Zinedine CYGAN !

Pascal Cygan is not the best footballer on the planet, and that's an understatement. After a few succesful years at Arsenal FC we have finally sold him to Villareal. There were many times when he was brought into the starting line up when I got angry and couldn't believe this guy was playing at such a high level.

One thing music and football have in common is that being a consumate professional can make up for any lack of talent you posses. Noone wants to go on tour with an idiot, regardless if he's a virtuoso. Noone wants an a**hole on your team, no matter how good you are, at least I don't... you could be bergkamp, ronaldinho, zizou, totti, henry, cannavaro, buffon... if you're an douchbag i don't want you near me.

I can't believe, based on talent alone, that Pascal stayed with us so long... he made many mistakes, BUT he NEVER EVER SAID A BAD THING ABOUT ARSENALLLLL!!! NEVER COMPLAINED ABOUT HIS WAGES!!! NEVER SAID A WORD ABOUT PLAYING TIME!!! NEVER SPOKE ABOUT HOME SICKNESS !!!! And that deserves respect.... A respect that Reyes and i couldn't in a million years believed i would say this, but COLE don't deserve.

I cannot believe he's chelsea now... Cole cole cole... i can't believe it still, when I see him wear that blue uniform i'll probably pass out.

What kind of an idiot doesn't learn to behave like a man and keep his word alongside Bergkamp, Henry, 19 YEAR OLD Cesc, etc etc. I'm glad the footballing world is now realizing who the dirt bag money craving players are...

Lamps, Terry, and new gooner Gallas, were there a while ago, so i don't blame them for loving the club, etc but anyone that moves there, or has moved there since Abrahamovic took over is a tool.

Cygan, thanks for the memories, and for what it's worth the scary times!! I'll never forget the 2 goals you scored and the massive games you had vs Man United.

Ashley, whatever your problem with the board, loyalty issues, etc etc I don't care. You were one of my favorite players and i will always remember your heart and devotion on the pitch. I hate to love you, and love to hate you! Why Chelsea damn it!??!!?

Before you wave flags...

Back when I was attending Brookline Highschool I befriended a kid name Peter. He was one of the most centered people i had met at that point and age in my life and I have tons of respect for him even then. He was Straightedge, for those who don't know it's a movement or subculture which ideological foundation is their anti-drug stance... this is a brief definition, and by no means the long of it. Also, straightedge is closely related to the Hardcore/Punk movement with bands such as Youth of Today, etc etc. I apologize if i have some of these facts wrong...

He played me a tape from the AMAZING band H2O, and at the end of it one of the guys said: "Before you wave any flags, you better know what you stand for" Easily one of the greatest and most meaninful lines I have heard in my time. Even before I heard it I thought strongly about a person's character, practicing what they preached etc etc. I remember when I used to skateboard how I would have this thing, a parcticularlly venezuelan skateboarder thing, of calling other skaters, who didn't "look" the part, POSERS... looking back it was both stupid and silly, but funny at the same time... Specifically i remember havings this "hatred" againsta rollerbladers, yet months later i was playing street hockey in them, and conveniently forgot my poser rants... pfffff.

In music i was a little more open minded... I never particularly disliked any type of music, and very very few bands or artists have made me say: "I hate____" . When THE NOISE came up, one of the pioneer Reggaeton groups, I hated it... i thought it was neither musical nor meaningful, yet i knew all the lyrics.

Now that I live in another country, I have often found myself loving things I hated, because they remind me endlessly of my life back in Venezuela... of course there are many of these examples, too many in fact. For example going back to Reggaeton... i'm not particularly a fan of the whole movement, but songs like Rakata and Cachorrita bring me back to my days in Caracas last year, and specific moments come to mind. Yeah, they're not "good" songs, they are AMAZING songs, cuz they just have a meaning of their own and noone can't take anything away from it.

I have been influenced by bands like H2O more than say John Coltrane... in my mind and heart I think there is no difference, cuz they (h2o) were important TO ME, regardless of the overall impact in the music industry and who is pretentious enough to consider something better if the other element holds such a deep meaning??? I have been influenced by Waking Vision Trio more than Pat Metheny, Megadeth more than Hendrixx, etc etc not sure if i'm making myself clear... i hope so.

The bottom line is that i now know better not to say I "hate" something and always be open minded cuz you never know what life brings and you can end up looking like a damn fool and a hipocrite.

Ashley Cole ... WTF?!?!?!

OK,

Ashley Cole, en mi opinión el mejor defensa izquierdo en el planeta. Nació y se crió en Londres, y juega en el Arsenal FC desde que tiene 16 años, sin tomar en cuenta el tiempo que lleva siguiendo al equipo como fanático. Cole siempre ha sido uno de mis jugadores favoritos en el Arsenal... siempre lucha fuerte, corre mucho, es zurdo, y es excelente en el hombre contra hombre... antes era delantero y se nota todavía. Tuve un entendimiento increíble con Pires y Henry por la banda izquierda... en fin, cualquier equipo quisierla tenerlo.

Hace un poco más de un año, hubo un encuentro clandestino e ilegal entre Cole, su agente, Mourinho (entrenador del Check-sea) y Peter Kenyon (director deportivo del Check-sea). Según reglas de la Liga Premier, un jugador bajo contrato puede reunirse con otros equipos sin el consentimiento del equipo a quien pertenece. Arsenal JAMAS otorgó el permiso y es más, Ash ni su agente jamás lo pidieron.

Básicamente Ashley quería saber cuanto lo valoraba el mundo, y quería ver en específico cuanto es lo que pagaría por el el equipo más adinerado del mundo, por lo menos en cuanto al mercado de fichajes se refiere. Supo una cifra.... pero le costó esa reunión, ya que la FA, o Football Federation, multó a todos los involucrados... Según dicen Ashley no sabía que iba a una reunión y fué su agente quien le mintió y cuando llegó al restaurant estaban estos sapos. Ash como que si se quería ir PERO supuestamente hizo un trato con el Arsenal de firmar por un año, para que el público le perdonara la "traición" y ellos a su vez lo venderían este verano.

Hace unas semanas salieron unas líneas de su libro en la cual explicaba que se sentía bastante mal con el Arsenal por no haberlo defendido lo suficiente, etc etc etc.

En verdad no quiero en mi equipo a ningun jugador que no quiera estar ahí, PERO Ashley siempre da el 110% y no hay quien puede quitarle eso. Si se quiere ir que se vaya, pero no me gustaría porque se que todos los demás jugadores lo aprecian mucho. Además es de los únicos jugadores Ingleses que quedan, y por más que no sea mi país, siempre quiero ver jugadores ingleses porque el público los ama y la atmósfera mejora sin duda.

Nadie ha leído el libro y en verdad ni se sabe cual es la verdad, porque ni el mismo Cole ha dicho nada.... Ojalá todo se resuelva todo porque es un jugador más que clave para el Arsenal, Inglaterra y el Mundo en general.

Si lo vendemos al Chelsea, MINIMO Gallas más dinero....

Ash don't go,
don't goooooooooooo
don't go away, yay yay

jajaja

peace

Why I cut my dreads...

I still find it hillarious that people see me and say: "You cut your dreads!!! why?!!? "In order to explain WHY i cut them I think i need to explain WHY i had them in the first place.

I always wanted to grow my hair and for those that know me or have seen me in person know that my hair grows UP, like Kid from Kid N Play, or is it Play? whatever... During highschool it was never allowed since i went to private school. Shout out to Rojas for making me cut my rat's tail in 3rd Grade and making me realize how silly it was!

Anyways back in the day i remember seeing Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard with their dreads and i promised myself I wanted to have that "haircut" one day. Later on, around 1998 i saw Edgar Davids play with the Dutch team and his dreads were the coolest i had ever seen. Long story short, i wanted to look like him, since looking like a bergkamp was out of the question.

At the same time i had been really thinking about myself and how i didn't really have force of will, or never really worked hard to accomplish something i carried out to do. I said to myself that I was going to grow my locks for 3 years or until I could tie my on hair.

That's what my dreads represented... they were a symbol of my will to accomplish a goal... and it was way more than just growing hair and twisting it for hours... I can say that that whole process made me learn a ton about myself and how to go about reaching a goal... whatever it is.

I had last cut my hair on my birthday in 2002, and last 3 years and a week later I cut my locks.

I won't get into the details of taking care of them, the whole process of washing and even longer drying, the countless jars of beeswax, etc et etc. But it was getting a bit too much for me, to put it mildly. Not only could i tie my own hair on the eve of the 3rd year but I got so fed up with random people asking me for marijuana.

Even though I thought a lot about dreads and did a lot of research, bought boooks, etc one can never forget how serious it is for the Rastafari, and I am not Rasta, never have been and never will be, so i had to take a step back and become aware that even though we can do whatever we want and give meaning to whatever it is we want, societies and subcultures have certains trademarks to put it in way, and in the circles i moved having dreads and not being rasta or into certain rasta things we clashing. With that said I want to make clear that i respect Rastafari and have nothing against anything related to it. I just felt the connection between dreads and that was getting to a point were i didn't want to deal with it, in addition to getting pissed off just by washing my hair and the 3rd year of growth coming along.

Whatever... I cut them and I can tell you it was one of the greatest feelings in the world. Lenny Kravitz said that when he cut them he felt all this energy leave him, good and bad... i don't really subscribe to this train of thought BUT i did feel something deeper that just hair being cut.

I love them still and sometimes wish I had them but I won't be growing them for a long long time. Oh but what i miss the most are my boys back in Caracas calling me Pelo Púbico (pubic hair, thank you), Coleto (mop)... a deep and heart felt bow to Gonzo, Ramón, Jesus, Burger, Igor, Ana Carolina and even more to those people that called me DAVIDS when playing the beautiful game in the greatest place on the planet....

Caracas como te extraño!

peace