Leverkusen…

 Leverkusen, we’re coming for you!

@Arsenal ⚽️

@Regenersaurus 🦖

#COYG 🔴⚪️

#B04ARS 🥅

@gaygooners 🌈

Mark…

I miss Mark every day. He made me laugh so hard. He’d love to be teased, fake outrage, and then collapse into fits of giggles. 🤣

He had that rare gift of making you feel special ❤️

Mansfield 1 - 2 Arsenal…

Cup ties in small grounds are meant to be uncomfortable. But we had a proper scare. 

Mansfield pressed, shot often and generally behaved like a team on a mission. 

Thankfully Noni Madueke curled in Arsenal’s opener before the break, then Mansfield nicked one after a youthful wobble, but Eberechi Eze arrived off the bench to restore order with a thunderbolt. ⚡️

Teenagers impressed, nerves jangled, quarter finals secured, job done.

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

@Arsenal ♥️⚽️ 

@regenersaurus 🦖 

@gaygooners 🌈

#COYG 🔴⚪️ 

#MANARS 🥅 

#Arsenal #FACup 

Bloody Hilarious…

So the blood donation nurse asked, “before I start the procedure, how are you feeling today?”

“My sides are aching. Both of them. ” I replied. 

“Oh”, he said rather concerned, “what’s brought that on?”

“Laughing. A lot of laughing”

#TOTCRY 1-3! Hahahahahahahaha! 

And I got TWO KitKats !  (He was a West Ham fan). 

https://www.blood.co.uk/ @GiveBloodNHS @arsenal

Tell Me Straight @ Park Theatre…

Last night Elliot and I went to see Tell Me Straight at Park Theatre in London’s glitzy Finsbury Park.

A brisk two hander from @_paulbradshaw and @buckbraithwaite with @jadeanouka on voice duty. Precious few laughs and the characters feel inconsistent and the central dilemmas never quite earned. And still the mystery remains. Why are straight men falling at his feet? We were flummoxed. 

⭐️⭐️

@ParkTheatreLondon #TellMeStraight #ParkTheatreLondon #LondonTheatre

It’s all about the mustard…

Nice little jaunt over with Darce to Paris for the day. To buy mustard. And see art.  But mainly for the mustard 😂 

#Savora #FrenchMustard #SavoraMustard

An Evening With David Byrne @ Eventim Apollo…

Last night Steven went to see An Evening With David Byrne at Eventim Apollo in London’s glitzy Hammersmith.

David Byrne arrives dressed entirely in blue and proceeds to turn a bare stage into a nervy art pop revival meeting. No amps cluttering the view, no rock star posturing, just Byrne and a troupe who move like a very stylish civic parade. At seventy three he has more twitch than most men half his age and considerably better tailoring.

He opens with Heaven and builds the night brick by existential brick. Ray Suen glides between violin and guitar with quiet precision, Kely Pinheiro anchors the whole enterprise with a bass line that could shift tectonic plates, and Daniel Mintseris straps on a synthesiser like he is about to join a particularly intellectual marching band. They do not so much play as orbit one another.

The screens whirl from department store to cornfield to churning sea. Punk, we are told, is now about kindness. The world burns politely behind them. On My Apartment Is My Friend Byrne offers a guided tour of loneliness in New York and somehow makes it danceable. T Shirt delivers slogans that land somewhere between protest placard and knowing wink. The crowd cheers. Of course they do.

The Talking Heads classics arrive like old friends who still fit into their good suit. This Must Be the Place gets everyone upright. Life During Wartime feels less like nostalgia and more like a news bulletin. By the time Burning Down the House detonates as the encore, the American dream has been lightly toasted.

It is glitzy Hammersmith outside, apocalypse chic inside, and five stars without hesitation.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Setlist

Heaven (Talking Heads song)

Everybody Laughs

And She Was (Talking Heads song)

Strange Overtones (Brian Eno & David Byrne cover)

Houses in Motion (Talking Heads song)

T Shirt

(Nothing but) Flowers (Talking Heads song)

This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) (Talking Heads song)

What Is the Reason for It?

Like Humans Do

Don’t Be Like That

Independence Day

Slippery People (Talking Heads song)

Moisturizing Thing

My Apartment Is My Friend

Hard Times (Paramore cover)

Psycho Killer (Talking Heads song)

Life During Wartime (Talking Heads song)

Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)

Encore:

Everybody’s Coming to My House

Burning Down the House (Talking Heads song)

@eventimapollo @davidbyrneofficial @DBtodomundo @raysuen @kelypinheiro @danielmintseris

#DavidByrne #EventimApollo #Hammersmith

Arsenal 2 - 1 Chelsea…

Well, that was stressful. But fun. 

Saliba opened proceedings with the air of a man who had read the script. Arsenal then generously scored all three goals, which is inclusive if nothing else. Poor Hincapié will want that one back.

Timber rose from a corner and nodded home the winner. Routine now. That was our ninth league winner from a corner this season. Set pieces are less a tactic and more a lifestyle choice.

And speaking of nines, Pedro Neto collected Chelsea’s ninth red card of the campaign because symmetry matters. And Chelsea don’t. Same old Chelsea, always cheating. 

The result restores a five point cushion over Pep Guardiola and his lot.

Control, chaos, corner, repeat.

Onwards and upwards, my friends. 

@Arsenal ♥️⚽️ #COYG 🔴⚪️ #ARSCHE 🥅

#Arsenal