This God Forsaken Thread Is Brimming With Cigarettes And Pathos (1 Viewer)

[rockaction]

Palaver means something different than that. You're using the Dictionary.com free definition. It's pretty much wrong in tone.

Its second definition in most cases is "small talk."

 

[Binky The Doormat]

there's a familial joke i can put here, but i'll leave it to you to sort out.

otb ...I'm a suburbs and sidewalks kid, just not hip enough to follow whatever the hell you are saying here

 

[rockaction]

Others are bound to us, the gentle and blameless
Whose names are not confessed in the ceaseless palaver - Anthony Hecht

Hecht is my favorite poet and I've memorized that passage

 

[rockaction]

otb ...I'm a suburbs and sidewalks kid, just not hip enough to follow whatever the hell you are saying here

Nonsense. You fit right in here, among the cretins. Please add away!

 

[rockaction]

Making this brim with cigarettes and pathos again!

 

[otb_lifer]

Djax also has Asperger's or autism -- he's on the spectrum. Deamon knows that -- we now all do -- and has been told (IIRC) by DJax (I think I've read it in the Philly thread and DJax has in other places asked people to let him know) to let him know when he should tone it down a bit. That's a dynamic not really seen under the surface of that. DJax shouldn't be doing that

jeez, leave for a spell, and ...

be that as it may, i'm still IN with my read - it's all cool on my end. 

Making this brim with cigarettes and pathos again!

if not us, who?

if not here, where?

 

[rockaction]

My dearest, the clear unquaried blue of these depths is all but blinding

More Hecht, same passage

It goes like this

Anyway, I should have you know I've done my best
As I'm sure you have, too; others are bound to us
The gentle and blameless
Whose names are not confessed
In the ceaseless palaver; My dearest, the clear
unquaried blue of these depths is all but blinding...

 

[rockaction]

if not us, who?

if not here, where?

LOL.

be that as it may, i'm still IN with my read - it's all cool on my end.

Your read is generally right about the typical posters in that thread. I wouldn't wander into Euro 2020 unless you paid me in Floppos. Floppo I , too. His comment about the foal falling down and how it must have been from Italy was *chefs kiss*

And yes, I'm an eye-tie, too. But cot damn does Italy make it flopping season.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

jeez, leave for a spell, and ...

be that as it may, i'm still IN with my read - it's all cool on my end. 

if not us, who?

if not here, where?

reaction.

get angry.  

 

[rockaction]

You may remember that once you brought my boys
Two little woolly birds.
Yesterday the older one asked for you upon finding
Your thrush among his toys.
And the tides welled about me, and I could find no words.

There is not much else to tell. One tries one's best to continue as before,
Doing some little good.
But I would have you know that all is not well
With a man dead set to ignore
The endless repetitions of his own murmurous blood.

Ay yup! That's the end of the poem. "A Letter," by Anthony Hecht. One of my favorites. About leaving and loss.

If not us, who?

If not here, where?

 

[rockaction]

reaction.

get angry.  

That completes the couplet and makes it a...what does it make that?

If not us, who?
If not here, where?
If not now, when?

That shall be this thread's rallying cry. Sing it! Buncha Killer Clowns On Dope!

 

[Binky The Doormat]

we are old men shaking our fist at the clouds man.

 

[otb_lifer]

LOL.

Your read is generally right about the typical posters in that thread. I wouldn't wander into Euro 2020 unless you paid me in Floppos. Floppo I , too. His comment about the foal falling down and how it must have been from Italy was *chefs kiss*

And yes, I'm an eye-tie, too. But cot damn does Italy make it flopping season.

i will take a match in, over cocktails and heavy wagering on said footy match, with the Flopster soon ... perhaps once the EPL kicks off in August, and the Coof-stapo allow me to imbibe sans mouf diaper. 

see, the EyeTies from the other side are much more dramatic than their Americano cugini   they are, as a rule, willing to go the extra mile to convey just how cataclysmic the perceived effrontery was ... us Greenhorns would just as soon smack ya moosh, in kind.  it's the pond, man ... the great divider. 

the twain shan't meet, and DO NOT get me started on the Irish. 

 

[Binky The Doormat]

we are old men shaking our fist at the clouds man.

ETA:  the revolution has passed us by ...now I just want good coffee, my comfy blanket and an occasional BJ.  

 

[Pip's Invitation]

hey @rockaction ...

saw your post in the Euro thread regarding the DJax "Hippling" fallout ... and you're spot on. 

i don't wanna gum up their precious footy talkfest with it, so i'll just put it here ... @DJackson10 comes across as a solid street guy, a cat who knows his way thru the byways and alleyways ... there's a ton of stale schtick, fake teacher(s), chubby suburbanites, etc up on here - it's amusing and malignant, if not tedious. 

but DJax comes through as real, unapologetically so - kid has a passion and gift for gab - perhaps not as polished as our buddy wikk, but he shoots straight from the unfiltered heart - and i can dig that. 

there's a familial joke i can put here, but i'll leave it to you to sort out. 

He's spoken at length in the Eagles thread (the football team, not the band) about how he has Asbergers and as a result isn't really capable of filtering himself or refraining from speaking his mind. It's definitely "what you see is what you get" with him. Sometimes I bust on him for including so many unnecessary details in his posts, but I don't think he knows how to edit himself in that way. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Others are bound to us, the gentle and blameless
Whose names are not confessed in the ceaseless palaver - Anthony Hecht

Hecht is my favorite poet and I've memorized that passage

Wasn't he a tight end for the Jets? 

 

[rockaction]

Wasn't he a tight end for the Jets? 

Close. That was Anthony Becht out of Penn State who, IIRC, we drafted in the first round before...before...wait for this...Warren Sapp. The crowd was chanting "Sapp! Sapp! Sapp!" when they made the pick because Sapp fell to us and the pick was so obvious. Nope, we want you, Anthony. Come on down!

eta* That is not the case. Becht was chosen in the first round, number 27, but there was no Sapp. Sapp was already nearing the Super Bowl in 2002, IIRC.

 

[otb_lifer]

oh, yeah ... today's supermarket toon was "All You Zombies" by the Hooters. 

did the Zombies ever contemplate "All You Hooters"?

buncha kids from the Philly tribe, as is the aforementioned DJax, so there's a bit of symmetry, if nothing else. 

i love the gong hits in that toon ... i remember the vid, and it was one of those that could've only been crafted in the 80s (see, also "Africa", "This Corrosion", and the horrific "Dancing in the Streets").

i thought those Hooters were a right hoot (sh11t, that's ungood). 

my theory on the market's penchant for the 80s Solid Gild collection is this - buncha young folk work there, and you know damn well #### all would get done if their soundtrack were playing ... plus i'd boycott entering as a result.  i abhor foisting of garbage music on my person in a public space ... i'll go to rhe Egyptian market, instead ... steady dose of Charles Aznavour with that lot, if not the delicious warblings of the mind bending Dua Lipa - it's a zipper buster in spades. 

*taps* 

is this thing on?

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Close. That was Anthony Becht out of Penn State who, IIRC, we drafted in the first round before...before...wait for this...Warren Sapp. The crowd was chanting "Sapp! Sapp! Sapp!" when they made the pick because Sapp fell to us and the pick was so obvious. Nope, we want you, Anthony. Come on down!

I was kidding, but yes, one of many dumb moves the Jets made over the years. 

Much of the league blew it on Sapp -- they got scared because he had a positive test for marijuana. This was the same year that the Eagles traded up to take DL Mike Mamula, a workout wonder who was not good at actual football, instead of waiting for Sapp. 

 

[rockaction]

I was kidding, but yes, one of many dumb moves the Jets made over the years. 

Much of the league blew it on Sapp -- they got scared because he had a positive test for marijuana. This was the same year that the Eagles traded up to take DL Mike Mamula, a workout wonder who was not good at actual football, instead of waiting for Sapp. 

I was wrong. It was a different tight end in '95, Kyle Brady out of Penn State, who they picked three spots before Sapp. That's the memory I'm having.

 

[rockaction]

is this thing on?

If not us, who?
If not here, where?
If not now, when?
is this thing on?

 

[rockaction]

oh, yeah ... today's supermarket toon was "All You Zombies" by the Hooters. 

did the Zombies ever contemplate "All You Hooters"?

buncha kids from the Philly tribe, as is the aforementioned DJax, so there's a bit of symmetry, if nothing else. 

i love the gong hits in that toon ... i remember the vid, and it was one of those that could've only been crafted in the 80s (see, also "Africa", "This Corrosion", and the horrific "Dancing in the Streets").

i thought those Hooters were a right hoot (sh11t, that's ungood).

The Hooters were pretty cool. We actually talked about this song in the Genrepalooza thread. I think I brought up copyright law and Pip knew of them because they're Philly. It got me to watch the video, a video that makes absolutely no sense at all. But I see upon second reading that you've covered that. No sense whatsoever. I think the song is about liberation of some sort, and we're left with gongs.

my theory on the market's penchant for the 80s Solid Gild collection is this - buncha young folk work there, and you know damn well #### all would get done if their soundtrack were playing ... plus i'd boycott entering as a result.  i abhor foisting of garbage music on my person in a public space ... i'll go to rhe Egyptian market, instead ... steady dose of Charles Aznavour with that lot, if not the delicious warblings of the mind bending Dua Lipa - it's a zipper buster in spades.

They fixed up the corner store
Like it was a nightclub
It's permanently disco

Everyone is dressed so oddly
I can't recognize them
I can't tell the staff from the customers

Baby, check this out I've got something to say
Man, it's so loud in here
When they stop the drum machine
And I can think again I'll remember what it was

- They Might Be Giants

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Rick and Morty Wendys

seems appropriate here.

 

[rockaction]

Rick and Morty Wendys

seems appropriate here.

Giant inflatable characters tied the whole thing together.

If not us, who?

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Giant inflatable characters tied the whole thing together.

If not us, who?

if not now - when?

mescaline.

 

[wikkidpissah]

ima write the tale of a wee man who wanders from land to distant land engaging giants in smalltalk - Palaver's Travels

 

[otb_lifer]

Spotifacts

... as per the "No Reply At All" nugget dropped on Saturday, so here's last 10 added ...

the Neil trifecta ... had to toss them into my 1,879 song shoot ... they be like comfort food - "I Am, I Said" has long been in the mix, so these 3 had some company. 

Vangelis - "Chariots of Fire" is already there, so i gave it a running mate ... i remember this tune being used in a wine commercial back in the 80s (Paul Máson?) - Orson Welles was pimping vine juice back then - plus you had them damn Bartles & Jaymes tvvat waffles hawking their soccer mom wine coolers - it was a robust market. 

Tindersticks - remarkable listening, i hate to be that guy, but, yes ... here from "The Sopranos"

Frida - damn, Phil already had some company ... imagine propsing a pairing of Abba & Genesis players back in the mid-70s ... think anyone would've imagined this?

Runawayx2 - i recall mentioning in another thread that this was the only BonJ song i can stomach, as i recounted how a trusted friend who works in the stage union told me of how hard Jon works to live up to the "Bon Dooshy" moniker.

the Del Shannon take is right up there with "96 Tears" for me as far as that organ/keyboard/clavioline usage is concerned ... pity it took me so damn long to download - wtf?

The Moments - that era of soul butters me more than just about any genre ... otb got some, you can make book on that. 

 

[wikkidpissah]

spotifact thoughts:

- if i listened to three Neil Diamond tracks in a row i'd fear to shave off my body hair or sumsuch OCD response

- Hymne felt herried

- 96 tears (which my lil gf thought was "now it sticks to ya") and Shannon's "Runaway" were the only two songs i could play @ performance grade. my left hand turned out to be too heartbreakingly dead to be a musician, but i could solo some on my Silvertone 4780

- Blowjovi's "Runaway" was a vid my roomie and i would call each other for if it came on the MTV cuz the girl was so insane and da boyz wuz so Joisey

 

[rockaction]

the Del Shannon take is right up there with "96 Tears" for me as far as that organ/keyboard/clavioline usage is concerned ... pity it took me so damn long to download - wtf?

The Moments - that era of soul butters me more than just about any genre ... otb got some, you can make book on that.

"Runaway" used to be my favorite song until I played it out about ten years or so ago.

I found love on a two-way street/and lost it on a lonely highway sounds exactly like my life.

Take my life, please...

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I found love on a two-way street/and lost it on a lonely highway sounds exactly like my life.

Take my life, please...

THAT is pathos. I can smell the cigs from here. 

 

[otb_lifer]

- if i listened to three Neil Diamond tracks in a row i'd fear to shave off my body hair or sumsuch OCD response

i have a ton of fur to yank, so we good here 

- Hymne felt herried

Vangelly released no song before it's time ...

- 96 tears (which my lil gf thought was "now it sticks to ya") and Shannon's "Runaway" were the only two songs i could play @ performance grade. my left hand turned out to be too heartbreakingly dead to be a musician, but i could solo some on my Silvertone 4780

i gotta toss "Kind of a Drag" up in here, as well ... Buckinghams had a very punchy organ streaming throughout. 

- Blowjovi's "Runaway" was a vid my roomie and i would call each other for if it came on the MTV cuz the girl was so insane and da boyz wuz so Joisey

i think i can count on zero fingers the number of chix who fled Rumson to streetwalk 42nd

"Runaway" used to be my favorite song until I played it out about ten years or so ago.

i gotta assume you are referencing the Del song, no?

I found love on a two-way street/and lost it on a lonely highway sounds exactly like my life.

Take my life, please...

Desolation Blvd., ol' friend

THAT is pathos. I can smell the cigs from here. 

next level take, this ^

today's market offering was "Mad About You" by Belinda ... did anybody ever turn such a complete transmog in roughly seven years? from chubby/pimply faced drunken, punken party gal of 1980 to sleek/chic covergirl, "LiteFM" warbler in that span - plus she married into the Rat Pack lineage, though i do believe that turned disastrous.

i always preferred Wiedlen much more - she's built more on my speed level ... let's just say the gal sure knows how to leave a room. 

 

[rockaction]

i always preferred Wiedlen much more - she's built more on my speed level ... let's just say the gal sure knows how to leave a room

pls expound

i gotta assume you are referencing the Del song, no?

Yes. You have that correct. "Runaway" by Bon Jovi was a favorite of my brother's. This was around the time he bought his first stand-alone CD player (ahead of the game by a few years) and there were limited offerings on CD. The Jove was one of them. "Oooooh...she's a little runaway. Daddy's girl learned fast all those things she couldn't say." If one were just to listen to the lyrics, stand-alone, you'd not be remiss in thinking the Jove was sort of a bad dude, if not at least creepy. Back to my brother, he also listened to Kenny Loggins's "Danger Zone." On repeat. A lot. I was not transmogrified, only horrified. Even as a yute.

next level take, this ^

Pip's good for that. Pip and pathos go a long way together.

One random thought or connection for the day: John Doth Pathos. The poet/writer earlier I quoted earlier in the thread should have been named that, and could be, if only you lithp your "s'"s.

 

[rockaction]

my left hand turned out to be too heartbreakingly dead to be a musician

You should have gotten that looked at. Before you answer that it has been, and by one of the Arquettes no less, let me posit that I meant by a doctor.

 

[otb_lifer]

pls expound

yes

Yes. You have that correct. "Runaway" by Bon Jovi was a favorite of my brother's. This was around the time he bought his first stand-alone CD player (ahead of the game by a few years) and there were limited offerings on CD. The Jove was one of them. "Oooooh...she's a little runaway. Daddy's girl learned fast all those things she couldn't say." If one were just to listen to the lyrics, stand-alone, you'd not be remiss in thinking the Jove was sort of a bad dude, if not at least creepy. Back to my brother, he also listened to Kenny Loggins's "Danger Zone." On repeat. A lot. I was not transmogrified, only horrified. Even as a yute.

Loggins, and/or his erstwhile partner Jim Messina, would eat JBJ for lunch ... Sambora, too. 

(it's still a kickass tine, tho)

Pip's good for that. Pip and pathos go a long way together.

cheers to Pathos, i say - btw, am i the only cig smoker up in here?

One random thought or connection for the day: John Doth Pathos. The poet/writer earlier I quoted earlier in the thread should have been named that, and could be, if only you lithp your "s'"s.

... i picked a great morning to tap into my Mike Tyson persona

 

[otb_lifer]

 - does celebrating Wiedlen's bodacious badonk really convey pathos? 

perhaps in the forlorn sense of never experiencing the sweat back circa '82ish - i'm smoking as i post, so that's registering -

i Svengalied an ex into Lydia Dietz ... said ex had the Wiedlen feature on lock. that was quite a show, i assure you. 

another disaster, though, tbh. 

 

[wikkidpissah]

i gotta toss "Kind of a Drag" up in here, as well ... Buckinghams had a very punchy organ streaming throughout. 

i remember the days when i got very punchy if anyone criticized my organ stream. kind of a drag...

 

[otb_lifer]

i remember the days when i got very punchy if anyone criticized my organ stream. kind of a drag...

i had a quip ready here 'bout Procol Harum, but i'm afraid it would've been a writer's shade of fail. 

 

[wikkidpissah]

We skipped the light fandango
'bout Wiedlin's sweet badonk
I was feeling kinda seasick
O'er the played FFA junk
Rockaction humming harder
As fine feeling flew away
When we called out for a new test forum
But got "hip hooray, USA"

And so it was that later
As the lifer told his tale
That his phrase, at first just ghostly
Turned a writer's shade of fail

 

[rockaction]

I picked a great morning to tap into my Mike Tyson persona

"I was ecstatic, Chuck."

One of the funnier sketch comedy bits I can personally recall...

 

[otb_lifer]

"Arc of a Diver" - Winwood; Japan Cup Soccer

gamblers are a superstitious lot, yours truly being no exception to that ... i've been hitting the same Argentinian Empanada emporium since the Euro tourney began to make my day's wagers - whether it be over said patty treats, or a coupla iced coffees, or a maté or two. 

results have been quite favorable, hitting at a pretty damn good clip - yesterday i decided to hit up a different jernt, as i had to drop my daughter in the EV for a dance audition ... so i hit the aptly names Buenos Aires, and replicated my usual order(s).

this place is bigger than the lil' cafe i had been frequenting, but still has the Argentinian vibe (of course), so i did as the Romans. 

both wagers (Italy to win in regulation, Messi to score vs Colombia) failed - this is the first shutout day i've had in about a month ... and, yep - damn straight i'm chalking it up to placing the bets from this unfamiliar locale - it's that simple.  nothing else had absolutely anything to do with it. the actual participants were mere foils, mind you. 

sitting here this morning, with a Japan Cup match on tap that had a 5 a.m. start ... so, licking my wounds, and looking to bounce back a bit, i plunk a nice amount on the o1.5 for first half, and brew myself a homemade iced latte. 

the Spotty is playing, and the game is roughly 5 minutes or so in ... "Arc of a Diver" graces the shuffle, and, not one, but TWO goals are popped whilst it's playing. 

see where this is going?

it's the only Winwood in the mix, and that ain't about to change, but it will see the "repeat" function a ton.  

Lean streaky music
Spawned on the streets
I hear it but with you
I had to go

'Cause my rock 'n' roll
Is putting on weight
And the beat it goes on

Arc of a diver
Effortlessly
My mind in sky
And when I wake up

Daytime and nighttime
I feel you near
Warm water breathing
She helps me here

... V-Varen Nagasaki scores a second goal ...

BOL! 

️️

 

[rockaction]

Just checking out some stuff on the internet and came across this. A Silversun Pickups' video. "Lazy Eye" was their big "hit" but I find this more pleasing. Just when you think you're going to get the lecture about tall girls with wonderful legs, you and I are both spared it with...well, it's damn near subversive.

https://youtu.be/HcwX2TnsTPE

 

[DJackson10]

hey @rockaction ...

saw your post in the Euro thread regarding the DJax "Hippling" fallout ... and you're spot on. 

i don't wanna gum up their precious footy talkfest with it, so i'll just put it here ... @DJackson10 comes across as a solid street guy, a cat who knows his way thru the byways and alleyways ... there's a ton of stale schtick, fake teacher(s), chubby suburbanites, etc up on here - it's amusing and malignant, if not tedious. 

but DJax comes through as real, unapologetically so - kid has a passion and gift for gab - perhaps not as polished as our buddy wikk, but he shoots straight from the unfiltered heart - and i can dig that. 

there's a familial joke i can put here, but i'll leave it to you to sort out. 

Appreciate it. I call it as I see it even if it gets me into some trouble. I'm not gonna change just to appease a few posters I probably will never meet publicly either 

 

[otb_lifer]

Just checking out some stuff on the internet and came across this. A Silversun Pickups' video. "Lazy Eye" was their big "hit" but I find this more pleasing. Just when you think you're going to get the lecture about tall girls with wonderful legs, you and I are both spared it with...well, it's damn near subversive.

https://youtu.be/HcwX2TnsTPE

TO THE BOLDED:

... there was a Dua Lipa thread up on here this morning - a coupla/few chaps waxing poetically enough about the goddess the woman is. 

those long #### stems, coupled with the remarkable "Wiedlen feature" is just sublime ... i think the young lady is Alien, she cannot be of this world (or Albanian, as the case may be).

i recall featuring her in my ill-fated ladies thread from a few years ago ... this was prior to her breaking as the biggest Brit int'l female pop star (thus relegating Charlie XCX to Bachelor parties and Bat Mitzvahs - no small feat, that). 

anywhooo ... the thread was nuked by the time i popped in n' out of the Euro Cup thread a few times ... the op linked some of her vids, one of which was "Physical", and, yeah ... Ms. Lipa is more than a tad randy, if not overtly suggestive of a certain motion/technique.  i'll leave it at that PG-13 description, lest this pathos and sticks oasis gets shown the perma-ban dustbin as well. 

kinda sad to see what i thought was an innocuous enough regaling of that love muffin - i'll say here what i said a coupla years ago - there is more to be ashamed of in the psf than in chatting about an incredibly desirable woman ... but, face it - the psf drives most of the traffic for this bored - it's a #######, but it garners tons of clique clicks.

I don't know what color your eyes are, baby

But your hair is long and brown

Your legs are long, and they're so, so strong

And you don't come from this town ...

FREE DUA!  

  ¡VIVA PATHOS! 

❤

 

[rockaction]

I just saw part of Dua Lipa's "Physical." Seems a bit...mannish, no? Those pants! And those poses!

We're going for feminine silhouettes here folks. Feminine!

The kind that make me say...

Wish I could stop
Switch off the clock
And make it all happen for you you you

 

[otb_lifer]

I just saw part of Dua Lipa's "Physical." Seems a bit...mannish, no? Those pants! And those poses!

We're going for feminine silhouettes here folks. Feminine!

go a smidge down the ol' rabbit ditch, and spy her "Let's Get Physical" workout vid ...

The kind that make me say...

Wish I could stop
Switch off the clock
And make it all happen for you you you

Murphy was a useless postule 

 

[otb_lifer]

we are experiencing monsoon like conditions this morning, as Elsa drops her regards all about us ... as i happened out for the morning shopping, i ran across a knob who was gilled to the hilt - like a full length man burka, complete with mouf diaper, of course. 

he had shades on ... kinda funky/shiny type - had i not been so encumbered with my 'brelly, i woulda snapped a pic or two, 'cuz mah man was a straight up Sleestak.  no apologies, and he had zero effs to give - but that was Sleestak 101, that miserable bastid. 

the market is quite a spacious jernt ... but you'd be amazed at how crowded it can be with only 5 people in it ... ya know, the 5 who meander and pause and stop mid aisle, and clog up every square inch with their insolent monkey shines ... so it was like the Land of the Lost - or Dawn of the Dead, if you will. 

one of the cadavers called management on me for dropping a coupla EFF bombs as i brushed past and (intentionally) disturbed their cart - a hip check Bobby Schmautz himself woulda been damn proud to call his own. 

Tempest in a Tea Pot.  i got away with a mere warning

that Bruce Hornsby song was playing ... "The Way It Is" - i was never one for heeding the altruistic nature of anyone's lyrics, let alone that tool's. 

just for fun, he said "get a job"

get ####in' bent. 

gonna knock down the next hippie i see

then i'll be knockin' down you

 

[wikkidpissah]

sez you

 

[otb_lifer]

sez you

...you are looking LIVE

 

[otb_lifer]

i've been on quite a tear as of late with my soccer wagers ... up a ton of bux since the start of the Euro tourney - enough disposable winnings to plunk down on juicier odds in the backyard lower tier leagues the book offers ... seriously, i think most of these matches from Kazakhstan/Estonia/Belarus, etc. are being played on some vacant lot with a stuffed cabbage serving as the official game ball. 

but, hey ... #### it, the bets won as a result yield green US of A currency, so i got that going for me. 

i've noticed a very disturbing trend, though, in the past 24 or so hours ... the juice is now ridiculous, as if the book has some sorta algorithm on my wagering habits and has crunched way the #### back to curtail the damage on their end. 

that couldn't possibly be happening, amirite? (that's an extremely snarky rhetorical for those not keeping score at home).

not gonna be discussed with any resolve in the reg soccer thread(s) that permeate the FFA ... there may be a coupla chaps who are betting the matches with frequency, but, for the most part, those threads are populated with folks who simply love the game (the "beautiful game", as it were).

the adulation for the simple competition is more so than any other sport that's discussed on this forearm, and i suspect that is more often the rule outside these 5 walls, as well. 

which got me to thinking that the reason the sport never gained any kinda legit traction here, despite it being the largest in numbets across the board in participation, is that the wagering cabal never gravitated to it. 

but i can tell ya, as a punter who has been known to toss a shekel or two on an event, the betting on soccer is not only the most challenging, but also the most diverse, and rewarding - the great European books are built on it's back, and i'd dare say it takes a ton more money than our beloved NFL, which is the undisputed heavyweight Champeen of our leagues, and that's due in great favor to the action it takes on the gambling front. 

the USNMT faring better in the int'l comps certainly won't hurt, but they are staggered a bit too much ... drawing the casual fans into the bullring action that is more the norm is the key ... but we love fireworks and offense - the game itself is excruciating to abide from a viewpoint devoid of passion for the pure competition ... there's gotta be more of a hook ... and as i said earlier, the betting table(s) are so diverse that each minute holds meaning - if it ever caught on here with the books, it would be gargantuan. take my word on that. 

- Jimmy Pursey

i dug out some of my vinyl while tidying up the basement ... ran across my Sham 69 platters from roughly 35 years ago - gave them some attention, and was reminded why i was such a yuuuuge fan.

much like Stiv & the Dead Boys over here, they were a kinda b-list act, never achieving the notoriety or fame of their more celebrated cousins, but well known and loved in those circles that craved them some genre gymnastics.

i recall seeing a blaoted and miserable Marco Pirroni (known mostly as Adam & the Ants guitarist) blagging on about how the English scene was so pure in the beginning, he described it as something very intelligent and exclusionary, rife with flamethrower politics and explosive fashion ... citing it as a movement "not for the masses" (ELITIST MUCH, YA DUMB ####?")

he sat there waxing poetic about this ####, all the while looking like Colonel Kurtz after a month long Wendy's binge. 

he bemoaned Pursey & Sham specifically, saying (again) how "intelligent" the scene was, and that "YOBS like Jimmy Pursey came about dragging it to the gutter with their lowbrow approach"

hey, ya pretentious ####wad ... it was SUPPOSED to give rise to anybody who dared, the D.I.Y. ethos was the blueprint - it was intended to put the power back in the hands of rhe street kids, and to give them a voice ... the polish was tossed, and acts like Sham rose up. 

hey, Marco ... GFY

 

[rockaction]

Huh. Always assumed that America was the D.I.Y. ethos put forth by a bunch of weirdos that was then appreciated by the artist/fashion set that was bent on breaking the rules of haute couture/music/etc. But the proto punks and first punks were transvestites, bubble gum lovers, queers, and others that appreciated '50s and '60s rock but updated its sonic sound.

Over the pond? Who could ever replicate what we had within the rigid class strictures they had? That it reflected the class distinctions in Britain should stun nobody. Yes, there was agitation against the Crown and the upper classes. But John Ritchie was a bored public school kid. John Lydon hung out at fashion shops. The talent gap across the Atlantic compared to the early American punks was huge. Compare the Ramones to The Sex Pistols and The Damned. There really is no comparison. It was so simple, this punk rock thing, that it seems the Europeans got bored with the actual music even quicker than the Americans did. As soon as the artists/bohemians saw the lucre, they jumped in anyway and created new wave, relegating the DIY lovers back to Queens. What was once an overthrow of rules found its own orthodoxy in the near-universal acceptance of those scene-maker artists and bohemians' leftist politics, something certain people abhor. The DIY brought that #### in, not anything top-down. It was the artists and activists that saw you could change the world with this stuff, and it resonated all over, especially picking off those dissatisfied with American society out on the West Coast. From the Germs and X to then the orthodoxy of hardcore, scenes all try D.I.Y. and then die.

As for European football, well, it is a very alluring thing, this passion. It is also bound by the same rigid class structures and divisions that separate classes in the world. Barcelona FC and Real Madrid go back to the Spanish Civil War divisions in the populace, with one side being cheered on by the descendants of fascists, the other anti-fascist. I'm no expert on European football, but it would seem to have the same power over their lower classes that basketball and football have over ours.

Yes, there is a passion for European football in the States. It always seems to come from those who could take or leave the States the most, the newly upwardly mobile middle classes who dream of drafts in Dublin rather than bottles in Dubuque, and those that watch with passion are more closely aligned with those more cosmopolitan-leaning folk abroad than they are aligned with our folks from home. And it is reflected in their politics again. It is a passion for the totality of culture and sport that they have, a passion for any sort of culture, really, that they feel that America denies them with its consumerism and its own football sport, so much starting and stopping and martial planning and individualism compared to the flow of the European football, which is a sport made for long distance runners with smaller statures than their American football counterparts. Indeed, perhaps a sport that upper middle class whites with their bodies and descent can truly relate to. And with the ability to transpose one onto a body comes a filial sort of companionship. What's He to Hecuba? What's the majority of soccer fans to Derrick Henry, anyway? One can look at Messi and imagine possibilities. One looks at Henry and laughs at one's own thought.

Just some grist for the mill. The Europeans have the fidelity of the American upwardly mobile rube, always imagining himself in mastery of Bruges. Total football.