well it happened years ago

July 9, 2023July 9, 2023Leave a comment

One of the ideas I had for my short May visit to London was that I would try to go back to places I had not been in a long long time, especially places that mean something to me. I couldn’t quite believe that I have not been back to Mile End since I graduated from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) back in 2001, but sure enough, it’s been that long. On Tuesday morning (after sketching down at Embankment) I took the District Line up to Stepney Green, and walked up the Mile End Road towards my old uni. I went to QMUL – actually it was QMW, that’s ‘Queen Mary Westfield’, when I first started, though it was already part of the University of London, they had a slight name change during my tenure there – between 1997 and 2001, including a year abroad in Belgium. I studied French and Drama. In those days I did not get the tube to Stepney Green, rather I would go to Mile End tube station, which was on the Central Line and a quicker change from the Northern, and closer to the Arts Building. I went the reverse way today. I walked through the Student Union area, many an evening spent there, past some of the on-site dorms, not much had changed, but there were a few impressive newer buildings such as the Mathematical Science building (swankier than our one, though not really any bigger). I reached the People’s Palace and the Great Hall, which is where I spent a lot of time in my drama days, and even made my way inside to use the toilets by our old drama studio – still in the same place – and ate a sandwich in the lobby, trying to remember all the performances we did there back then. I often took care of the lighting in those days, getting to know the tech rigs and all that, but occasionally performed myself. In the Great Hall of the People’s Palace, which is a storied old east London venue, I remember doing Richard III back in early ’98 (I certainly wasn’t playing Richard, I was just part of the production team, I handled some of the artwork and helped with stage management, the latter being just quietly barked at when to open doors). Most of my memories have faded; I can’t remember most people’s names any more. When coming to old places like this to draw, I always do it with the intention of telling stories, but sometimes the stories are all a bit too jumbled up. I wanted to draw one particular building, the Queen’s Building (above). I stood outside the old pub across the street, chatting a little with the landlord who was sweeping the pavement, to draw the iconic clock tower with the magnificent white Queen’s Building behind it. I do still have memories of this building, spending many evenings in here using their computer labs, taking exams in the Octagon. Mostly this reminds me of my graduation day, taking photos outside here with my family and some of my other graduating friends. As I did French and Drama, most of my main friends (some of whom I am still close friends with) were in Drama, but they had largely graduated the year before in 2000. As a French student I got to spend a year in a francophone country – in my case Charleroi in Belgium – so I graduated in 2001. I still had friends in that year though, and many of them I’ve not seen since, but I have some warm memories from that day. I remember in my photos I wanted to turn my head more sideways, because I had recently gained a large scar on my face and didn’t want it showing up as much. Afterwards, my mum and dad and younger sister and I all went for a nice dinner. At the end of that summer I moved out to France, along with one other of my cohort from the French degree (Emma) to spend a year teaching in Aix, arranged by the university as a post-degree work placement. I do remember coming by Mile End a couple of weeks after graduation to those dorms down the road, because I was asked to lead a walking tour of London for visiting international students, but since then I have never actually been back to QMUL at all. It was bizarre to think about. I finished my sketch and explored the campus.

Right, so that took about ten minutes. I remember the Mile End campus as being this large sprawling place, stretching across East London from Mile End to Stepney Green and having to run between classes and always being late for my Performance class because I would be in French Literature just before. It’s actually not that big at all. Having spent the best part of two decades on the UC Davis campus which is an actually huge campus (we have an airport), QMUL felt like going back to my old primary school. I was a little disappointed by the lack of branded merchandise, hardly anything compared to a US university. I found the big library in the middle where I spent so many late nights (often watching old German films in their video labs for my German film course), the cafes where I’d eat my snacks, lots was new, a lot was still the same. I sketched the building above, which was I believe a chapel, I seem to remember it forming part of a logo for QMW but I’m certain that’s a mistaken memory. I do remember knowing some people that lived here though. Very close by is this phone box. I am sure I used that back then – I went in the days before most of us had mobile phones, they were only starting to become a thing. By the time I left, most people had one, usually a great chunky old Nokia thing, but when I was there, the payphone was still the way to go. I did have a Pager which I would use up until about 1999 but I didn’t really like it much. It was liberating, looking back, not having a phone always on you. You made plans and pretty much had to stick to them (I was always late anyway). But there were phone boxes, if you happened to have some change on you. I spent a lot of time broke back then. I ate chips a lot, and Super Noodles (no change there then).

I did go to the Arts Building, which is where my undergrad programs were based. I walked about the building – a lot had changed, but a fair bit was the same. It was an unusual feeling, like sliding back in time, I felt like an interloper. I recognized pretty much none of the names on faculty doors – well I did recognize a couple, who were not there to recognize me back, thankfully – and I didn’t stick around too long, as I was starting to worry that I had homework overdue. I enjoyed my years at Queen Mary, studying French and studying Drama, but I didn’t fancy sticking round to draw anything else, so I explored Mile End a bit more. It was a hot day, I considered going into the New Globe pub for a pint, our favourite watering hole next to the Arts Building, by the canal, but that’s called something else now, so I thought never mind. I walked underneath the huge ‘Green Bridge’ (which opened while I was there, in fact I took part in a special performance piece to mark its opening, along with the Art Park gallery nearby) (I had to pretend to be a room in a house, and then I had to pretend to be a tree, my arms hurt) (Drama student, yeah). I did some more Mile End sketches, but I’ll post those next time.

monday evening in covent garden

July 7, 2023July 7, 2023Leave a comment

Later that day – sorry, I realize several weeks passed by in between writing the posts for my London sketches from Monday May 15th, but I had another trip back to London in June, which included an eight-day trip to Scotland, and now suddenly we are a week into July and my ears are still ringing from the plane – anyway, later that day, I walked over to Covent Garden to do some more sketching. The previous Saturday night I had spent a very fun evening out around here with my old friends Roshan and Frenchie, which involved many laughs during dinner, ending up at the Nag’s Head pub which features in the background of both of my sketches here. Incidentally this is not the only Nag’s Head pub that I would sketch on that trip in May, but the other one will be posted later. I decided to take up position opposite Covent Garden tube station (one of the beautiful oxblood-tiled Leslie Green tube stations), to draw a two-page panorama, which I like to do. There were a lot of people around, being about 5pm on a Monday. In the place where I sketched there happened to be a group of Hare Krishnas who were out chasing people up and down Long Acre asking “have you thought about meditation?” One of them was very enthusiastic, following people like an eager salesman. Nearby, those pedal-cab things were congregating as they do. People were out shopping, this is one of the best shopping areas of the city. One of my favourite shops, Stanfords (they sell maps and travel books) is very close by. Posters advertised musicals like Frozen and Mrs Doubtfire: the musical. I swear, going by all the posters I saw in London, there is nothing that city will not turn into a musical. I’m waiting for “Urban Sketching: The Musical”. Taxis pulled up, letting people in and out, on their way to see a musical probably. People hurried by me on the pavement to get to wherever they were going. I used to be one of those people; I would pass by this corner on my run (I would literally be running) from the 134 bus stop down to the King’s College campus, when I was doing my Master’s in medieval English almost two decades ago. Now, I just focused on my sketch, on all that perspective. I think I had intended to make this full colour, and I had the time and the daylight, although after a while not so much of the energy, so I left it as is. Getting the sky in was important. It was a really lovely mid-May day, the sort where standing out on a London street is pretty much the right thing to do. I was in no hurry, I did not need to be back anywhere, I had no plans. But I was getting hungry, so I went to a nearby Pho place and had a delicious big bowl of pho. I’m going to put a picture of it here just to make you hungry.

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And then I went to Floral Street, and did one last sketch of the day, a block over from where I did the first. I stood outside the White Lion pub, looking towards the Nag’s Head again (in the top sketch the Nag’s Head is in the far bottom left of the scene). There were many drinkers outside the pubs; again I had intended to colour this in, going as far as adding in some yellow blotches for the flowers, but in the end I didn’t have time and didn’t fancy adding it in at home, as I was a bit tired. I didn’t stop into either pub though; instead I went over to the Lamb and Flag for a quick pint before grabbing some food from Tesco Metro and getting the tube home to bed. A very productive day of London urban sketching.

little shop on deansbrook road

June 15, 2023June 15, 2023Leave a comment

This is a little newsagents on Deansbrook Road, Edgware (at the edge of Burnt Oak), near the side exit to the hospital where I was born. It’s not on a row of shops and nowhere near the parade of shops on the other end of Deansbrook, it’s surprising that it is still there. I used to pop into this shop on the way home from school, walking home with my friend Terry we would pop in here for a Mars bar or a Panda Cola, which was a generic tasting fizzy drink in a small bottle with a panda on it, that would only be about 15p (there were other ‘Panda Pops’ drinks such as orangeade or limeade, we would get hose from the school canteen at lunchtime). It’s near the corner of Fairfield Avenue. You walk up there from Deansbrook to get to the alley that leads into Edgware. Well, actually we would cut down an alley further up Deansbrook into Fairfield Crescent, before cutting into the alley to Edgware, so missing this shop entirely, but on the way home we would go this way to get a Panda Cola from this little shop. Panda Cola was all I could afford. If you came out with a Coca Cola or a Pepsi, people would look at you going, ooh look at flash bollocks there, off to his mansion.

Those alleys I mentioned a minute ago, they are still the shortest route walking from Burnt Oak to Edgware, and have been since my Mum was a girl. Despite having walked them a million times, I’m always wary. It had a dodgy reputation in the old days, you never knew who was hanging out there, and with so many dodgy people around these days (as everyone always tells me), you have to keep your eyes open. For me though I always think of one thing, a little dog called Rocky. When we were schoolkids, me and Terry would walk down the little alley, and if we were lucky, it would be empty, and we would pass through on our journey. It’s like playing an adventure game, roll a dice to test your luck. If we were unlucky, a little dog who lived in the adjoining house and whose name was Rocky (we learned from the dog’s neighbours, who went to our school) would be there at the end of the alley, he would see us and immediately give chase, forcing us up the badly-kept steps and out onto the busy Deansbrook traffic. Rocky was unrelenting. Rocky would not simply “let you pass by”. Rocky is long dead by now, but I bet his ghost haunts that alley. Terry and I still talk about him (if “do you remember Rocky” “the dog or the film” “the dog” “yeah” counts as talking about him).

50p down the market

June 13, 2023June 12, 20232 Comments

Saturday morning, London, I didn’t have any concrete plans for the day but was meeting old friends in the evening. I had the whole day to explore and sketch, but wasn’t completely sure where I’d go yet. I had a list of places I wanted to sketch on this trip, places in London that I had not been to in a very long time. I decided to head for Notting Hill Gate, and walk down to Portobello Road Market. I honestly cannot remember the last time I went there, maybe once when my wife first moved to England 21 years ago? I know I went there with my mate Terry once in about 2001. In the mid-90s I used to come to Notting Hill a lot as I had a friend who lived here, though even then I didn’t really go to the Market very often, usually because it was always so busy, and I didn’t really like crowds. Also I worked on Saturdays, didn’t I, back then? Memory fades. Still it had been a really long time since I was even last in Notting Hill, so it was an interesting experience to be back, and there is lots to sketch. First of all, the Central Line was jam packed, and everyone was getting out at Notting Hill Gate tube. Portobello Market is a really popular tourist destination, and it seemed like most of the voices I heard were Italian or American. After a little wandering about I walked down to the Market, past all the little vintage clothes stores and antique stalls and colourful shopfronts. I ate an early lunch at a place that does eggs called ‘Eggslut’ and paid like thirteen quid for a salmon and egg sandwich. Thirteen quid. Prices in England are through the roof right now. When I was a kid, my friend Terry used to help out his Grandad at Portobello Market on Saturdays, his grandad Charlie Bonello (who was Maltese and a great laugh, he used to tell us silly jokes) had a market stall down here, and there was one phrase he would always say whenever Terry would buy something his grandad thought was overpriced, he’d say “50p down the market!” So that became out catchphrase (one of them) for years since. I thought of him when I was paying thirteen quid for a salmon and egg sandwich, I could hear him telling me “Thirteen quid?! 50p down the market!” Except this was that same market. Times have changed since the late 80s, I guess.

I found a spot next to a big fruit and veg stall, overlooking the crossroads with Colville Terrace and Elgin Crescent, next to this trendy looking tea shop, and stood for a long while drawing the scene as it snaked towards me. There were a lot of people around, so I drew passers-by in that usual way, not really drawing anyone in particular but mixing and matching bits of different people as they went by. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is entirely coincidental, although someone did pass by with that exact mohawk and beard combination, so he had to go in the book (he probably wasn’t wearing a massive white shirt but I was tired and lazy with my observations. First drawing of the day, and I was tired already? Well I’d been out late the night before, but I was standing here for quite a while and my legs were hurting. My legs hurt even looking at this drawing. I didn’t want to sit, you need a better view. I coloured most of it in later (except for a few parts I’d started), but there was a lot of ink drawing to do on site, and that Fabriano watercolour sketchbook really makes your pen work on that paper. I had ‘pre-prepared’ the paper a little bit this time, adding a thin wash of paint over the pages the day before, and that helped the pen move a little bit faster but still not as smooth as in the Moleskine. Still I love to sketch a market, and now I’ve finally sketched Portobello. If you want a print of this, well it will be more than 50p down the market, I need to offset the cost of that sandwich somehow…

At the entrance of Portobello Road itself, where it curves into Pembridge Road, there’s this big yellow pub called the Sun in Splendour. I’ve never been in there actually, and didn’t on this day either, but I wanted to draw this colourful corner so I stood over by the e-bike stand on the other side of the road. The first thing I drew was the pile of orange rubbish bags on the pavement. They were soon taken by the garbage trucks. Why keep those in you ask? Well I have my reasons. Look at all the people making their way to or from Portobello Market, I didn’t colour those in as I went along, and you can see there are four people in red, almost entirely evenly spaced out, which is weird. Anyway one thing I wanted to do was try out my gold gel pen for the pub name. I did this a few times in sketches on this trip, and sometimes it didn’t really stand out as much, but in this case it did. I had to remember not to spell ‘Splendour’ in the American way. It did remind me of the sugar substitute they use in the US.

Around here, I saw a lot of references to the 1999 film Notting Hill, the one with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts which should be considered very cheesy and a bit naff, but in fact I love that film, I’m a fan of lots of the people in it, and sure it’s definitely cheese, but who cares. I remember one night at university when I was doing drama, I wasn’t feeling that well and had worked late on drama projects, I forget exactly what we were working on, but it went on really late and I was pretty exhausted. In those days I had a very long tube journey home back from Mile End to Burnt Oak, and was not massively looking forward to it. Sometimes I would stop halfway and get out at Camden Town, and go and see a film at the Odeon on Parkway before heading back to bed. On this one night I didn’t even get to Camden, I popped into a cinema in Stepney Green (which is probably long gone) and watched Notting Hill, and I have to say it totally cheered me up. Sure that silly Elvis Costello rendition of “She” was crooning all over the place, but the soundtrack was pretty great, and I dunno, it just put me in a good mood, and I was ready and up for things again the next day. Doing a drama degree was pretty exhausting, London was pretty exhausting. In fact I went back to Mile End on this trip, visited my old university, did some sketching; more on that in a later post.

Further up Pembridge Road, the little shops lining the street up towards Notting Hill Gate are colourful and worth sketching. That fish and chip shop across the street was busy, next to a vintage clothes shop. There have always been those little shops around here. I’m not really into old clothes or fashion, with the obvious exception of football shirts, of which I’m a football fashion afficionado. I did notice that many of the people in the street were wearing light puffer jackets, it wasn’t cold but it wasn’t that warm either. I stood against an iron railing and drew them, while people sat on steps next to me eating their lunch and smoking. There seem to be a lot more smokers about, and loads more of those bloody vapers, with their little plastic vapes and huge clouds of sticky sickly vapor. At least with smokers you can see the puff of smoke coming when walking behind them, with vapers it just appears as you’re walking by and fogs up the narrow sidewalk, gross. Definitely worse than it was a few years ago. Anyway I moved down a little bit towards cleaner air and sat on some steps to add some paint. As I did, someone came up and said “this is going to be an odd question but can I film you while you draw? Just for a few seconds.” I was like, sure why not. At least you asked, which is nice, I wouldn’t really have cared. Then about five minutes later, I swear, a girl came up and said, “Do you mind if I ask you something?” I said, to her surprise, “You want to film me sketching?” “Yes!” she said, “Is that ok?” She did have her phone in her hand as if ready to shoot so it was a good guess, but I said “Sure no problem, it’s just funny ‘cos you’re the second person in five minutes to ask me!” I suppose people like to see people sketching the world. I love being a tourist.

The last thing I drew that day was an old pub I have been in before, the Prince Albert, but not since about 1997 or 1998 I think. It’s changed a lot since then, but it’s still there round the corner from Notting Hill Gate tube station. It’s pretty swanky inside with its fancy food; I popped in to use the toilet after sketching outside for a while, my legs getting very tired by this point, and ended up staying in for a pint and to add some of the colour. That red car outside, it was stopped in traffic for a little bit and I drew it very quickly, probably not very accurately but it seemed appropriate for the area. Yeah I got a pint, it was £7.10, and not that nice (I didn’t even finish it). “£7.10” I said, “50p down the Market”. Turns out £7.10 is a pretty average price for a pint in London these days, it’s gone up a lot since even last year. Everything has, food, transport, energy. It’s a good job the Buck is still strong against the Quid. There was a big screen on in the pub playing one of the play-off games, I think it was one with Notts County playing Chesterfield at Wembley for a chance to return to the Football League (wait, neither Notts County nor Chesterfield were in the Football League? I didn’t realize). I didn’t stay for the whole thing but there was a group of Aussies (in a London pub, you are never very far from a group of Aussies) watching the game and discussing their careers in the music industry, from what I could gather, I wasn’t really listening, could have been Jason Donovan for all I know. It was nice to get off my feet for a bit though. I love wandering and sketching, but you need to stop and rest. After this, I wandered Notting Hill for a bit more, walking down to the Churchill arms on Kensington Church Street, which was a pub I used to really enjoy evenings out in years ago, and is on my bucket list to draw, but I didn’t have time to sketch on this occasion. I took a quick snap (for a from-photo pub-drawing to be done later) and headed to Leicester Square where I’d be meeting up with some very old friends for an evening of dinner and drinks and laughs. It was fun to wander around this old haunt for a bit though.

norwich walk again

June 11, 2023Leave a comment

Back in the Walk. I flew back to London for a little bit, one of my oldest friends is getting married in Ireland this month (he lives in Dublin), and so he had a stag party (that’s a bachelor party to my American audience) in London a month before, which is just about enough recovery time for us forty-somethings, and so I flew out to London to take part in that. My Mum was going to Spain during the same time though, so I went a little bit earlier to spend some time with her, which meant I got a week or so in London to (a) work from home in the evenings and (b) see friends and family and (c) do lots of London sketching. So I did lots of London sketching, and as always I start at home, looking out of my old bedroom window in Norwich Walk, Burnt Oak, which is up the northern end of the Northern Line at the edge of the north part of London. Zone 4, so not that far out. Takes about 30 minutes to get to Tottenham Court Road on the tube. I always wake up early on those first few days, though after a long journey I did arrive in Burnt Oak quite late in the evening. On this particular day I did an early morning sketch as the daylight was rising in the east above Watling Park. I showed it the old fellow who lives across the street in that house. I’ve drawn this view across the street since I was a kid.

Here are a couple of drawings I did for my art homework looking across the street in the evening in (checks dates) November 1988. That was a very long time ago.

I’m not going to show all my drawings of this street but here’s another one from more recently, 2014. You will notice that in between 1988 and 2023 there was at one point one of those pointy trees growing in front of the house across the street, and another which looks like a bush standing on a pole, which have both gone now.

big time charlie

June 10, 2023Leave a comment

So King Charles got his Big Hat then. I know, I know, it’s old hat to be flippant about the coronation. Sure, it is an expensive ceremony, a chance to get all the old shiny things out and invite all the old wrinkly things in, play some music, wave some flags, interview lots of people and give Charles a massive crown. But I appreciate that this is an important moment, one that most of us have never actually seen before, given the last one was 70 years ago, and in black and white. I didn’t get up in the middle of the night to watch any of it, instead we watched a replay of the whole thing on YouTube. It was long, so of course I sketched the TV and surrounding areas while it went on. It was like watching the World Cup again, drawing my TV cabinet, writing down some of the things the commentators said. It was a historic moment, not because there was anything unexpected, maybe because there wasn’t. I really liked the music. Westminster Abbey is a stunning location visually, but aurally it’s incredible. Cathedrals tend to be, it’s one of the reasons I love cathedrals. Yes yes, Westminster Abbey isn’t a ‘cathedral’. It’s not an ‘abbey’ either, it’s a ‘Royal Peculiar’, but who is splitting hairs. I liked the bit when they were playing Holst’s The Planets, the conductor was very entertaining. All the people coming in, it was fun face-spotting, but I was mots surprised and delighted when they announced “Baroness Benjamin”, and it was Floella Benjamin! Kids TV presenter from when I was very small, I absolutely LOVED Floella, PlaySchool was my favourite program other than perhaps the Mr Men. The Round Window, all those toys like Big Ted, Humpty, and that strange little doll Hamble. I was hoping to see them at Westminster Abbey too, the PlaySchool toys, Jemima and Humpty, Big Ted and Little Ted, and Poppy (who I remember replaced Hamble), all sitting there looking out at all the royals and dignitaries. When Charles and Camilla came, I thought they looked very nervous. I imagined him talking to his plants (as he does) before the ceremony to ease his nerves, “I’ve been waiting a loooong time for this moment, my little green friend”. They got their massive crowns, Charles did that whole anointing thing, there were the ritual objects like the ‘Rod of Equity and Mercy’ and the ‘Robe of Righteousness’ – that sounds like something James Brown would wear – the ‘Rod of Jane and Freddy’ – no wait I’m mixing up PlaySchool with Rainbow now. In preparation we watched the film The King’s Speech, which is a good one. Anyway, King Charles the Third and Queen Camilla were crowned, they went back to Buckingham Palace, it was all very exciting for everyone there, and I’m glad I wasn’t in London with all those crowds. I did that last year for the Queen’s Jubilee with my Mum, who loves all of this pomp and party. I ordered her a special Coronation afternoon tea and scones set from Marks’s. Me and my wife did watch the whole thing though, all however-many-hours it was, on YouTube (I was wondering if in Shakespeare’s time they would watch coronations on ThouTube), so I’ve done my civic duty as a far-away Brit who doesn’t really mind that much. I spent the rest of the day playing Horizon Forbidden West, and packing for an upcoming short trip back over to Blighty.

chemistry latest

June 4, 20231 Comment

Here’s my latest sketch of the Chemistry Building’s redevelopment, with this bright green covering going over that newly built wing, ahead of the final cladding going on top. In fact the whole thing is covered in green now, I should do an update. The green on my page is unusually bright. I used that very strong Daniel Smith Phthalo Yellow Green paint, which glows like something out of Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. Well it is the Chemistry building. I showed this to someone and they were shocked, thinking that this would somehow be the final colour of the building. I mean, I wish more fairly conservatively designed buildings had an out of place massive neon green wing attached to them, but it’s pretty unlikely we’d do that. It is Chemisty though so it would get a, haha, reaction, geddit. I can’t wait to see the end product though, I expect it will fit seamlessly with the rest of the building.

life gives you lemons

May 31, 2023May 31, 2023Leave a comment

I saw this old beauty parked opposite my building at work, and raced downstairs one lunchtime to check it out. It’s an old Plymouth, rusty in places and decorated with stickers, one of which was for the “24 Hours of Lemons” race, which I’ve heard of before, a long time ago when I drew an old car in Davis that the owner told me took part in that race. Here’s the blog post about that one. Wow, that was 2013, ten years ago? Life moves on you fast.

Here is that car from ten years ago. Looking at the Flickr post, there was a comment from my olf German sketching friend Florian Afflerbach, aka Flaf, an expert and much loved car sketcher who sadly died in 2016, far too young. Seeing his comment again made me a little sad, but also glad to have known him. I still think of him when drawing old cars, he was supposed to teach a workshop at the Manchester symposium on sketching cars, but he was killed in a road accident shortly before, so Gerard Michel and Lapin who both knew him well and sketched with him often, taught the workshop together instead. Lapin always said that every sketchbook needs an old car and a dinosaur; this sketchbook (the Fabriano one, #46 in the official list) has this one plus a Lego dinosaur, so that’s the quota filled.

Here is some info about the 24 Hours of Lemons race: https://24hoursoflemons.com/. There’s even a photo of this very car on that webpage. I have never been to one of those races, but I’d like to go and sketch some of the cars in them some day. There’s one at the Sonoma Raceway in December…

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football at my desk

May 30, 2023May 29, 2023Leave a comment

Well, the football season has ended. Ok, not all of it, there are still European finals and FA Cup finals and another round of games in some leagues where the title has already been decided, but as far as I’m concerned, as a Spurs fan, the season is over, and now we have to look to next season. What that will look like, nobody knows, since we have no new manager in sight, no certainty that our best player and all-time record scorer Harry Kane will stay, but certainty that we will not be playing European football next year. Ah well, maybe the break will be a good thing. It’s been a strange season. Spurs were stuck in fourth for most of it, while playing football that was dreary at best, less “to dare is to do” and more “don’t you dare do”. We sacked Conte eventually, replacing him with his assistant Stellini, then replacing him with Ryan Mason, it was like the Tory Party leadership. Manchester City won the league (again), overtaking Arsenal a few weeks before the end of the season, the Gunners bottling it when face with the massive state-funded behemoth in their rear view mirror. I found myself actually feeling sorry for them. At least Chelsea were utterly hilariously atrocious; we were terrible, but ended up sixteen points ahead of them. Five other London clubs finished ahead of them. Two other west London teams finished above them. Leicester got relegated, only a few years after they were the champions, going down with Leeds and Southampton. Meanwhile little Luton Town, who were relegated from the old First Division just before it became the Premier League, finally made it back up to the top table having been in the non-league divisions just a few years back. In Italy, Napoli won their first title since the Maradona years, finishing miles ahead of everyone else, while in Germany it went down to the final day, but Dortmond lost and Bayern pipped them to win an eleventh title in a row, because of course. In France, the oil-state sportswashing project called PSG won another title, keeping it interesting in Ligue 1. The middle of the season saw that same state hold a winter World Cup, which I must say I’m actually on board with the idea of every other World Cup being held just before Christmas, I enjoyed mixing the footy with the festive fun, and despite all the controversy about the hosting, the final was one of the most entertaining I’ve ever seen, with Messi finally getting his World Cup with Argentina. Time for a football break. The Women’s World Cup will be this summer though, and that should be good, but there’s just so much these days. I quit soccer coaching last year and have been watching my son’s team from the sidelines, thankful to not be thinking about practice plans and playing time as much, but still wincing whenever they play long balls. I’m still as obsessed as ever about football shirts, in fact most of the time I might prefer the shirts to the actual sport. I’m also still part of the organizing team for the local Davis World Cup youth recreational soccer tournament, my role being to take care of the website and the logos, and of course I’ve designed a million logos. This year is one of my favourites. Come August though, when the new Premier League season rolls back in, I’ll of course be as excited (or filled with dread) as ever, getting up early to watch the gsames, or catching them in my lunchtime as I did with the one I sketched above. That was a game we drew against Manchester United, who had been fellow Champions League contenders until we got blown away by Newcastle the weekend before. It was tough watching Spurs, but my allergies are so bad in Davis that it was better than being outside sneezing all lunchtime.

a night at the oakland coliseum

May 29, 2023May 29, 2023Leave a comment

The main evening activity for the UC-AMP Conference in April was attending a Major League Baseball game at the Oakland A’s stadium, the Oakland Coliseum. I was dead excited for this game. The stadium was pretty dead too. I went with a group of other UC Davis staff members and we all sat along with many of the other UC-AMP attendees, many of whom I had spoken to in the various workshops that day. We had good seats, and there was a mixture of Oakland fans and Chicago Cubs fans all around us. The A’s were playing the Cubs, and it was soon pretty obvious who the better team was. The A’s were more like a D-minus. The stadium itself is a vast concrete bowl, a short walk from the BART, not the most beautiful stadium approach in the world. Contrast with the splendid San Francisco Giants ballpark, whatever that is called now (I’ve not been in ten years). We had to walk quite a distance once we got inside the ballpark, but I had been here before, and things were starting to get familiar to me. I’d only been once, 21 years ago, my very first trip to a baseball game on my very first trip to America. In 2002 I went with my now brother-in-law to watch the Oakland A’s play a great game in the sunshine against the Cleveland Indians, with their slightly (massively) problematic ‘Chief Wahoo’ badge and even more slightly problematic (massively racist) chanting. That aside, the whole experience was bizarre to me, and nothing like being at a football match (except for the other team’s problematic chanting). It was much more of a family outing, with as many women there was men, all of whom were just as enthusiastic. This was definitely not the case in European football stadiums at the time, which were still mostly a male world full of gruff swearing and awful pies. It was one of the things that I really liked about America when I first came, was that things like sport that were seen very much as “boy’s things” while growing up in England were really much more Unisex over here. I think that has changed a lot back in the UK over the years, but certainly as a kid my female friends who liked football were seen as outliers, and even now people back home often assume my wife wouldn’t be interested in sports; over here I get the impression it would be ridiculous to think like that. American sports are for everyone, much more inclusive. On this night, there was one female A’s fan who was not only enthusiastic but angrily yelling at the players before breaking into a rousing chorus of “Let’s Go Oakland”, while another female Cubs fan got more and more vocal about how great her team was to the point where they were calling each other out across the crowd, in a way that was probably more good-natured on one side than on the other (I sketched them both). Back in 2002, I remember one difference between English football and American baseball that stood out most clearly was the part of the game they called the “Seventh Inning Stretch”, when everyone stood and sang this song about being taken to the ball game. I was like, what is this, what is going on? People were joining arms and singing at the top of their voices like it was an old cockney knees-up. It was like being transported back into some antiquated era, the only thing like it now being when they sing ‘Abide With Me’ before the FA Cup Final. Another thing I noticed on that day was how so many of the fans were into their statistics, often writing down all sorts of numbers and reciting all these things about ‘batting averages’ and other phrases I had never heard of. The ballpark on that day was pretty crowded; the A’s (short for “Athletics”) had a pretty good team that season, and made it to the play-offs where I remember they beat the Giants. They had this one player, Miggy Tejada, and then at the end of the game on the big screens they would show this little puppet called the ‘Rally Monkey’. They would wave that thing, there would be little comical scenes starring the Rally Monkey, it was for sure not something we ever did down at the Lane. Imagine if in the 80th minute of a game, we’re 2-1 down against Chelsea or someone, if at that moment all the fans suddenly started waving these little cuddly toys to try and encourage their team to get back to victory, well they would have got, to use a common phrase on the terraces, their “f&*!in’ ‘eads kicked in”.

But the main thing I took away from that first ever baseball game was what I was looking for on this day – Garlic Fries. I was surprised when lining up for food and drink that you can watch the action on little screens as you wait in line, but the most suprising thing was that you could buy fries, right, but with garlic on them. Garlic Fries?! Oh boy I had to try those. And they were amazing. I got back from the game, this is what I talked about, these Garlic Fries. I’d never had anything like them. I’ve eaten Garlic Fries since, but they were never quite as good as those first ones at the Oakland ballpark. So that was my mission here. When I found them I was delighted, but when it came time to pay, I was surprised to find I’d only been charged 9 cents. The cashier when I asked just said, “hey I just press the buttons, I don’t know what the price is”, and she didn’t mind. So she got a better tip, and I got amazing Garlic Fries, that tasted even better for only costing 9 cents. On my way back to my seat I spoke enthusiastically to one of the stewards about my first time here in 2002, Miggy Tejada, Garlic Fries, the Rally Monkey and sunburn, and she listened and smiled, but I could tell there was a bit of sadness in her that things here were just not the same as back in those days, except for maybe the Garlic Fries. When I got back to my seat, everyone around me was jealous of my Garlic Fries, and I probably smelled of them for quite a long time afterwards.

No chance of seeing the Rally Monkey on this night. I left right after the seventh Inning Stretch when they were 6-1 down; in the end they lost 10-1. Even quite early in the game, the fans were singing “Let’s Go Oakland” and then leaving. The same night there was a big basketball match on, the Sacramento Kings were playing in some big important game, and most people around me were following that on their phones or watching it on laptops. Yes, people would come to a baseball stadium and watch a basketball game on their actual laptops. The team was pretty poor though. I heard that on Opening Day, they could only muster up about 3,000 fans to come and watch them. Enthusiasm is not high, and nobody likes the owners (there’s something that the A’s fans do have in common with many Premier League club fans, then). In fact, the day after I went to this game, the owners announced that they would not be staying in Oakland, and would be moving out to a new home in Las Vegas. I started to understand why some of the staff didn’t really seem to care that much, such as the one who charged me 9 cents for Garlic Fries; why would they care, the owners are about to boot them all out of their jobs. It’s a pretty ignominious end to a storied history in Oakland, and there will be a lot of fans that will be pretty unhappy, fans who always loved their team, but it was a pretty unhappy ballpark experience compared with that first one I went to back in the sunshine of 2002. I left on my own, got lost around the stadium, walking through a desolate parking lot before finding the BART and riding back to Berkeley, not the safest I’ve ever felt. It will likely be my last time at the Oakland Coliseum, but I’m glad I was able to go back one last time, and get those amazing Garlic Fries once again.