West Ham Utd v. Arsenal 0-2 26/Oct/08

One of the London derbies took place today at Boleyn Ground when a late show of Manu Adebayor close the score two-nil on the visiting side. The Hammers took on the first half defensively and the pressure was on the Gunners due to the early won of Liverpool on Chelsea.





First half went really passive. The attack of the visiting side was based, as usual, in possession but this time United's defense was different. Zola has been working on a deep defense based on a mixed zonal marking. This is the terror for the Gunner attack due to the style of passing; the game is not interrupted when attacking but the defending block has the advantage of covering all spaces, thus leading to less maneouvering from the attacking part. The Arsenal was uneffective while attacking; the left and right backs were not overlapping and French prodige Nasri completely dissapeared. Theo wide shot at crossbar at 21' and a deflection on Green's goal were the only attractives near the 30' mark. At 32' some hints of hte "Permisive Arsenal" appeared. The same mistakes that permited Hull and Everton to equalize were being made by the North London side. Fortunately for the Arsenal Cesc corrected the mistakes by applying immediate changes in rhythm on the pitch. Arsenal touching out of the box was meek and the first half ended with a shot by Bendtner.





Second half went quite impressive for the Hammers since the attempts by them were nearly on goal. Pressure and desperation for the Gunners became evident and by the 60', Wenger had made at least two substitutions. Robin van Persies twice shots, one at woodwork, were not enough to beat goalie Green. The pressure was so intense that after and Adebayor shot, the goal came, on a deflection by Faubert. The Gunnesrs deserved the goal for the pressure and resilence of the attacks rather than the talent displayed by the team. Faubert suffered with Clichy throughout the match and the second goal came on a counter commanded by Cesc. A long pass to Adebayor broke the offside trap and in a crazy exit by Green Adebayor dribbled and scored. In the end missery piled up for the Hammers due to the sent off of Cole.

Good times never change

Some say that the Cold War never ended. Others that there is a "New" Cold War coming and others that it did not exist at all, that it was WWIII. In any case the old chase between cat and mouse is still going on with major military forces and certainly will never end. I refer to the Cold War due to the recent (well a year ago) deployement of the F-22 to Alaska in response to Tu-22 long range exercises in both the Pacific and in the Northern seas. The old game of the chaser versus the chased is as old as war itself.
What impressed me today was an old news actually, but has to do with this topic. It was a from Strategy Page and it talks anbout the newest Russian ATG system, the PG-30. The article refers to the purpose of this missile. It has a primary warhead that intends to hit the target seocnds before the main missile, thus making either ERA or APS systems vulnerable. As many have noted several flaws in the intended hit of one surface, as many modern APS have a multiple thret choice system. My question is; should not be more intelligent to fire two or three RPG-7 instead of a coaxial missile as in the case of the PG-30?

For example information sources do not agree abput the capability of the HEAT round penetration in RHa, in the last link someone says 600 mm and in other stance 1000 mm. It may never be cleared since many of these systems have either not being proved or will go through revision. I ignore the case of the PG-30.
Again the old game of the missile, that is intercepted, and that the attacking missile has another measure to counter the interception of the latter is a typical war measure, but not the return of a military age, as someone would put. It is the old game of the cat versus the mouse.

"I drink much more..."

There has been a resurgence for Jeff Buckley in the last few months and I thank George for introducing him to me nearly year and a half ago. But even when Grace was released in 1994 it still has the same power, intensity and energy of its original date release.
What stroke me the most of Buckley's lyrycs was their "Poetic" aspect. But what nonsense am I talking about!? Does this term exists? Well it has its roots on the primal definition of Poetry and the Poetic. If we take Jakobson' definition of poetry it would seem too simplistic, but I would agree in the definition of Conceit for this case and particularly for Buckley's work; that what means something else with one or several intentions in one statement/utterance. So, in a wide and loose definition of "Poetic" in Buckley's lyrics I shall start the discussion.





I do not intend to make a full and deep analysis of the lyric because, unlike many others, it has its elements well "Explained" and it also has a metaphorical sense. It would seem as a paradox but actually it is very evident. Here the definition of Conceit for Buckley fits perfectly. The wine can be taken as the harvest of the mind or the love or simply as the fruit of the tree. Many metaphors containing harvesting occur in Latin literature and the transcendance can be traced as far as "Lycidas." The rhymes, although a bit forced, establish a clear pattern to follow and the musicality of the text, as if it were treated as a poem, fits perfectly. The "meaning" of the lyric along with its prosody could make perfect sense regarding it as a poem. Although the musicality of the pattern in the lyric fits as in a poem several conjunctions and commas could be added in order to make it as close as possible to verse, and to give a fluent reading. Repetition also could be avoided or rearranged. In any case if we treat Buckley's lyric as a poem following my definition of Conceit we could easily talk of "Formal" poetry in Jeff Buckley's lyric, and not only in this song but in others that share these elements. Try to read it out loud, dear reader, and tell me of you agree with me, or disagree in any case.


"Lilac Wine"

I lost myself on a cool damp night
Gave myself in that misty light
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
Under a lilac tree
I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
It makes me see what I want to see
and be what I want to be
When I think more than I want to think
Do things I never should do
I drink much more that I ought to drink
Because (it) brings me back you...

Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love
Listen to me... I cannot see clearly
Isn't that she coming to me nearly here?
Lilac wine is sweet and heady where's my love?
Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, where's my love?
Listen to me, why is everything so hazy?
Isn't that she, or am I just going crazy, dear?
Lilac Wine, I feel unready for my love...

Fenerbahce v. Arsenal 2-5 21/Oct/08

Arsenal cruised on a slow and dull Turkish side after several drops in game in Premier League. Even though the visit to Fenerbahce with stars such as Güiza, Roberto Carlos and Senturk the home squad failed to prove their difficult star among Europe's finest. The tough visit to Turkey was as struggling as any visit to any top flight team in Europe. Certainly the hostile crowd helped the Arsenal to bring their best. With Fenerbahce showing many international players who featured in the last EURO 2008, one would have expected at least a come-back, such as the Epic ones against Croatia, Germany and Switzerland.





Right at the beginning of the first half Arsenal showed resilence and above all will towards the three points. Adebayor's fine shot went over the bar at 5'. But misery fell rapidly over the shoulders of Volkan and the Turkish defense when the visiting side scored two goals in two minutes. By 12' the lead was on two for the Gunners. The first, created by Diaby, through a Cesc' pass, that Adebayor finished neatly on 10'. The second another Cesc pass to Walcott, who broke the offside trap and scored passed Volkan. The problem with the offside trap was that three defenders gave wide spaces bewteen them, thus enabling deep through-passes to overhaul the Turkish side. Two arrivals from Fenerbahce and a bummer from Nasri before the fifteem minute mark made this match completly dynamic. Even though the Arsenal was the visiting side, they played with such pace that the fact that they were visiting was in doubt. The pace of the game could not go faster when Güiza netted his first goal of the night in a rambling situation after an indirect free-kick by the Turkish side, at 19'. A minute and a half later Diaby went through a disastrous defense and gave the two-goal lead the Arsenal had at 20'. The defense missed him in position and when they tried to rectify it was too late. Four goals in twenty minutes.
Even with the lead Arsenal's defense showed a lack of form, both physical and technical. Song and Silvestre couple did play like they had never met each other. Boral, Turkish left back, was a complete disaster. By 35' the Arsenal began swaping the ball around the box, as usual, with no repercussion at all. Diaby pulled the strings of the team along with Cesc, and he grew confident after his goal. Near the end of the half, Güiza's shot went inches away from goal, showing several flaws in Arsenal's defense.





As the game advanced, second half looked promising for the Turkish prospects. But Alex Song gave the visiting side a three goal advantage after a freekick by Cesc, which was deflected on the Turkish defence, all that at 49'. The match went on with several dispossesssions by both teams with a struggling home side and a now tranquil visiting one. By 67' a rampage maneouver was made by Güiza on a through Semih pass, followed by several defelection-shots in the 5 yard box. Miraculously the Arsenal was saved from the second. Aaron Ramsey made his European debut at 73', replacing Diaby. Following his debut, he rapidly adapted the game, and in the remaining fifteen minutes each attacking play passed through his feet. Even the Welshman enjoyed more freedom in midfield than Cesc. At 79' Güiza narrowed the lead on offside trap that saw the spanish striker eluding his markers and scored on top of Almunia. Even with this goal and with all the wide spaces given by the visiting defense the game went calmly for Arsenal when Ramsey netted a crossed shot, in his debut at 93'. He showed abilities he is capable of. We hope that he keeps improving them.

"One year have passed"

Colin White departed one year ago, on Saturday.
If you remember well last year I posted something concerning the death of our dear teacher.

I remembered him the other day I was writing my paper on "The Cold Heaven" by Yeats. I am afraid I have nothing more to say but to quote the poem.

I have already stated that in Mexico people do not have memory. Nobody remembered it, even in my faculty. Nobody mentioned anything or at least I did not hear of it. I am sure that there are persons who did remember but the moarners that "wept" last year are not doing so now. Even in the site that was so popular in the previous months did not mention anything. I am not fighting against anyone, just mentioning what happened. Argel mentioned the subject but aside from him no body remembered.

Memory is an important topic on a paper I am writing on Atonement and which will be for the next Colloquium. I promise post will be regularized from Thursday, it has been a tough period.


Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting Heaven
That seemed as though ice burned and was but the more ice,
And thereupon imagination and heart were driven
So wild that every casual thought of that and this
Vanished, and left but memories, that should be out of season
With the hot blood of youth, of love crossed long ago;
And I took all the blame out of all sense and reason,
Until I cried and trembled and rocked to and fro,
Riddled with light. Ah! when the ghost begins to quicken,
Confusion of the death-bed over, is it sent
Out naked on the roads, as the books say, and stricken
By the injustice of the skies for punishment?


Yeats, W. B. Yeats Poetry, Drama and Prose. Jame Pethica, ed. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.