During the Thanksgiving break I went to London with my gal Lindsay and her folks. Over the next few days, I'm sharing some of the highlights with you.
Today: Playing a game of footieMy good friend Mike moved to London about three years ago for work. He is an avid sports fan like myself. Since we both grew up in the Chicagoland area we're both Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks fans. As far as baseball, he's for the Cubs and I'm a White Sox guy. When he first moved to London he told me that the whole soccer craze or as they call it "footie" is just plain strange and he would make every effort to still watch Bears games and follow the Bulls and Cubs even though London is six hours ahead of Chicago. I remember him staying up until 3am London time to catch the end of a Monday Night Bears match-up.
That's all changed.
While he still keeps track of Chicago teams he has became a big fan of soccer. He invited me to see his new favorite team Fulham when I came to visit. I had to see what all the fuss was about so I went to a game with him.
The team he chose Fulham is an old club that's been around since the late 1800's. They play in a stadium that seats about 23,000. Some of the other teams he could have chosen have stadiums that seat about 60 to 80,000. Fulham's stadium is sort of the "Wrigley Field" of London soccer circuit. Despite being the "Friendly Confines" of Europe the fans are still very passionate and do scream at the players.
Every team apparently has different cheers they do for their team. It's very similar to chants you would hear in the student section of a Badger game. However, one of the chants the fans do for Fulham is song to the tune of John Denver's "Country Road Take Me Home." They used different words, but it was the same tune. Very strange.
The game was kinda exciting. Fulham beat Blackburn 3 - 0. I got to see three goals, which is kinda a big deal in soccer or footie or whatever I should be calling it.
I'm not sure I'm ready to dump American sport for the world's most popular game, but I kinda can see the attraction. Now if I could just get the crowd to sing "When you say Fulham Football...you've said it all!" That has a much better ring to it.
Today is World Goth Day, a day to celebrate the post-punk, anti-establishment, dark clothes-wearing subculture.
I'm pretty sure I was a Goth for at least for little while, for two reasons.
1) I almost hardly ever wear pastels.
2) I used to...
Hello to all from Nfusion. Another round of challenges has moved beyond us all. Congrats to those of us lucky enough to have survived to this point. Sad to see the others eliminated as they were all very creative and talented. Good Bye to our new friends...
This morning it seemed like just about everyone was in the mood for some Funky Cold Medina...except Kitty. This ridiculous song made it all the way to number 3 in 1989. Jonathan says any song that references advertising dogs from the 80's has got...
Madison's summer music festival season kicks off this weekend with Brat Fest at Willow Island, where there are more bands than you can shake a bratwurst at! Check out the Brat Fest website to plan your itinerary.
Next up is the Marquette...
John Fogerty is making the talk show rounds this week, stopping in to see David Letterman Tuesday and Wednesday, and the ladies of "The View" on Thursday.
He's promoting his new album, "Wrote a Song For Everyone" which comes out next Tuesday...
It's a miracle that both Jonathan and KItty wanted to hear Barry Manilow this morning. They were not alone. Plenty of Fanilow's called in to vote yes. One caller claimed to have seen Manilow in concert 25 times!
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, it is another gorgeous Monday, fit for another great show at the Crystal Corner tonight.
Through locking ourselves in the barn on Irish Lane, tossing some ideas around, as well as a few choice beverages to...
Hey everybody, we were thrown for a loop by the twist this week, but were able to make one of our "oldie but a goldie" songs fit the mold.
We have a few songs that we have played consistently over the years, and we are very happy that we will be...
Today is World Goth Day, a day to celebrate the post-punk, anti-establishment, dark clothes-wearing subculture.
I'm pretty sure I was a Goth for at least for little while, for two reasons.
1) I almost hardly ever wear pastels.
2) I used to...
Hello to all from Nfusion. Another round of challenges has moved beyond us all. Congrats to those of us lucky enough to have survived to this point. Sad to see the others eliminated as they were all very creative and talented. Good Bye to our new friends...
This morning it seemed like just about everyone was in the mood for some Funky Cold Medina...except Kitty. This ridiculous song made it all the way to number 3 in 1989. Jonathan says any song that references advertising dogs from the 80's has got...
Madison's summer music festival season kicks off this weekend with Brat Fest at Willow Island, where there are more bands than you can shake a bratwurst at! Check out the Brat Fest website to plan your itinerary.
Next up is the Marquette...
John Fogerty is making the talk show rounds this week, stopping in to see David Letterman Tuesday and Wednesday, and the ladies of "The View" on Thursday.
He's promoting his new album, "Wrote a Song For Everyone" which comes out next Tuesday...
It's a miracle that both Jonathan and KItty wanted to hear Barry Manilow this morning. They were not alone. Plenty of Fanilow's called in to vote yes. One caller claimed to have seen Manilow in concert 25 times!
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, it is another gorgeous Monday, fit for another great show at the Crystal Corner tonight.
Through locking ourselves in the barn on Irish Lane, tossing some ideas around, as well as a few choice beverages to...
Hey everybody, we were thrown for a loop by the twist this week, but were able to make one of our "oldie but a goldie" songs fit the mold.
We have a few songs that we have played consistently over the years, and we are very happy that we will be...
My good friend Mike moved to London about three years ago for work. He is an avid sports fan like myself. Since we both grew up in the Chicagoland area we're both Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks fans. As far as baseball, he's for the Cubs and I'm a White Sox guy. When he first moved to London he told me that the whole soccer craze or as they call it "footie" is just plain strange and he would make every effort to still watch Bears games and follow the Bulls and Cubs even though London is six hours ahead of Chicago. I remember him staying up until 3am London time to catch the end of a Monday Night Bears match-up.
That's all changed.
While he still keeps track of Chicago teams he has became a big fan of soccer. He invited me to see his new favorite team 
of a Badger game. However, one of the chants the fans do for Fulham is song to the tune of John Denver's "Country Road Take Me Home." They used different words, but it was the same tune. Very strange.
The game was kinda exciting. Fulham beat Blackburn 3 - 0. I got to see three goals, which is kinda a big deal in soccer or footie or whatever I should be calling it.
I'm not sure I'm ready to dump American sport for the world's most popular game, but I kinda can see the attraction. Now if I could just get the crowd to sing "When you say Fulham Football...you've said it all!" That has a much better ring to it.
