 13... we were about 20 under par, and after the States' terrible performance in the Ryder Cup (which we were made fun of for?), we wiped the floor with the brits... (hence why she was lucky to have me for a partner...) At a certain point, it was decided that we should head to ISIS the nasty Roscoe's-esque dance club, which sits at the SW corner of town.... The bus ride there was amazing.... The thing about people here is, if they're in a club or society or group, they pledge an amazing amount of support. The bus was filled with people from two halls (Dorms): Lenton or something, and another one?... The entire time, there were chants from girls to guys back and forth, ripping on one hall, touting another as the best "I'm Lincoln till I die, I'm lincoln till I die, I know i am, i'm sure i am, i'm lincoln till i die" "Ryder hall is full of queers, doo dah, doo dah" "Lincoln girls drink their wine, screw our boys, something something something else...."
It was amazing... for about 10 minutes, i stood at the front of the bus, gripping the overhand bar, and laughed my ass off... After a while, a USA USA chant started and- the Lucas within me bursting forth- started yelling with them and cheering... Later, in line, a snooty british princess (ugly, btw, not that it matters, but in villainizes her more...) decided to tell me just what she thought of my american-ness... "Just like an American, loud, obnoxious...why are you even wearing that shirt?" (pointing to my England shirt...it was cool, trust me)Finally, we made it to the club.... it was lame (crazy cool, but no one i knew, so inversely, lame), and i decided to leave- maybe make my way to city centre and find a taxi or the tram lines....
Unfortunately, there were several things going against me: 1)i had no idea where i was. 2) we had driven for about 15 minutes from campus, which is a 45 min walk from home. 3) i still had no idea where i was. So, i did what any crazy runner-turned-golfer-turned-clubber-turned-lost American does in a foreign city.... I ran home from the club. 30:35....that's my time, so i'm going to guess around a 4 mile run? In conclusion, it was a pretty random decision, but i actually know the town well enough that after about 3 minutes of running, i found a bus route that we ride often enough, and ran along it until i connected to the Ring Road, and made my way home. After arriving home sweaty, i relaxed to some MLB (Playoffs i guess shown on Channel Five every night at 2am....) Bringing my Americanness full circle.... A long day of patriotism and Golfing over, I was tired and made my way to bed.... I'm still waiting for my Pub Golf prize....
First things first: i'm poor. again, today i took one step closer to completing my footbal jersey collection and also one step closer to the council house (see also, an urban myth for the acronym CHAVS)... In our attempt to buy Forest tix for a game against Bristol City this weekend, Aaron, Brandon and I went down to City Grounds and became more acquainted with the Wrigley Field of English Football. the stadium is reminiscient of a mid-1970's Euro meets 1990 Bosnian Football Stadium...from the outside. The inside is immaculate, and pics on Sunday will do it better justice.
The store was, needless to say, painfully overpriced, and after looking around for an hour, i purchased an obnoxious Forest skullcap/stockinghat and a bar towel with 12 coasters... Baker Commons decorations, no doubt...
A trip to Victoria Centre left me without money, but with a Red Official Home Jersey for Your Nottingham Forest. not to mention some sweet England shorts, a red England top, some awesome brown pinstriped pants, and new shoes... which i needed if i wanted to ever step foot in half of the clubs in nottingham (dress code, yeah....)
Today I've also decided to kill the beard. It's gross....not to mention scratchy, unruly, makes me feel dirty, causes children to cower in fear, and makes me look like a confused American... so tonight, in keeping with my 3 year streak of no-cost hair care, Mary will cut my hair with a pair of shears....Eda, I'm missing you right now....
Before and After pics to follow....
In other news, I actually have homework tonight, and thanks to a lengthy and boring presentation from Barrister Rawllings, Esq, about the court system in the UK, I get a late start... Readings from the Qur'an and some short Am Lit will keep me busy until Cost Cutters time in the hallway.
Tomorrow looks promising: class at 8 and 12, cross at 3ish, dinner followed by Pub Golf Social with the team... Basically, each pub on campus is a hole, and each provides a different task.. .tasks are assigned strokes, and low stroke total wins... duh, it's golf. The theme is Robin Hood, corresponding to the huge cult favorite TV show on the BBC (maybe not cult, it's only been on twice), and i'm supposed to dress accordingly-aka, hooded sweatshirt and a "HELLO, MY NAME IS ROBIN" sticker..?
The next few days are packed with stuff at night- the social tomorrow, the beer and cider festival on thursday, Pitcher and Piano outing on Friday night (Mary and Emily have decided that we don't yet have a pub to call 'our pub' yet, and we need to go looking), followed by the Forest game on Sat and a house trip on Sunday.... looks like random late nights and free time might be in short supply....
While admittedly, i do miss the joys of FoodNetwork, and the glory that is College Gameday, and the pomp and circumstance surrounding MLB playoffs in October, sometimes a rare bit of sunshine cuts through and lifts my spirits.
the following are some clips of awesome tv shows in the UK that i've been able to catch,
This is Extras, a show starring Ricky Gervias from the BBC's orignal version of The Office. Each week it stars a new famous celebrity in a guest role... from Orlando Bloom to Ian McKellan, it's an awesome show.... The first time we saw it, Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter starred....
While this isn't the exact episode or anything remotely close, we caught an episode of HollyOaks, an almost OC-type soapopera that really went over the top--- in our episode, the mom and dad of two girls split because the mom slept with the girl's boyfriend...very OC. This clip is random, but you get the campy idea....
I'll have to put up more as we come upon them, but for now, you're enjoying the best of basic cable/antenna British TV....
Lazy Sunday, British Response, and a Wendy's Late Night
When Wendy's says "you can eat great, even late" how late is late? Like, 5am late? Yesterday was great- no homework (that i was willing to start on), and nothing to do... the flat was pretty chill- we watched When Harry Met Sally, I made an awesome Snickerdoddle pie/tart with apples (made up recipe, still tinkering with the name....), and again, we stayed up entirely too late talking.
It's interesting to note the ebb and flow of the flat relationships- the connections, rifts, and strange combos are fun to watch.... The girls are split into two rooms- one of two, one of three, while Brandon and I live in a room opposite the hall from Aaron and Ryan's two individual rooms.... Beyond room arrangements, we're divided by interests, majors, past friends, past relationships, and personality. The bulk of recent late night discussions have been about family, society, and random stories, but group dynamics are always a great topic. While it's true that we've certainly evolved since our first day in the flat, i feel like we still have a lot of growth and room to improve on the subtlties of communal living. Time will tell....
In other news, it was great to talk to friends from home late last night, and despite the fact that I was up until 5am talking and typing to my heart's content, it was worth it, and i'm glad to still be in contact with the people who are really important....
Which brings me to the question- how odd would it have been to be on the Nottingham program before email, skype, AIM, and cheap phone calls? I can't imagine. While in many ways it's isolated us in the flat, i feel like homesickness would be much more prevalent here... so far, no problems whatsoever in that regard with any flatmates, which is great
Otherwise, this week is looking up- Crossocountry RobinHood Pub Golf social on Wednesday, easy classes abound, and a pretty awesome Football game on Saturday pitting Forest vs. Bristol City (1 v 2 in the standings of League One)...
Until later, kevin
------------------- Before I go, an awesome vid- a UK response to the Narnia Rap on SNL....
Last night was unexpectedly chill yet eye-opening. Despite the fact that we were in a very posh hotel-bar/pub/music club surrounded by 50 year olds in black turtlenecks and blazers listening to a 'gypsy jazz combo' containing a standup bass, electric guitar and some wierd acoustical electric, we (Ryan Aaron and I) were exposed to the glory that is Nottingham Forest Football for the first time. Here's a clip for the musically inclined: not sure on the sound quality, but you get the jist....
The atmosphere, as mentioned, was nice- very relaxed, very intellectual really, but the intensity lay in the discussion of Forest past and present, the ins and outs of the Premiership, the joy of Selection days, Match of the Day on BBC, the FA cup concluding in May, and donning (or refusing to wear) the Forest Red with 20 thousand of your closest brethren.....
The setup of football in the Premiership and below is thus: There are four essential leagues, the Premiership, the Champions League, CocaCola League 1 and Coke league 2. The # of teams stays constant, 20,20,24,24, but the actual teams in each league is dependant on the last year's performace.... Essentially, the three worst teams in the Premiership are replaced with the three best teams from the next league, and so on throughout the leagues. Because of this, good teams are in the top, bad teams in the bottom, and the balance is pretty even (aside from billionares coming in and buying the best players- there is no salary cap or revenue sharing, no drafts, etc)...
Back in the 1970's, Forest were the best in the world.... literally, the best football team ever. They are one of three teams to repeat as EuroChamps, and at one point reigned supreme over the Premiership year after year... Just as easily as it is to fall from greatness (Forest are also the only team to have won the Euro and now play in a 3rd division), it is just as possible to rise to the top. In Football, the teams are divided all the way down to small almost 'pick up' teams, with stories of once small teams (ex. Wimbledon a while back) that have played teams like Man U. in the FA cup... David Juggins compared the occurance of Wimbledon and Man U as "A group of you guys in Decorah rising to the opportunity to play the Yankees in the World Series"... it's amazing really to think how well supported and embedded in the culture Football is...
Teams like Forest are well supported, and do quite well for the size of the town. Supporters usually wear jerseys (unless they are supersticious), and yell and scream at the top of their lungs... "Firms" or "hooligans" as they may sometimes be called, are groups of football supporters who are acutally more interested in fighting than actually watching the game. Green Street Hooligans, a movie with Elijah Wood, does a fairly accurate portrayal of pub life, Firms, and football in England... The way to tell a member of a firm? Most won't wear the jersey- they're not interested in the game, just the fight that will occur outside of the stadium. Other tipoffs? Burberry clothes, tracksuits, baseball hats, etc.... pretty much "chav" gear (look up chav on wikipedia for a better definition).... So, according to the Juggins', football matches are way more safe than many Americans think... the odds of getting into a fight as long as you're in a jersey are very unlikely.
Which brings me to my pumped-up point of the day: we're going to a match on saturday, against Bristol, the number 2 team in the league to Forest's 1... they're separated by 2 pts in the standings, and with Forest's loss last night, it's even closer now.... Jersey purchases on Monday, game on Saturday.. should be a good time
Oh, and John- the team we'll be seeing? Millwall... the Southern London Ghetto rep of the league, a team more interested in fighting than the game. None of their fans wear jereseys, and they were seen in G Street Hooligans as the team that attacks West Ham's firm and kills (oops) Pete... their chant : something to the effect of "No one likes us, We don't care...." so get ready for a good time....
enough football talk for now, with all of the cricket and rugby going on over here in the next few months(The Ashes pits England v. Australia, and the English play New Zealand in rugby next week), i have some wikipedia research to do....
___________________________ in a side note, we attended/sang at our home church today (the one connected to the flat), and our 8 flatmates outnumbered the congregation 2 to 1... that's right, we sang in front of 4 people.... The pastor studied at OSU in OK at one point, and had some pretty interesting things to say... "I'm not saying I'm against violence... i'm all for it" "The Bible is like a machine gun" (more or less) ...not to mention calling out one of the congregation as someone who places a bible on the coffee table only when she knows he's coming to dinner.... and they wonder why there are only 4 people in the church....
_____________ time to study, big day tomorrow....(?)
eh. _______________________
Oh, this is funny, too--- here, although KFC does exist, there are also QFC's, and AFC (American Fried Chicken).... i'm not sure if it's a novelty or just blatent copywrite infringment....
This is what HAPPENED when 9 students from the middle of nowhere WERE picked to live in a flat in the middle of Nottingham, England.
This is what HAPPENED when people stopped being polite, and start being REAL.
This WAS Luther- Nottingham Campus, 2006-2007
...And now I'm back.
Pitcher and Piano is a landmark as far as i'm concerned. Built in the center of an old church, it's amazing. I took some video of the inside, while a couple danced across a suspended bridge, and you can see the huge gothic arches and stained glass. The DJ was lame as crap, but it was kinda fun to hear old US hits (Neil Diamond, Grease, Michael Jackson) while sitting in such an awesome space....
Finally, the girls were told to meet up with their 'new friends' from Pitcher at a club down the street called Dogma. It could have just as easily been called "Roscoes UK".. the basement was dark, sticky, and dingy. The music was really good, but at this point, we were tired and ready to head home. After walking for blocks trying to find a cab to take 7 people home, we managed to flag down an oversized Mercedes Taxi and make our way home.
I stayed up entirely too late IMing and Skyping friends from home, and 5 hrs after hitting the pillow, it was time to get ready for the Forest game.
2) no music either. why sit through crappy 80s music when all you want to do is watch the players play? I take that back, at halftime, they played The Scissor Sisters, and You've Lost that Lovin Feeling...to which the entire stadium sang along....
3)No food or beer inside the stadium. In the concourse, people could eat, but otherwise it was pretty dry.
As far as the game went, it was incredible. The fans from Bristol were about 4,000 strong and were forced to sit on the left of center, while the Forest fans held their own (about 20,000 strong) in the Brian Clough Stands and the Trent Stands... the atmosphere was electric, not a bad seat in the house, and the cheering and yelling was constant. The best part was, you could actually hear the players yelling to each other on the pitch. We had 'crappy' seats, but could hear everything, and see it all- even the sweat spray every time a player headed the ball...
Pretty crazy, but definitely what i would call a 'cultural experience'. For more info, head to a local Blockbuster and rent Green Street Hooligans. I've mentioned it before, but never thought that it could possibly be even close to as graphic as the movie implies... yet, it almost exceeds it....
