I had a very busy Friday; I left the house with the girls in the morning and didn’t return until after school. Then I had to dive right into the yard work as C’s birthday party was Saturday and we had a softball game plus bad weather to work around.
So apologies for not sharing any music Friday.
To kick off this week, I thought I’d share this mini-movie of the scenes before a recent Tyne-Wear Derby: the rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland in the British Premier League. Although I’m sure things are indeed very tense at these matches, I think the rather magnificent editing has added a little extra sense of menace to that day’s affairs.
As I watch, though, I think how different our sports in America are. After pretty much every NFL weekend we see videos of a couple drunk dudes fighting in the stands or parking lot. And there are plenty of incidents at baseball, basketball, hockey, and other events. But here it almost always is focused on the individual. It can be annoying to run into a group of fans of your rival at a game – especially if it’s after the game and you lost – but is there ever a scene like any of these? At our worst, sometimes people are throwing ice and cups and bottles from the safety of a group at another group. But we don’t have masses of people being kept from law enforcement from charging each other.
I did not enjoy watching Villanova fans celebrate around me in Louisville a month ago, but none of them threatened me, or the KU people around me, in any way. They just cheered their team and they fellow fans.
Even if the editing does exaggerate the actual threat posed to anyone in the midst of these pregame rallies, it’s still a pretty amazing little film.