Baby, Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough

Outside of music, my biggest passion is football and in particular the Essendon Football Club. This explains why I am still sans girlfriend.

All my friends know where I stand with my loyalty to the club - unflinching and unwavering support through the good times and...well...the present. It is true, the red and the black aren't doing too well at the minute. We (it is always we, never they) have a young list and a coach still finding his feet but I believe we have a strong foundation and a massive amount of pride that will ensure that we will be back on top a lot sooner than our detractors think.

So for someone who has been spoilt by success for so long, how does one attempt to maintain that winning feeling?

That's correct: Fantasy Football

This solves a few things (and further compounds the girlfriend problem). I can passionately follow opposition players in the league without becoming a turncoat of my beloved Bombers. By keeping up with said players I become more interested in games that don't involve Essendon. This is a scenario that I never warmed to in the past but seeing any team at the top of their game is a stark reminder of what your own club can achieve (given better draft selections and another summer of skills training).

My involvement thus far with fantasy football (called Super Coach in my case) has been obsessive to say the least (just as one would expect). I have spent an inordinate amount of time on opposition websites gaining an understanding for upcoming team selections and training reports from similar one-eyed fanatics. Is 'so and so' going to get up for Round One? How's his pre-season form been? Is he over priced?

Has it helped at all?

Well to roll out some tired football cliches: I'm better for the run and at this stage I'm just taking it one week at a time.

Let's keep things in perspective shall we. This is my first year in charge so I will be prone to rookie mistakes at the selection table. This is to be expected from an amateur.

Until of course my fictitious Club President tells me I have the full backing and support of the board. Then I know I'm fucked.

No correspondence will be entered into #2

An instruction in swordplay
Originally uploaded by Myrrien

An ongoing series of lists where my word is final. The first list can be found here.

We mere men have a competitive streak that is both our strength and our undoing. Far too many times we let the mutual attraction of the opposite sex get in the way of long lasting friendships. Other times we are simply competing with random strangers in a bar for your attention.

To illustrate some examples of our foolishness, I present to you my top 5 songs that deal with this very problem (in chronological order).

5. The Girl Is Mine - Michael Jackson & Paul McCartney

Fromage of the highest order and you wonder how this managed to be the first single from Thriller. Still, it is the most obvious song on the topic. Sung here in a slightly different context by Stephen Colbert & John Legend:




4. Mr Jones - Counting Crows

Whilst the breakout hit by the Counting Crows is about wanting to be a big star, its backdrop is a bar where two friends disagree on who exactly the beautiful women there have eyes for. Which leads us into...

3. Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First) - John Mellencamp

"I saw you first
I'm the first one tonight
Yes, I saw you first
Don't that give me the right
To move around in your heart
Everyone was looking
But I saw you first"

2. Everybody Here Wants You - Jeff Buckley

White hot funk that was light years away from his debut album, 'Everybody Here Wants You' only hints at what Buckley would have been capable of had he survived his swim in the Wolf River.

1. She Says - Howie Day

Debate still exists whether this song is about an ex-boyfriend talking to her new boyfriend, a male friend (who wants to be her boyfriend) talking to her latest beau or a variant of. Regardless, it contains the sobering line: "And when she says she wants somebody else, I hope you know she doesn't mean you."

February stars, floating in the dark. Temporary stars, February stars

The second of my monthly review of musical purchases and downloads for 2009. My look at January can be found here.

February was not a big month for me in terms of new music. I guess my self imposed control on spending to save for my impending trip overseas had something to do with it. Mind you I can see that ban being lifted very soon, around the time I decide that acquiring the entire Robert Palmer catalogue is somehow necessary (and urgent).

It is.

Albums

Eli "The Paperboy" Reed & The True Loves - Roll with Me

Many thanks to my good friend Scott Drummond for putting me on to this sensation. The world can have Miss Winehouse and Miss Stone, I'll keep Mr Reed and his band. It is like a long lost 60s soul album (the production has that warm Stax sound) except they are all new songs and the singer is a white kid in his 20s. Not a dud amongst the eleven tracks and I can't remember the last time I could say that about an album.

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

A 5 line critique on the biggest band in the world and their new album will get lost amongst the masses so let's stick to what you need to know:

- It is their most complete album since Achtung Baby
- Don't mistake it for being a classic like Achtung Baby, let's say it is very good
- It does not have the immediacy of All That You Can't Leave Behind (their last good album) but will eventually be seen as a superior effort
- The only low point of the album is the trio of songs in the middle and one of those is the first single 'Get On Your Boots'
- The rest is brilliant

Singles/EP's

Bob Dylan - Visions Of Johanna

This really is a story for another time and place. The only thing I will say on the matter is that I'm a man that makes mistakes but I'm a man with good intentions.

On a completely separate note, here is a cover of the tune by BRMC.