Bouncing Souls

Another busy day of work, another day minimal with its photographic opportunities. With free time being so scarce, this weekend has already been a backbliparama, and if it carries on like this for another twenty-four hours, I can even see it stretching into a backbliparoonie. But still, better late than never.

I'm reasonably pleased today because Albion put in a shift and a half at Anfield, though we unfortunately still lost due to the individual prowess of Fernando Torres. This week's been a fairly emotive time to be an Albion fan, as our new hero Peter Odemwingie has been subject to racist jibes from fans at his former club Lokomotiv Moscow. Baggies around the country and the world have done themselves proud in their response to this disgraceful showing from the Russian ultras, and I did my own small bit by providing a little bit of Russian for a banner that will hopefully be unfurled at The Hawthorns next weekend (the banner essentially tells Lokomotiv fans, in both English and Russian, that we don't tolerate racist attitudes at our club, and that they'd do well to learn from our example).

Anyway, long story short, this whole incident reminded me suddenly of Alexei Sayle's performance - in conjunction with his band "Radical Posture" - on the first series of The Young Ones and inspired me to create this slightly silly self-portrait. In case you're not familiar with Alexei's words of wisdom regarding peace and unity, they go a little bit something like this:

"There was a song in the charts recently about racial harmony, about black and white people living together side by side in perfect racial harmony together on pianos; now I might be a bit stupid like, but I know that pianos ain't gonna solve nothin'. There's only one thing that unites us, one thing that we all have in common. What is it? What is that one thing that unites us?

It's not class or ideology
Colour, creed or roots;
The only thing that unites us
Is Doctor Martens boots.

Doctor Martens, Doctor Martens, Doctor Martens boots!"

PS - I should probably add, the strange white thing that appears to be stuck to my face is actually a loose strip of leather hanging off my boot; I haven't just decided to go for a Dickensian whisker effect with my facial hair. Just so as you know.