Seven Minutes of Football

May, 2011. Another final game of the season, another league decider away from home, and once again, I'm parked in the stand behind the goals. Two years ago, it was Dundee, this time, Kilmarnock.

The video is the first seven minutes of the game. This is how I love to see Rangers play; with pace and attacking teams. Three or four passes to get to the other end of the pitch, and in this game, three attacks brought three goals.

I couldn't actually believe what I was seeing. We'd all had a few pints on the train down to the south west of Scotland (Johnny in particular was rather imbibed!), but it was incredible. The place erupted and the early goals made for an enjoyable and relaxed afternoon!

A Favoured Quote

Today has been a heavy reading day as I hurtle towards the deadline for the Maine conference. It has been made possible by an awesome pot of fresh coffee. However, in my readings, amongst other silly things, I found a quote by Carl Sagan which really struck a chord regarding our place in the grand scheme of things. It comes from this image taken 6 billion KM from earth (Earth is the white speck halfway down the brown band):



"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

Songs about Days of the Week

There are a few of note; some good, some not so good! The list started off easy but it became progressively more difficult later on in the week:

New Order - Blue Monday


Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday


Simon and Garfunkel - Wednesday Morning, 3AM (no too many Wednesday songs about!)



Thursday is not represented on my iPod, but there is a song by Jim Croce (crochet!) called Thursday. It was either than or some fairly recent song called 'Thursday's Child by David Bowie that's not that good, or an instrumental by Brian Eno.


The Cure - Friday I'm In Love


Or you could have this monstrosity...


Elton John - Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

covered famously by Nickelback also, less said the better...

Daniel Boone - Beautiful Sunday, an epic from the Safeway end at Forthbank, circa 1997

The Shortest Day

Around 11.30pm tonight, the tilt of the earth means that we will be at our farthest point from the sun (23° 26'). That will signal the turning point, and from tomorrow the days will be getting longer. That calls for only one tune:

My Top Ten Podcasts

Who remembers their first podcast? I can't remember mine, but I got an iPod Nano around 2005 and think it would have been not long after. I suspect it would have been a football one, but something inside me says comedy. Anyway, here are my top ten podcasts from past and present. The top 4 are in the right order, the rest I'm not so sure with. The more recent stuff I'm just getting in to (This American Life) may get a mention in the future.

10: Mayo and Kermode's Film Reviews - Their frank and honest analysis of the Sex and the City movie was a work of art.

9: Adam and Joe - I liked their XFM ones over the BBC 6 Music ones, very silly.

8: Al Murray - Probably the worst editing ever, but the brutality added to the comedy in my opinion. The oi oi pub landlord character is looking a bit tired and work out these days, but in 2007 is was more fresh.

7: TIME's Top 100 Albums - A musical education if anything.

6: Edinburgh University Enlightenment Series - This saved me reading a lot of books on the Scottish enlightenment, the one by Tom Devine is exceptional despite his over-articulation of words at times.

5: Exploring Environmental History - Providing environmental history material to the masses; you get them when interviews become available. Sometimes they are over the phone or over Skype which makes it a bit amateurish, but you know you are getting to know more on up-to-date research.

4: Russell Brand - Like Adam and Joe, the best ones were from 6 Music; irreverent nonsense, wonderfully delivered.

3: 5-Live's World Football Phone-in - A recent addition, wonderful to hear discussion on football which is engaging, enlightening and not a whiney rant on the English League by rank pundits.

2: Football Weekly - From the Guardian, presented by James Richardson of Italian Football fame, sometimes the pundits get on my nerves but you get a good hour and a half every week.

1: Off the Ball - Taken from the BBC Radio Scotland show on a Saturday, presented by Tam Cowan and Stuart Cosgrove, this is sel-classified as a load of nonsense. The funny side of football is on the agenda, and regularly some of the guests are top drawer. Some of it shouldn't be on the radio on a Saturday lunchtime, but it helps keep it on its toes!

King's Park Football Club

When I was younger, about 9 or 10 years old, I always wondered how Stirling Albion were one of the youngest teams in the Scottish League (Clydebank, now defunct, were formed in 1967 if I remember correctly). I learned that before Stirling Albion were formed in 1945, the professional team in the (then) town was King's Park F.C. All I really knew was that the only bomb to fall on Stirling during World War 2 fell on their ground, and they subsequently went out of business. Sounds simple really, but there was more to it!

According to Wiki, their ground, Forthbank Park, was used in the late 19th century, and the club entered the Scottish League in the 1921/22 season. They weren't that great, a bit like modern day Stirling Albion, not the worst team but certainly not topping the upper leagues. Apparently there were some alleged financial irregularities as the bomb landed on Forthside making it easier to go out of business and start again under another name. This caused a bit of a stir, however Stirling had a professional team once more.

I set out on a quest to find out where exactly Forthbank Park was. The home of Stirling Albion, Forthbank Stadium, is named in honour (as well as being built on the banks of the Forth)! Annfield, Stirling's home from 1945 to 1991 was easy to find, but I could find no remnants of the old ground.

Thankfully, someone came up with an Ordnance Survey map of 1896 showing a football ground to the east of the railway tracks at KFC, where the John Player's Bowling Green is/was found (not sure if it still exists). First question answered, I know where this team played. There isn't much that I can find on the history of this club, so now I hope to find out more!

Bangin' Tune from Mark Ronson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt_aKauLrjA&feature=related

Mark Ronson - The Bike Song

I first heard this tune about a month ago, I believe it was on Radio 2. I've caught bits of it over time, then yesterday I heard it twice in 3 hours. I liked it as it brings with it an air of familiarity; opening with Ronson's trademark klaxon-sound, it lets the listener know it's him even though other folk are doing the singing! I thought the vocals rang a few bells, and I was right, they are sung by Kyle from The View. They have went off the radar big style but it looks like a comeback is on. At the end, there is a hint at a sample from Third World - Now That We Found Love (although you may be more familiar with the Heavy D and the Boyz version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNEgUPKxk7A&feature=related)

Favourite part is at 2:05, the bell rings. A nice retro trip!

I would embed the video but YouTube aren't letting me!