‘Istanbul still hurts’

When I think about tomorrow’s Champions League final showdown, my football intelligence tells me that Liverpool should win it comfortably. They have an astute manager in Benitez, a master tactician who knows how to dissect Europe’s best teams. Just ask Barcelona. Liverpool have a larger squad, and younger, fitter players. In case, the game goes to extra-time, Liverpool can be expected to last an ageing Milan team. If it comes to penalties, they have an outstanding shot-stopper in Pepe Reina. All of the above combined with the typical English resilience they embody should make them favourites for tomorrow’s final.

Yet why does something tell me that Milan’s name is written on the trophy? They had a difficult season in the Serie A, just escaping demotion and starting with an eight points deficit. At the start of the season, no one gave them any chance to win anything. And yet, here they are, one game away from winning club football’s biggest prize.

Carlo Ancelotti said in the build-up, “Istanbul still hurts.” Gennaro Gattuso has vowed revenge and proclaimed that a repeat of the 2005 final would not happen. The stage is set for Milan to exorcise the ghosts of Istanbul forever.

And something tells me, they might just end up doing it.

Spidey and America

At the end of the first Spider-Man movie, we see the webcrawler next to the American flag just before the closing credits roll. Its long been established that Spider-Man is the defender of the American way of life, the so-called traditional values of freedom and justice. Did you think the maroon suit with shades of blue was just a coincidence?

In the first two movies, we see Spider-Man reinforcing that reality. In a post 9/11 world, Spider-Man’s success is also because, as Chad Kroeger said, a hero can save us. The franchise revels in creating a paranoia about the stability of American institutions, and exploits that insecurity deeply embedded in the people’s psyche.

In reality, American military might replaces the sense of security and comfort that Spider-Man provides in the fictional New York and the world of The Daily Bugle. Since the Second World War, America’s been involved in constant military conflict with some nation or the other. America’s always under threat, its always the target of numerous enemies hostile to the American Dream.

And when enemies are not present, American pop culture ensures they are created. A nation continually on the lookout for new enemies finds them, bigger and imaginative, in science fiction and comic superheroes. Spider-Man as defender of the American Dream is extremely assuring, its like America needs to be conscious of its own enormous power to feel safe. Then whether the enemies are real or fictional, it hardly matters.

(And what happens when Spidey turns bad? Answer – Spidey turns conservative. In Spider- Man 3, he struggles to overcome the evil permeating within him and finds it hard to get rid of his black suit. He is finally able to succeed inside a cathedral. In a subtle event, the makers are trying to woo the conservative, deeply religious American audience , especially the Midwest. Spidey may not be fervently religious, but it is religion that helps him overcome evil.)

Summer Rain

Two photos taken from my balcony as it rained thunderously last night.

Radiohead

Dave Matthews famously wrote in Rolling Stone about how he wished Radiohead would someday produce an album off the mark. He finally gave up, after grudgingly learning to acknowledge that such a thing did not exist.

I got somewhat interested in Radiohead after reading this article and started listening to their album OK! Computer. As the name suggests, it reflects on a world being slowly overtaken by machines and at the same time incapacitated from the ability to emote. This has been an important theme in science fiction, in movies like the brilliant Godard film Alphaville and most famously, The Matrix trilogy. Yet while those films dealt with a future scenario in which machines already reigned, Radiohead’s music delves into the transitionary phase of such a movement and the tumult it causes.

In line with some of the absurd philosophy, which talks about an inherent meaningless structure to life, is also what Radiohead explore. We see in the music a mordant reality, an emotionless acceptance of the inevitability of pessimist outcome, the farcical nature of human revolt. In a way, it’s like humans fighting to reclaim humanity, yet at the same time aware of the impossibility of the endeavour.

In OK! Computer, we have music depressingly numb, and at the same time artistically pristine. Songs like Airbag and Paranoid Android blew me away.

The problem with Radiohead’s music, I amusingly think, is that it’s too real and let’s admit, no one particularly likes to hear the truth. I’ve never been able to effectively listen to more than five Radiohead songs at a time. While I can’t help but admire the beauty of the writing, I immediately need to shift to something like U2 or REM to act as an anti-depressant.

Radiohead’s music talks to you in a real way, and it comes without any pretenses. Its out there, encompassing rawness, poise and verve.

Champions!

Its excruciating to watch your loved club stutter and descend into mediocrity. With all the odds against them and the financial might of Chelsea, Manchester United have completed one of the most remarkable comebacks in sport ever.

The architect of the turnaround is undoubtedly Sir Alex Ferguson, plotting Chelsea’s unimaginable downfall when none believed he had the stomach for it. The genius of Ronaldo, the guile of Giggs and Scholes, the passion of Rooney, the power of Ferdinand and Vidic, and every player who wore the red shirt with pride. They’ve shown what they’re made, and what Manchester United are all about.

Nick Hornby wrote in Fever Pitch –
I fell in love with football as I was later to fall in love with women : suddenly, inexplicably, uncritically, giving no thought to the pain or disruption it would bring with it.

Its been paining for four long years. Today I feel like going out onto the street and breaking into a long, rambling song.

‘Still alive’

In an excellent essay in The Guardian, Marcela Mora y Araujo talks about the enduring enigma that is Diego Maradona. Titled Diego Maradona, living legend, she talks about how the highs of sport are never equalled by the life that follows. This probably explains the story of excess in Maradona’s life – the eating binges, the drinking problems and of course, his well-known addiction to drugs. Its a poignant sketch of the legend who is struggling to channelise his energy, now that his life as a footballer is over.

Araujo recalls amusing anecdotes, and thankfully stays away from the cliches that we usually encounter in relation to Maradona. Her correspondence with Maradona stretches back to 1995, she also translated his brilliant, raw autobiography El Diego into English.

With a sense of wonder and enchantment as if viewing a miracle, she says -

If we were to be able to study him cognitively, I think we would find evidence that he is a true genius. Perhaps, the greatest one alive in the world today.

Still alive.

India Will Survive

Am looking forward to reading Ramachandra Guha’s magisterial work on the history of the world’s largest democracy, India After Gandhi. Excerpts from the book appeared in Outlook’s latest issue. I particularly liked the conclusion of the essay -

So long as the Constitution is not amended beyond recognition, so long as elections are held regularly and fairly and the ethos of secularism broadly prevails, so long as citizens can speak and write in the language of their choosing, so long as there is an integrated market and a moderately efficient civil service and army, and- lest I forget- so long as Hindi films are watched and their songs sung, India will survive.