Fact #3

95% of me didn't want to watch Mamma Mia!

100% of me loved it.

Discuss.

The Fourth Lion

I'm English.
I love football.
Therefore, I support the England football team.
It is a cross to bear.

English fans are always put through sheer hell. The newspapers create such unrealistic goals that our failures seem even greater than ever. We may hate the team at times, get pissed off with them alot and have sweaty nervous palms even if we're 5-0 up with 5 minutes to go, but you simply support your country.

Now if you dont have a national team worth a poo (ahem...UAE) then I guess you tend to pick someone else when it comes to World Cups and such.
This annoys me.
When England failed to qualify for the 2008 Euro's, I didnt choose another country. I just watched the tournament and enjoyed the football, all the while desperately trying to ignore the overwhelming pain of not having England involved.
But here, without a national team of your own that's ever going to get to the finals of any competition, there's a huge amount of band wagon jumping.
For the last World Cup, many started wearing Brazil shirts as if they had always supported them. Apart from Pele and 'that one that got fat' I doubt if they could tell you any more than they wear yellow. Now when Brazil were knocked out of the World Cup, the bins around town were suddenly flowing with unwanted Brazil tops and the sports shops had a sudden rush for Italian and French shirts.

My point is, us England fans live through 90 minutes of agony with every game. I can count on two fingers the important games that I actually enjoyed. (Germany 1 England 5, and more recently, Croatia 1 England 4....FYI)
As an England fan, the media always tell us we should be winning competitions but us real fans know that we just dont have what it takes and luck is rarely on our side.
I truly hope I'm wrong and one day before I leave the world, I will get to see us claim a trophy of worth. But whatever happens, I wont be switching countries just to get a bit of glory.
We invented the damn game and it just seems to haunt us.

Fromage Rules

Although many people love to tell others that they are a DJ....it's not something I divulge easily. I'm not sure why, but it feels like its not really a worthwhile profession.
In fact, I know it isn't. But it pays well and it's money for old rope.
After every gig, I get a wad of cash and I always get a tinge of guilt. You really want to give me that much for pressing play and stop all evening?
I'm aware there is a certain skill to picking the right song at the right time. Experience tells you how to turn a crap night into one with a fighting chance of success. And its not everyone that can notice that the little things (lighting, positioning of dance floor, quality of sound, running order) are the things that alter the outcome of the night.
Still, I feel guilt.
Then I see the so-called 'trendy DJ' brigade, and suddenly I feel I should be given more credit.
I deal in cheese. Fun. People get drunk, people smile, laugh and get sweaty as I take them on a journey through as many different music styles as they will allow me.
I play the songs they know, the songs they had forgotten about but loved and maybe slip a few newbies in too.
People sing along, people cheer to the intro of a well-timed classic and everyone goes home happy and singing bizarre versions of Bohemian Rhapsody as they stagger out in search of a taxi.
Now, go to a 'trendy' club.
What do you see? Dour faces. Pristine make up. Lots of staring. Very little in the way of smiling. All this to the soundtrack of the latest RnB, mass-produced-bile.
Yet, these places are packed. How?
It depresses me that people are more than willing to spend a night out seemingly pissed off or bored.
I remember going to a few clubs in my youth. At about midnight, the DJ would start playing a few silly songs. The place would erupt. Everyone suddenly united in having fun and letting loose.
This would last ten minutes before we returned to the latest force-fed garbage from the "charts".
And so, everyone would go back to staring at each other.
Where's the fun people?
Cheesy DJ's often get a lot of stick, but we are the one's that give you the nights you remember. If you're the type who often frequents moody clubs with underdeveloped doormen, extortionate drinks and dull, carbon-copy Rap.........I promise you, there's fun to be had somewhere else. Enjoy cheese while you're still young enough to dance all night!
You'll miss it when you can't cope anymore.....