Man City v Liverpool
January 3rd, 20:00h, Etihad Stadium
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn, Fourth official: Martin Atkinson
On autopilot 'And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife, and you may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?'― David Byrne, Talking Heads, Once in a Lifetime
These legendary lyrics from Talking Heads’ ‘Once in a lifetime’ first hit the airwaves on February 2nd 1981. Masterfully produced by Brian Eno, the song keeps its finger firmly on the pulse of the musical zeitgeist - borrowing influences from early hip hop that will only just burst in the mainstream in years to come. The decade that followed, vibrant and decadent 80’s, ripe age of the shopping mall and obscene wealth worship, has in many ways shaped the universal understanding of these lyrics. We commonly read them as the artists direct sting at consumerism, an average yuppies dream come true placed under scrutiny. That car, that house, that wife (equally a trophy as anything else money can buy) are all finally yours - but are you now content and happy? You have accumulated wealth, but have you lived?
Musical critic Steve Huey at the time said about the song that it’s describing
‘the drudgery of living life according to social expectations, and pursuing commonly accepted trophies’. To be fair, the song works perfectly well with this interpretation, but Byrne’s later comments exposed another layer. He said the song is essentially about unconscious, or to be more precise living one’s life without actually being an active, conscious participant.
‘We operate half-awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven't really stopped to ask ourselves, 'How did I get here?’Now that opens a whole box of different and more interesting questions.
What is the real value in achievements if you haven’t savoured the journey?
What is the value in the journey if it doesn't challenge you fully?
Who said life should be easy and convenient and who told us to aim for life of ease and convenience?
And above all when did we settle for cruising on autopilot and how to snap out of it?
It turns out it is almost impossible to answer any of these without poking the bear of unpleasant memories.
On shadows and scarsI understand this is a pre-match thread, which may for some come with expectations of talking about formations, xG’s (whatever the fuck those are), various other stats, player form and potential outcomes, but there is something else, just slightly out of focus, that is well worth discussing.
There is this amazing, humble book I stumbled upon during one of my deep dives on BookDepository. It’s called ‘In Praise of Shadows’ by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki. Published in 1933 and at just over 70 pages long it’s a quick read - yet it’s incredibly rich in poignant observations on simple things in life. It’s kind of an essay on Japanese core aesthetics - but it is also much, much more. It offers a set of examples for living a life where one hones it’s senses to appreciate things delicate and nuanced, where shadows are not banished by endless artificial lights but embraced and appreciated, where patina of age is not a signal to replace but to further cherish the object. Everything that is understated and natural, like patterns of grain in old wood, the sound of dripping rain is appreciated in the moment, observing the effects of light, seasons and simply being there, present, receptive to what is around us. This quality of experience in the lived moment is not just an end in itself, it becomes a string of moments, a story, where even the less beautiful moments belong to a lifelong series we can look back on and cherish the memories.
“
Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.”
― Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows
These days there is a whole ‘mindfulness’ industry, countless apps, websites, books to cater to this need of immersing yourself in the moment - but the trick is really simple. Step out of your head and be a fully cooperative participant in something bigger than yourself.
Kintsugi is a Japanese art form in which breaks and repairs are treated as part of the object's history.
Broken ceramics are carefully mended by artisans with a lacquer resin mixed with powdered gold, silver or platinum.On nowAs I’m sitting with my coffee, obviously listening to Talking Heads, I find myself as one often does when a year is coming to an end, looking back at this relentless rollercoaster we’ve collectively been on during this season. Cosy winter afternoons are after all the perfect time for looking back.
As things stand we are witnessing a coming of age of possibly the strongest Liverpool team in decades. For some time now, well probably since we sold Coutinho, replaced him with god amongst men and the sky didn’t fall on us - we have been rising and rising. It has been a journey that delivered more magic moments than anyone could have expected but what it also did is constantly trigger old expectations of failure. There is of course a well warranted fear of opening old scars, of trying only to once again fall flat on your face. It’s understandable really. For every magic moment we saw recently there is the flipside memory. For each time Gini spins with three midfielders on his ass there is a memory of our captain giving the ball to Demba Ba, for every mazy run by Mo there is a memory of Ramos breaking our dreams with a judo move. But just try and resist looking at these expectations of opening old wounds as a good enough reason to detach yourself even a little bit from what is happening right now.
These scars serve as a reminder of how resilient and determined this club is. Like that bird that rose from ashes, you know the story right? We saw the storms come and go, grew so accustomed to trimming down expectations and living in the state of postponed gratification. To be honest I've had enough of it. We aren't walking through the storm now - we are the storm.
We may or may not end up looking at our boys on that bus, with that beautiful cup, but we can snap out of the autopilot and make memories along the way.
Bring them on.