100 not out – football as self care
The game last night was my 100th match since non league football came back after 8 months away in August 2021 – that’s 100 matches in 15 months – 13 months or 397 days excluding the close season – 52 of those games were Enfield Town matches, 48 were other teams.
I’ve always enjoyed watching football, it’s been 41 years since I started going to Enfield and then Enfield Town after the split in 2001 – I estimate I’ve been to around 1000 matches, I wish I had kept records before I started last year!
But beyond the enjoyment as my problems with depression and anxiety came into my life, I found that getting to games helps me – the act of getting out and doing something I enjoy despite sometimes feeling that I can’t do it is all part of my ‘treatment’.
So, when non league football came I decided that I would not only watch Town but also do what I did for a couple of seasons in the late 80s/early 90s, I would go to watch other non league teams when Town weren’t playing or if I couldn’t get to away games. And I’m lucky in the amount of options there are in North East London: Walthamstow, West Essex, Haringey Borough, Cockfosters, Hadley, New Salamis, Clapton Community, Potters Bar, Wingate & Finchley, Arsenal Women (not actually non-league), Boreham Wood, NW London, Lymore Gardens, Cheshunt and FC Romania are all within two bus journeys away.
So, it’s 100 not out and I’m very happy with that – game 101 today as Enfield Town play Herne Bay and game 102 tomorrow as New Salamis play on Sunday due to their landlords Haringey Borough having a home game today.
It’s all good.
andy’s best of 2021: dance/electronica
The dance/electronica tracks taken from my top 50 of 2021
andy’s best of 2021: hiphop
Hiphop tracks taken from my best of 2021 playlist
Game For A Laugh
Here’s the thing; I’m a bit of a comedy geek, I’ve seen hundreds of shows and acts over the last 30 years, five or six in a day at my best/worst, but I can’t recall being really offended at any of them. There’s been the odd one or two I haven’t enjoyed at all but that’s been cos not funny. And I’m one of these po faced commies who thinks comedy should punch up and not rely on hack stereotypes and cliches to elicit a laugh or two. Add to this the innumerable amount of tv and film comedies I’ve watched and I think I can say I know a thing or two about a thing or two.
I can quote at will from Hancock’s Half Hour, Python, The Young Ones, Father Ted, Black Books, Still Game, Partridge, The Big Lebowski, The Jerk, 15 Storeys High, Spaced, Withnail, Phone Shop and so on, and that’s not to mention more recent shows like People Just Do Nothing, This Country, What We Do in the Shadows, Man Like Mobeen, The Detectorists, Ghosts etc…
This is not to say there haven’t been occasions when I look back and see that some of the things I’ve laughed at are problematic, the most glaring of these possibly being the infamous ‘April’ ep of The IT Crowd; that 13 years later people can watch that ep and immediately see the problem brings me on to my next point…
As technology has progressed and with it the media we interact with to process information, we have become a more sophisticated audience. We should also take into account the increase in the amount of knowledge available to us and how societal change has played its part. The increased awareness of ‘other’ groups and their cultures, problems and oppressions means our perception of how people are represented in media has become more acute: what was funny in the 60s was no longer considered funny in the 80s; what was funny in the 80s was no longer considered funny in the 00s; what was funny in… well, you get my drift.
The advances in media and awareness/knowledge of ‘others’ and social issues is not a new phenomenon but the explosion of social media over the last 10 years has brought with it an exponential increase in the information available to us. Twitter can be a hellsite but it’s also the place where I’ve made connections and friends and through them, and others they boost, have learned a fuckload of new stuff which has broadened my knowledge and, hopefully, my empathy and allyship. When some reactionary shitehawk witters on about how ‘there seems to be so many more of *them* these days’, we should just be able to point at the internet and the opportunity it’s given people to learn about themselves and others, and how it’s enabled people to clarify and understand and CONNECT with one another.
So, yeah, increased technology, media and platforms lead to increased knowledge, awareness and critical insight. There are people who don’t like that last one, they’d prefer it if you just said they’re not funny or you don’t get them but instead find themselves being challenged. And that’s their problem.
I’ll finish up with a rough list of some of my favourite comedians, all of whom I’ve seen live, some of them many, many times:
Daniel Kitson, Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Mark Thomas, Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel, Ross Noble, Tim Key, Sophie Duker, Sarah Pascoe, Boothby Graffoe, Guz Khan, Linda Smith, Alex Horne, Alexei Sayle, Sean Lock
Some of them are political, the trio of Thomas, Hardy and Steel gives you an idea of when I started watching comedy and my leanings, but some are not. I don’t really watch Noble anymore but back in the early 00s I was a sucker for his stream of absurdity. I even laugh at Tim Vine, that fucker just mows you down with his pun gun til you can’t help yourself, and he did the best Edinburgh poster ever. The one thing they all have in common is that they don’t rely on stereotypes, they don’t try and get a lowest common denominator laugh through an assumed derision or hatred of ‘others’, they do not punch down. And I’d challenge anyone’s knowledge of comedy if they told me no one on that list is funny.
Don’t make me point at the internet.
2021 albums, a half term report
Cos I like making lists, here’s 10 albums I’ve been digging this year with a track from each.
Black Country, New Road – For the First Time
Jane Weaver – Flock
Ghetts – Conflict of Interest
Shame – Drunk Tank Pink
Goat Girl – On All Fours
Madlib – The New Normal
Mogwai – As The Love Continues
Arab Strap – As Days Get Dark
Loraine James – Reflection
Gruff Rhys – Seeking New Gods
Squid – Bright Green Field
For Those I Love – For Those I love
OK, it was twelve. Sue me.
depression
numbness
isolation
can’t move
can’t function
anxious
dissociation
insomnia
disturbed sleep
afraid to sleep
illogical
crying
blankness
don’t want to die
don’t want to exist
silence
hopeless
joyless
useless
worthless
pointless
frustrated
self hatred
relentless
crushing
nothing
In no particular order 2019: Tiny Desk concerts
The second of my end of year lists pays attention to the glorious entity of NPR’s Tiny Desk and the performances that have happened behind it. I’ve followed TD on youtube for a few years but this year has seen a string of quality ‘concerts’ rolling out one after the other so I decided to do a list of my favourites cos lists are good and entirely objective, no commentary not nuffink, just the music.
So here we, here we, here we fucking go…
In no particular order 2019
There was a time when I would fire up this blog and hurl out paragraphs of what I thought pithy political invective on a weekly basis, sometimes 2 or three times or week. Those times have passed, sadly or not, and now it’s just me forgetting my password and resetting it a once year to do a list of music cos if nothing else it’s a handy guide for me to see what floated my boat in a fixed time period. Onwards…
This year saw Gruff Rhys release his 6th solo album, Pang! – add these to 9 with SFA, 2 with Neon Neon, one with Tony da Gattora and the soundtrack for Set Fire to the Stars, plus numerous other collaborations, and it’s clear to see the creative urge is more than an itch for Rhys (he recently announced his next album is already completed). I was lucky enough to see him and the Pang band in October and was as entranced as ever. Here’s one of my faves from the album.
Pang! is a welsh language album produced by South African afrobeat/hip hop guru Muzi – a few years ago Muzi hooked up with Stormzy and invited him over to South Africa to check out the scene, and so we have the incredibly clunky link to the next of my pick of 2019…
Staying in South London for Dave, winner of the Mercury this year and soon to appear on another list of mine (Tiny Desk 2019) – I mean, first the Mercury and now appearing on two of my lists, he’ll never match that.
Talking of Mercury nominees (this linking shit is easy!), Idles gained acclaim for the album they released in 2018 but they did release a new single this year which carried on where they left off, viscerally and noisily.
Another Mercury nominee (what? they did a decent list this year) in Black Midi, used a live vid cos of Morgan Simpson’s drumming – watch any live vid of theirs and he’s the fulcrum imo
Not nominated for the Mercury (linking game is dropping) but with a glorious 7th album, A Bath Full of Ecstacy, I have to include Hot Chip, quite simply one of the best UK bands of this century. They played their biggest headlining gig so far at Ally Pally in October and I was there and it was indeed a bath full of ecstacy (ahem) – their studio output is excellent but they take it to another height live expanding the line up and tweaking the tracks to make them one of the best live acts around. This is why I’ve put a live performance here but you should also check out the official vid for Hungry Child, possibly my favourite of the year.
Georgia guesting on that performance lead to me checking out her music and this one is a banger – I’m a sucker for good electro pop and she has her crash at a silly height just like yer man from Battles
My boys QELD are planning a new album to follow their excellent Kush Zombies but in the meantime this kept the flames burning in 2019 – you should also see the brilliant short doc 100 Fishponds Road about a mass grave of paupers in Bristol which Bobby QELD worked on – it’s available to watch here
I was supposed to see FWF but wasn’t really up to it so gave my ticket to a friend who reports they were magical – really good album this year and a string of compelling videos of which this is just one
One for those of us who can remember buying Three Feet High and Entroducing when they originally came out – yeah, probably a nostalgia pick but these fellas were, are and always shall be class
“Recently I’ve been struggling with anxiety, to the point where I find it hard to leave the flat” Richard Dawson makes the mundane and everyday epic things and can make your heart burst with any one of his seemingly prosaic couplets – a writer and performer full of humanity and one of the albums of the year – my mate, Will, introduced me to his music. Thanks, Will. Thill. “One of the girls who works the checkout tuts under her breath and it destroys me for the week”
That voice tho
Not much new from the Doomtree collective this year which makes me hopeful for 2020, but Dessa had a couple of new tracks including this belter
Another act I only discovered this year, this came out in the autumn and I *really* need to see them live
That’s it for now, there’s stuff I’ve missed off and loads of music I haven’t listened to which I would probably love – don’t let old farts like me tell you there’s no good music coming out these days, it’s always there to be found.
In no particular order 2017
An impromptu selection of some favourite tracks from the last 358 days. That’s it.
And finally, what with my love of Tiny Desk, here’s my favourite of this year’s batch.
Views From A Tower Block 