9
Feb
2008
I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles
Welcome to Green Street in Upton Park. Home to Boleyn Ground and the West Ham United Football Club who was hosting Birmingham City. Both clubs are over 100 years old. This my first visit to a proper English football match. With springtime weather conditions, it was a great day for some footie.
You may have heard of a film called Green Street Hooligans from a couple of years ago. This movie depicts some of the lore of football hooligans. This seemed like a rough area of town, but I did not see any fights or hollywood drama break out.
Boleyn Ground is a particularly small stadium. 35,ooo is full capacity. 
This first video is of the crowd sing the West Ham anthem “I’m forever blowing tiny Bubbles” opens each half. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–Ax003UAHg[/youtube] West Ham came out and scored after being on the pitch for only 5 minutes. It looked like it was going to be a wash straight off. It was not long before Birmingham was taking a penalty kick to even the score.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoxzJyQVMFk[/youtube]The score did not change for the rest of the match. This was not a popular result for the home crowd supporters. West Ham is a mid level team in the Premier League. Birmingham is at the bottom. Home team supporters figured their team was better than what they displayed today. The guy next to me had no problem showing his dismay by cussing in such ways that it left me in awe. I wanted to ask for some definitions of what he was saying, but I figured I should not press my luck.
After the game I got a hold of some friends who are in town from Portland. So it was back to the Tate Modern. 
Andrew, Endy, Christin, Lee and Sheena now have a band shot for their first album. 
Shena, Lee and Endy are off to NY & Argentina tomorrow, duty calls. Christin and Andrew will be here for a couple of more days before they head around the rest of the world. To celebrate our tansient lifestyles at the moment, we went to dine at a Bengali joint that has strange French paintings. Some how seemed fitting.
Happy travels and I will see you in the 503.