the mighty Opeth

i'm not normally a death metal fan, so going to watch Opeth with Enslaved opening for them was a bit of a leap.

let me start way back, in 2004, when a friend of mine introduced me to Opeth - now this friend listened to a lot of alternative and stuff, so i really held no hopes for this oddly-named band.. Opeth indeed! anyways, i listened to an album called 'Damnation', which only served to confuse me more because it was nothing like what death metal should sound like! "windowpane" was the first song (and remains a personal fave to date), and it left me hungry for more. so i moved on to 'Deliverance', and now it was all making sense, because "master's apprentices" was what death metal was supposed to sound like! and thus started a long drawn out tryst with Scandinavian metal..

NB - open the youtube links and listen while you read, it's like those talking books for kids!

the show was at the House of Blues in Boston (whose praise i have sung elsewhere on this blog). Enslaved is one of the better Norwegian death metal bands around, and their set was short, loud and bone-jarring. how better to describe it?

what i really liked about Opeth's set was that they moved freely between their albums and played a tight set. lead singer Mikael Åkerfeldt seriously needs to think about a career as a stand-up comedian post-Opeth - he often had the crowd laughing into it's beers with his irreverent cracks about Yngwie Malmsteen, body odor, feline pets, roadies, topless girls and ill-fated moshpits.

but i digress, because Åkerfeldt currently is doing what he does best - he sings and he plays really good music. the band stretched out their already long songs into tantric solos and blissful harmonies interspersed with a staccato double-bass that tattooed his haunting vocals into your ears. excellent stuff. i highly recommend the live albums 'Lamentations (Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire 2003)' and 'The Roundhouse Tapes' for your listening pleasure if you were so inclined.

i have to thank the internets for the setlist, because i don't know enough of their songs to commit to memory what their songs are called - they played nearly two hours non-stop - Heir Apparent, Ghost of Perdition, Godhead’s Lament, The Leper Affinity, Credence, Hessian Peel, Closure, The Night and the Silent Water, The Lotus Eater and for the encore was Deliverance. here's a fuzzy picture taken from the internets once again from the Boston show..

yowza!

i happened upon a blog of someone who is definitely one of the best contemporary illustrators around.. and (not) oddly enough, not enough people know about him either!

Rob Ullman (see bio) specializes in creating comics, usually featuring hot gals, sometimes in hockey jerseys.. what's not to like eh?! check out his blog Atom Bomb Bikini.. his book's gonna be out soon, you definitely want to get that!

i leave you with two more pics.. one a beginning sketch and one a final product.. a nod to my beloved Sabres and a toast to the champions Penguins

                       

Michael Crichton

this is coming on a year late, but i still wanted to make a note of it. Michael Crichton's passing away did not hit me very hard at first. it was more like a "oh. ok, RIP dude." moment until the other day when i was killing time browsing through the used books section at the Brattle Bookstore when i came upon a couple of Crichton's books. i took a moment to pause and reflect.

i read Andromeda Strain about the same time as the first Jurassic Park movie came out (early '90s), and i remember being quite shocked that Andromeda Strain was actually written in 1969! and as simply as that, i was hooked by the thought that microorganisms could be intelligently trained as described in the book. i was never a huge fan of the Jurassic Park franchise, so i pointedly avoided those. then i discovered that Crichton had written other books too (remember, this was pre-Internet - the only way you knew what a writer's earlier works were was by looking at the reticent page between the title and the dedication pages).. i started haunting my friends' bookshelves looking for the name Crichton to pop up.. Congo, The Terminal Man, Sphere, The Great Train Robbery.. his spectrum fascinated me, he dabbled with time travel, structural technology, biomaterials, science fiction and space adeptly and seamlessly. for a growing teenage mind this was fascinating - skipping across genres is not something i could comprehend that easily. it's like you love vanilla ice cream. you also love chocolate ice cream. and then one day you realize that you could have both! not just one scoop of one on top of the other, but in swirls, like you'd get out of the machine. wow!

Congo was two borders away - so the story resonated easily. The Terminal Man answered a few questions on what we think and how we think. Sphere expounded my uneasiness with water and depths. The Great Train Robbery i have read multiple times, what a fantastic and daring heist! i have recreated and replayed that scene when Pierce waits for the policeman to go to the bathroom to sneak in with the key.. fantastic! what an amazing tool books are, letting you build scenarios in your own head. the movie completely chewed up this scene, turning a delicious juicy pork chop into a dry wedge of petrified cardboard. in fact i only just watched Eaters of the Dead / The 13th Warrior about a month ago and loved that too.

i would go on to say that some of his books molded me in my formative years, giving me insights and opinions that i had not seen or heard yet, filling me with a healthy curiosity for the marvels of science.

i went on to college with my mind made up that engineering was what i wanted to do. then i read Airframe, and that blew my mind away. once again his theme of man-machine interaction gone wrong reared its head. they should have added Crichton as a writer to the Terminator franchise! his next book Timeline was a delightful romp through time, back to the Dark Ages. the time continuum warp is always good fodder for a book.

his next book came when i had just moved to Buffalo, NY and was starting grad school. i was still unsure what i really wanted to do for my graduate thesis at the time. and then two things happened in almost consecutive weeks. i was auditing a class on biomaterials, not sure what it would be about and met a professor unlike any other i had met. Dr. B made sitting in class for three hours a fun experience. getting to play in his lab was another 'high' all on its own. soon after that i read Prey.

Prey equally horrified and fascinated me. it was my first exposure to nanoparticles and the possibilities they presented. i came up with a few ideas, went to see Dr. B and in a few days we had the beginnings of a thesis. i was completely engulfed by swarm theory and i was thrilled to find out how far technology had come.

State of Fear followed, where he addresses the elephant in the room that no one seems to see - global warming and other environmental issues. the last book of his i read was Next, which comes back to an old favorite theme of his - genetics. it delves into the murky world of venture capitalism and patent protection, very contemporary issues again.

i hear Mr.Crichton has one last card up his sleeve, to be played later this year - Pirate Latitudes is a finished manuscript one of his assistants found on his computer after he died. this book follows in the vein of the Great Train Robbery, but looks in depth at one of my favorite themes of all time - pirates! hopefully his treatment of the story will not have received the effluent-wash that the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise tainted everything with - i'd like to see more young Jim Hawkins & crusty Long John Silver in his book and less of bumbling Cap'n Jack Sparrow & now-busty, now-not-so-busty Elizabeth Swann.

thank you Michael Crichton, you changed my life and opened up many doors. rest in peace, and enjoy the company in Valhalla.

this is living

it's two years to the day that the gf and i met and she moved in. forget the cliches of 'time flying by' and 'two hearts beating as one' yada yada yada. if only it were that remotely easy, or simple.

two people living together as a couple is different. different from what? it's just different. as an only kid, the concepts of time and space were very well defined for me. it was very easy to just phase out and be in my own world for long parts of the day and night. it's no wonder growing up i talked to myself all the time. i still have long, relevant and pertinent discussions with my mind - very refreshing i find them.

still, having enjoyed this phase for the last two years of cohabitation/living-in-sin/whatever you wanna call it, i wouldn't have it any other way..

it's like living with your best buds, but better. all the fun of great conversation and crazy partying, with the added bonus of a quick romp or three in any room of the apartment, and no one's the wiser.. heh!

it's like living at home with your folks, but better. you actually eat square meals on proper plates, wear clothes that get more than annually laundered and live in a house that doesn't require you turning it upside down every time you can't find your favorite Metallica tshirt.

it's like living alone at your own place, but better. romantic dinners for two; cosying up on the couch for a funny movie; getting blazed and making out; sharing a great bottle of wine; smart conversation not involving politics, Playmates and getting plastered; going to concerts together; cooking new stuff out of a recipe book; going shopping for potted plants for the living room windowsill; putting away yet another shitload of groceries; not having to watch Sabres' games alone; actually discovering new music by listening to what she listens to; laughing together hysterically at 'Family Guy' reruns..

this is a long incomplete list, but an awesome one nevertheless.. happy anniversary babe!!

rear-ended

now those of you who know me well know about my profound, deep-rooted and probably quite irrational preoccupation for the hind quarters of the female of the species. there are various words that can be used to describe the derrière, not half of which begin to convey the beauty and emotion that cause a stirring within me when my eyes come to rest on a curvilicious rear end..

right. that was probably too much info.

the other day, and i don't know how exactly, i read the word 'asphyxiation' somewhere and for some reason i made the connection with the word 'ass-fixation', like millions of men must have before me. upon further contemplation i realised that there could be more middle ground between the two words, especially if you are into face-sitting, smothering, femdom and other related genres of porn.. hehe!

thanks to the wonderful world of google, i will not need to post any links for any of the things i described here.. feel free to go online and find whatever turns you on!

hockey's back!

The NHL season skates off tonight for the Buffalo Sabres..
my evenings are accounted for from now through April!

what women want

finally someone tells it as it is, the Ten Commandments, what men really want to hear from their women! and written by a guy no less.. from the horse's mouth et al (from Yahoo Health, by David Zinczenko)

1. "Your arms are definitely looking bigger."


Men can be just as paranoid about the way their bodies look as women can be. In fact, nearly 90 percent of men say there's at least one body part they'd like to change.


2. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."


Guys spend all of high school, most of college, the better part of the work day, and at least 12 times a day via e-mail trying to make people laugh. A hearty, genuine laugh is as flattering as it gets.


3. "Wow."


Doesn't matter whether it comes as he's getting undressed or after you've finished having sex, this short, sweet word (best done in a whisper) may just be the ultimate ego-stroke.


4. "You the man."


Guys hear this all the time. From other guys. But if it comes from a woman -- no matter the context -- the message is that, hey, we're buddies, too. Which is actually pretty darn sexy.


5. "The kids just adore you."


More than 50 percent of men say that their families -- more so than work and salary -- are what defines them most as men. So when a woman affirms that he's a familial hero, it's a compliment that stretches way beyond anything you could ever say about his haircut.


6. "What do you think?"


When neither can concede on anything - whether it's the best way to move a piece of furniture or the fastest way to reach the interstate - then this is a good impasse-breaker.


7. "Cute feet."


Typically, guys care for the word "cute" about as much as Paris Hilton cares for the penal system. One exception: The part of the body that is classified as being especially gross. Tell a guy he has good feet, and somehow he takes it as a double-bagger compliment -- that you not only like his genetics, but also that you appreciate he can keep himself better groomed than the rest of the gnarly-nailed heathens out there.


8. "Meow."


The stats show that 61 percent of men think their partners aren't sexually adventurous enough. While a feline one-liner doesn't automatically qualify as adventurous, it does show a bit of inhibition, and the message is one he likes to hear: That perhaps he's brought a little bit of the animal out of you.


9. "Impressive."


Guys love feats and they love being acknowledged for their strength, power, and their masculinity. So a well-timed observation like this one - whether it comes after he carries a TV to the family room or figures out a way to fix the pipes without having to call the plumber - feeds into his need to feel like the family protector.


10. "I want you."


Women don't need to go on about a guy's eyes or hair or clothes. What a guy really wants to hear is that he's the total package, and this acknowledgement of that - whether it's referring to bedroom behavior or relationship stability - is the ultimate compliment of them all.

o canada!

i like canadians.. in general. not just cos of how they speak, but because of their casual and easygoing outlook on life, and also because of their love for hockey.. of course!

and then there are the women.. ahh, canadian girls, what can i say.. the combination of the brisk winds blowing down from the arctic, the good clean-tasting beers, and i don't know what magical factor makes canadian hotties a sight for sore eyes.. all these hot canadian bloggers - sassy, gus greeper, binsk, heather, hella.. these are the ones i know.. you might know of more!

witness this litany of actresses, both mainstream and x-rated, heh! Pamela Anderson, Neve Campbell, Jennifer Tilly, Natasha Henstridge, Rachel Blanchard, Fay Wray, Cobie Smulders, Lisa Ray, Sunny Leone, Jesse Capelli, Nikki Benz..

and then you have to credit the canadians for bringing the cameltosis phenomenon to the Miss Universe stage.. hehe!

what was that.. don't know what a cameltoe is? well, here's some help for you.. and some visual aids too!

chill, aka how dirty boys get clean

after a really hard thirteen hour day's work, with the summer sun heating the fuckin' plant to a mild floor temperature of 108F (42°C).. there's no better way to relax and slow down than a slow soak in the tub and a bottle (or three) of Molson's finest Canadian beer..

triple threat

yes, this blog is three years old today. and no, i won't give you a long spiel about how good it's been and how faithful all ye readers are for still dropping by even though i write more rarely than a monk swears

but i will let you know that while lots of old time bloggers are falling by the wayside and others are taking sabbaticals.. i'll still be here, plodding along with a post or so whenever it tickles my fancy or guilt wracks my mind, but more so when i have something to write about.. so hang around, i ain't done yet.

just to celebrate the third birthday.. a picture of three tits.



ok ok, i kid.. three perfect breasts coming up..



fine, those were only chicken breasts.. so here's third time lucky!



you see, i always come through! now raise your glasses and here's a toast to good times..

blue n' gold

in case i didn't make it abundantly clear in the previous post, this blog's new look is exclusively for the Buffalo Sabres' playoff run. the colors blue and gold have always been the traditional kit of the Sabres, and this year we're aiming for the Stanley Cup.. let's go Buffalo!

The Big Easy, Part Troi

the overdue final instalment of pictures..

not the kind of nympho or mermaid you expected!!

let's do some shots shall we!

oh yeah.. girls girls girls

balcony parties are where it's at.. throw us some beads!

one of the many bars on the Bourbon strip

The Big Easy, Part Deux

and now for the second instalment of pics

this is one of the classic jazz preserves, right in the heart of the madness that reigns on Bourbon Street


still on Bourbon Street, among the numerous live bands that play every night, there's Big Al & The Blues Masters playing at The Funky Pirate (and yes, Big Al is really big!)


here's a plate of spicy Cajun crawfish, the local speciality.. shell and eat the tail, suck the heads!


and you can't leave before you eat another staple.. seafood gumbo! the one at Coop's Place is jazzed up some with rabbit and sausage too


here we're feeding an alligator, but they made some good eating too.. diced up and stir-fried with Creole seasoning. even better tasting than crocodile i felt!

The Big Easy, Part Une

"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"

yes, let the good times roll, as i bring you pics of New Orleans..

here's sunrise over the Mississippi, as it winds its way down to the deltas and the Gulf of Mexico


this is the India House hostel, where we stayed


the tram.. a novelty, slow yet fun to ride


going down to the swamps, serene by day, nightmarish by night.. what demons, ghouls and beasts haunt these seemingly placid waters?


the sun sets over this busy bustling port city

spring break baby!

yes, i'm off for spring break! i'm using my one week of vacation from work to go down to The Big Easy, aka New Orleans! we're gonna eat, drink and make merry in Nawlins, hang out with all the nekkid boobies on Bourbon Street, haunt with the ghosts in the French Quarter.. see you when i get back!

interim

that's the key word nowadays.. cos i'm interim Plant Maintenance Manager.. working for the interim from 2.30 am to 4 pm.. getting stuff done in the interim.. youngest manager in company history, for the interim.. no raises either, in the interim..

i'd like the permanent promotion, i think i'm showing i can deal with it pretty well.

great idea #129

think about this, a sleek shiny pole right in the middle of the living room in your bachelor pad. you know that no girl who ever comes to your place can resist giving it a shot! i mean, is that a brilliant idea or what?! unfortunately i cannot claim copyright on this idea..

i know Bud Light made an ad for it, but this has been every man's cream-dream for eons and eons.. ok, at least since cavemen invented the rod after they invented the wheel, looked at the rod, looked amongst themselves, then looked at their womenfolk, then looked at each other again, grinned and went "urgh urgh hehehe!"

someone even went a step further and designed a coffee table with a stripper pole built in! now isn't a useful idea! and just to show you that people have indeed utilized brain cells in the pursuit of this noble endeavor, you can actually buy a portable one!

i got one too!

seems like everyone's doing it.. so here's me playing copy-cat..

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

great idea #79

it's a well-known fact that guys like nothing more than to see chicks get naked, preferably real life girls as opposed to in porn - agreed?

so here is a surefire method of making sure that happens.
put a weighing scale in your living room.
preferably the kind you have to bend over to read the numbers.

i hear you asking me how the two statements above are related? well, no self-respecting gal who cares about her weight will ever get on a scale with her clothes on.

funny, this idea sounded much better yesterday after five beers.. hmm

so, i got a little story for you

yes i'm back.. unfortunately. actually i was back on sunday afternoon, and even went into work on sunday night. work has been so hectic this week that i haven't really been able to revel in the memories of the now-distant florida trip, let alone type out a few lines of the blog..

i'd like to give you all the details of the trip but what happens in vegas florida stays in vegas florida.. heh! i will admit a few things though - yes, i had lots of fun, a bit too much fun if you ask me! the meetings were great too, lots got dicussed and the positive contribution of the junior members of staff was duly noted.

heartfelt thanks and sincerest apologies to two particular establishments that we haunted.. Flanigan's and the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel, both in Deerfield Beach. we would love to be back next year, as long as you promise to make the same awesome wings and ribs, and let us commandeer your bar and ballroom again!

to AirTran.. your cheap fares and on-time flights are negated by your refusing-to-recline tiny seats and poor baggage handling staff. the only reason you are still in business is the free XM Satellite Radio and the fact the other airlines can be equally horrendous!

the 7-Eleven franchise, especially in florida - kudos for being open to sell beer until 2am, just when all the bars are closing. and for having my favorite Hall's cough drops too. and also for acknowledging that by no figment of the imagination do i look under 21 and therefore not bothering to card me.

mom-n-pop diners, non-chain rib shacks and other small eateries - you guys are the best.. for honest to goodness food at ridiculous prices, even in tourist-dense markets like florida.

casinos in florida suck. they only have slot machines and poker tables. what happened to the craps, and the blackjack, and all the other traditional casino attractions like cabarets? the Seminole Hard Rock Casino was especially bad! i'm glad i didn't throw away too much of my money on you!

airboat tour operators in the sawgrass area - your loud boats are still an environmental pestilence, despite all your bragging about ecotourism. what is described in this article here has to be the biggest crap ever, as the boats are so loud that they frighten all living beings in the vicinity deep into the 3 foot tall sawgrass or the 2 foot deep swamp.

riding down the intercoastal at night on the GM's 48 ft yacht, looking at the huge houses and boats of the rich and famous has to be one of the most inspiring and awesome things i have ever done. when you're done slowly rolling up your tongue and lifting your lower jaw from the deck, you have to wonder how people make so much money as to be able to afford such lifestyles!! kudos to anyone who did it, even if it took selling drugs to get there!

boy i'm glad i don't tan/burn easy.. cos hanging out at the beach was a lot of fun. the jury is still hung whether watching beach volleyball is better than playing beach volleyball, but the verdict is definitely all in that bikinis were made with brazilian women in mind. yum.

getting drunk might be overrated, but there is a particularly morbid entertainment in getting drunk with your colleagues and superiors. that is taken to the next level when you end up taking full advantage of the open-bar, to the tune of 20+ drinks. the pretty bartender sure made a lot of tips, i felt i owed her after emptying two bottles of her finest rum, and all the shots she's making here. oh yes, that's my boss on the bar, trying to upstage me at my not-so-finest hour! i was told the next day that i had sat his boss down too and explained very loudly what my master plan was to knock the place shipshape again. i'm only glad he holds grudges as often as i hold hangovers! i am still amazed at how it took only two Tylenol and a bottle of Gatorade to get me bouncing back to form at 5 the next morning!

finally, one thing that you cannot ever get over is how beautiful the sunrise can be. this shot below is worth slogging your butt off now so that you make enough money to be able to wake up to this every morning..

whale tail?!

there is no shortage of websites dedicated to the female form, but some sites never cease to amuse, titillate and otherwise coax you quite unwillingly out of boredom.. unfortunately most of these sites also carry a Not Safe For Work label, so they remain a guilty pleasure you indulge in at home. now, you must be slightly confused now as to what the picture on the right and name of the post have to do with the female of the species, but bear with me, all shall be clear in the next few lines..


now i had mentioned muffin-tops a while back.. this apparently accidental fad that was all over the place, where slightly portly girls start spilling out of their lo-rider jeans while insisting on wearing low-cut tops. here is an article from the NY Daily News that spoke of the phenomenon.. Wiki also had a piece on it. now one of the reasons why i really like wiki is that it always has this section at the bottom (pun unintended, heh!) for 'See Also', which links related items and the like. for articles on music this section is very informative because you can learn some history about the band, the genre and find other bands of the same genre too, and other miscellaneous trivia that you never knew.

so going back to this wiki page, i found links to various terms we all know.. cleavage, lower back tattoo, bellyshirt.. and then i saw two other terms - one was camel toe, which we've all seen and enjoyed (yes, you might as well admit it!) in its various forms. that brought me to this site, which reminded me that i hadn't been there in dog's years! warning, this last link is NOT work-safe.. trust me, i'm at home now!

the second term that really caught my attention was whale tail.. now here was a term that i had not heard before, and that i think takes some doing considering i've been a highly-touted bird-watcher and surveyor of the female form over the years! so apparently a well-placed wedgie is also known as a whale-tail, thanks to the similarity between the hips' curves and the flukes on a diving whale. further research (o boy i love that word 'research'.. it could mean doing anything!!) led me to this hallowed site, which again is not work-safe in the least.. i scoured through the pages in the pursuit of the perfectly-shaped yet candidly-taken pics of the whale-tail, tell me honestly if these do not tell you why this vision shouldn't be called a 'whale-tail'?!

he scoooooores!!

ahh, finally something that should help the cold bleak winter pass by more easily.. i got Digital Cable with all it's 300 channels to go with the kick-ass, self-built and hopefully-working home theater you see here..

and of course, the one package i had to get was the NHL Center Ice, so that i can watch yet another league-dominating and ice-sweeping season for my beloved Buffalo Sabres..

there are still sixty-odd games left, and then the inevitable playoffs too.. there's a certain joy in laying back blazed on the comfy couch, floating in my cloud and watching the Sabres whiz up and down the ice kickin' ass.

oh yeah, this is how i chill out on weekends :-)

go long, go long!

yes, it's that time of the year again when Fall starts to tinge the leaves, and there's a nip in the air.. and the sounds of crowds roaring fill living rooms throughout the nation on sunday afternoons. yes, the NFL is back, and football season is upon us yet again. for the next seventeen weeks, i shall not be available from noon onwards on sundays, as the gridiron and the grill fires up, the beer and icecream cools down..all in the pursuit of the ultimate goal - the SuperBowl!

so it's time to brush up on your lingo - 'no-huddle offense', 'shotgun', 'blitz' and the like, and also check out who went where and is playing for whom now.. drop a few bucks into your office pool, you never know when you could get lucky as well!

from the heart of New England, the home of the old enemy, as always yours truly will be right behind his boys from Buffalo, even though we aren't expected to be contenders this year either.. the blue and red will always run in my veins

am figuring to make some dough on the side too this time, lets see if all those hours poring over football trivia and watching games pays off.. the office pool should be pretty huge, nearly 80 guys are going to be in every week, a hefty payout if i pick the games correctly every week. if things go well, i'll drop some cash with a couple of bookies as well.. who said passion can't bring home the bacon! so switch on the tv, sit back in your favorite armchair, pop open a cold beer, roll out the wings and pizza, and say with me.. let's go Buffalo!

however it comes

Shakira made a surprise visit for the closing ceremony, and her 'honest hips' didn't lie.. the fact was that the Final was going to be won by the team that played smartest, and not necessarily best. once again, the Italians played the 'catenaccio' to perfection, withdrawing and letting the French do all the running and expend their energy, and hitting back on the counter-attack.

it wasn't a great Final, one of the worse ones over the years actually. that was no surprise, especially with the way the game started! normalcy was restored after 20 minutes with the score 1-1, and the tactical battle ensued. a moment of madness by French star Zidane led to his forever staining the legacy of his great career. a penalty shootout was the only logical solution to the stalemate, where the Italians exorcised their penalty kick demons by scoring five out of five, and hey.. "we are the champions, we are the champions, of the world!"

and so a World Cup tainted by cheating, diving and other untoward actions came to a close. for one month, the soccer world had come to a standstill for this, as had the lives of millions of people. back to real life now i guess, with the consolation that Italy won at least - forza Italia!

feast your eyes

football is not called the beautiful game for nothing, and the World Cup is held in summer just for that reason! enjoy this selection of pics from the football fest

forza italia!

'realization of a dream'

that one line sums up the Italian march to the World Cup Final. if you watched the semi-final against Germany then you can have valid claims to have been part of one of the greatest displays of 'catenaccio' soccer, a term patented by the Italians, meaning 'door-bolt'.. signifying the system where you score once and then 'shut up shop' using hard-working defense. all offensive attempts after that are concentrated on the counter-attack.

Italy beat Germany 2-0 mere minutes ago.. striking twice late late in extra time after keeping the home team at bay for 118 minutes until then! as you can expect, i was sitting glued to the tv, in my #7 Italian blue jersey, biting off my fingernails until the last few frenetic minutes sent me and Italia supporters all over the world into raptures.

now a little more about the blue jersey.. #7 is the number worn by a certain player known as Alessandro Del Piero, who is my God and Almighty as far as all things soccer go. i even wrote this farewell tribute to him two years ago, little did i know that he would come back to the greatest stage of soccer for one last time

arrivederci

my friends, it is with a very heavy heart i sit here to write this.. only the cruellest juxtaposition of the stars would serve to eliminate Italy, yet the trajectories did cross, and the azzurri are out of Euro 2004.. with it bringing to a certain end the international careers of three great Italian forwards.. Christian Vieri, Pippo Inzaghi and, and.. and Alessandro Del Piero.. who at 29 has had his legs fail him yet again on the international stage.. 24 goals and 66 caps say nothing about his amazing talent, leadership and gift of reading the game.

i have followed Alex since '93.. when he first stepped into Roberto Baggio's shoes.. and immediately became Juventus' wonderkid.. and testament to his faith and belief in the bianconeri, the man dubbed as 'il pinturicchio' has never played for any other club at the highest level. i have been with him through all his highs and lows.. five Serie A titles, four Champions League finals (3 consecutive), 1 Inter - Continental club cup win, 3 Copa Italia finals.. and the big championships.. Euro '96 when he was in the squad that got eliminated by Czech Rep. drawing 3-3 with Russia, World Cup '98 when Cesare Maldini's indecision over Del Piero and Baggio led to France shutting them out on penalties, Euro 2000 when Del Piero was heavily blamed for not scoring in the final and France pulling back to beat them on golden goal, World Cup 2002 when trap could not decide whether to play with Totti and/or Del Piero, and now Euro 2004 where Trap is playing him on the left tip of his arrowhead formation.. it has been a very frustrating international career for Alex.. plus the numerous niggling injuries he has picked up in the Serie A, truly the toughest defensive league in the world. one hopes he still has it in him to play World Cup 2006, but he remains one of the greatest players to have never won an international crown.. grazie Alessandro, buona fortuna for the future, and arrivederci for now. maybe it's time for me to hang up my Italia no. 7 jersey..

i am so glad he made me pull out my jersey from the depths of the closet once again, and show it off with pride as he ran onto a clever backheel and curled the ball exquisitely around the German goalie to score yet one more goal, and seal the deal 2-0 with the last kick of the game. so i leave you with some images from that goal, Alex curving the ball in, and takes off in celebration..