Becoming a fan

Just this past week, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into considering whether the Canucks are picking me to become a fan (because I am a Calvinist: the club picks you and not the other way around).  I think there is no better time to become one than right now.

They are doing so, so very poorly right now.  What was it, 7 straight losses at home?  Which means great news because a good bunch of the plastics should be driven out by now.  No more of stupid girls raising up banners saying “Naslund, I wanna have your baby” because now they are probably too busy watching Gossip Girl now.

And there’s still enough of the season left for me to learn about the game, so I can be ready by the start of next season.

I have been listening to Team 1040 (the Canucks radio station) everytime I get in the car these days, and I was very pleasantly surprised when one of the pundits on there raised the point I have always tried to raise without success: there are way too many teams and games in the NHL for neither of them to matter.

I mean, if you look at, say, the Canucks, you see very little in them that is representative of the fact that they are a club from Vancouver.  There are no real rivalries against other teams (I reckon some might say we are rivals with the Oilers or Flames, but I have seen little evidence other than a few silly ‘BOOs’), no real chants or anthems that we are associated with.  The only thing I can see is that the fans are mostly half-arsed middle class fat asses (like myself, if I must say), which I guess IS representative of the population here.

I suppose that’s why all you hear people talk about are the stats and the players.  You very seldom hear anyone talking about the clubs themselves.

I mean, this is a bit like a Christian talking about the little things they do at church without ever referring to God.  They’ve totally missed the point.

Whereas, say, if you were to attend say Man Utd vs. Liverpool, you can probably easily trace a lot of their chants (yeah, they actually chant and sing) back to historical
events, and the cultures of the cities the teams are from.

Although, what is actually sickening is when they decide to play those lousy rock tunes on the PA everytime the play stops over here in North America. We are talking about fricking hockey (or baseball or soccer or football)  games, not a night out at the movies or circus for crying out loud.  Let the crowd make the atmosphere!

One of the goals I’ve set in the beginning of the new year is that I will go to at least 1 away match with the Whitecaps, be it against the Portland Timbers, Montreal Impact, or against Toronto FC (if I can get a ticket there, which seems unlikely).

Shame we won’t be playing against the Sounders anymore.  But I think it’d be fun to head down there when they play against Becks’ team.

Material

Since today was a bit of a brand new start to my life (working in downtown, using the bus as my main means of transportation for the foreseeable future, etc.), I have decided to start the chapter off with a non-melodramatic post.

In fact, instead of talking about ideas, I am going to talk about some of the things in my life.  I often forget how many things there are in my life.

So, as I am sure everyone of you know, *ahem*, the Vancouver Whitecaps won the USL-1 Championship on Thanksgiving Sunday a couple of weeks back.  That was our third title all-time, and also our second title in the past 3 years (we also won it in 2006).

Me, being the gloryhunter that I am, decided to splash out big bucks and ordered this t-shirt:

Waited for a while, but it finally arrived today.  Very nice.

Now, moving on, some of you might have known that my iPod died about 2 weeks ago.  On the same night that I saw Bluetree and Vicky Beeching.

Well, I finally received my new iPod from Apple today.  Excellent customer service.  Wonderful.

But I decided that since my last one broke without me getting the opportunity to really bond with it (it was always covered in a hard plastic case), I might as well enjoy this current one as much as I can before it dies too.

And so, here’s what I did to it:

The brushed steel look seems to be the cool thing to do nowadays.  I thought I might as well put a good Christian twist to it.

The end.

Not very exciting, is it?

BTW, you might have noticed that all 3 of my photos are heavily photoshopped.  And that’s because I have no idea how to take pictures and they look real lame and ugly if I showed you the originals.

Bits and Parts

I am really feeling indifferent about the Starfield concert.  Their first, largely acoustic album was ace, second was a nice change of sound, but their third and latest one feels like an album past its expiry date.  It feels like an album that had to be made for them to continue being relatively successful.  If I want to listen to the tired radio rock riffs, I might as well throw on some Foo Fighters or something.  With all this said, they have never failed to entertain in live shows, as my friend SJW pointed out.

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It’s the Champions League final but I am not that excited at all because football has become a joke, really.  Where are the real football teams like Ajax of ‘95?

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The Whitecaps are going to revamp the BC Place and use it as our temporary home, with the hopes of securing a bid in catching the heated wave of MLS expansion.  Good news but also bad news as this means any plans to build the Waterfront stadium can easily be pushed back.

Luckily I get to catch our home game against the Seattle Sounders this coming Friday! 

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I want to move away from Richmond because it’s no longer the little suburban town I was so fond of as a kid (I suppose anywhere South of where I live still is) but a place filled with, well, stupid places.

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I don’t usually talk about cars but I want one of those Audi R8s after seeing Iron Man.

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I want to play in a band.

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I have discovered The Smashing Pumpkins, only about a decade and a half late.

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I really like Ben Gibbard and Conor Oberst and really wish there were Christian musicians who can write songs like them.  Is Sufjan Stevens the only one?

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I just watched “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.  It was funny, cute, and the last little bit at the wedding when the dad finally came around really touched my heart.  Yes, the meaning of life is indeed to get married and have lots of kids.

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I don’t really want to go back to Vancouver.  But neither do I want to stay here right now.