Oregon and Wales have a great deal in common. Both are ultramodern coastal states/provinces. Both places favor progressive ideas and political solutions. Marijuana is legal in both Oregon and Wales (Oregon: Definitely Yes. Wales: Soft maybe. Depends on who ya talk to.) And of, course, both places love Football. In Oregon we call it soccer. (The US is probably the only place which calls football soccer. I don’t like that word.) Portlanders, of course, love soccer and wear their green scarves and support their beloved team, The Timbers, a young squad which made a great show on the pitch this year, winning with swagger all the way to the MLS Cup and then timidly losing the championship to a team from a much sunnier American city whom we will not name.
Thus, the love of football is one commonality which binds Oregonians to residents of Wales. (Side note, I have a hard time typing the words “the Welsh” as a description of our new friends in Wales. It sounds harsh to American ears. It’s the reverse of the “spunk” phenomenon, a word which in England snidely refers to ejaculate, the naughty stuff, and in America innocently refers to shrill people bouncing around with annoying, cloying and excessive amounts of energy. [Nota bene: Looking back at what I’ve written it appears that this entire post concerns words I don’t like. That can’t be good.])
So, in the course of preparing this week’s segment I, of course, was in frequent touch with EPB‘s Wales liaison, Dan “Label Mode” Amor, and we discussed our shared love for the beautiful game. Large country that it is, Wales has many football clubs at many levels. Cardiff City– a fine town, I love that city, nothing like it, I will visit one day– has a team, Cardiff City F.C., in the English Premier League. Isn’t that nice. Initially I suspected that Dan, like me, would be a fan of Cardiff City F.C..
As it happens, no, Mr. Bigshot Dan is not a fan of Cardiff City F.C.. Rather he is a fan of that damned United, Manchester United, the Amazon.com of the English Premier League. Everyone in America is, like Dan, a fan of Manchester United because they don’t know any better. Americans don’t understand the skill level, the subtlety and the promise of Cardiff City F.C.. (Americans don’t understand subtlety anywhere in any form.) If they did, they would join me on the Cardiff City F.C. bandwagon. Go Cardiff City! Go till you can’t go any more! It’s not easy to be a fan of Cardiff City F.C. in the United States when every other American is crazy for Manchester United, the only Premier League team they’ve ever heard of. Ay Caramba!
Dan Amor confided in me, and which I now share with the world freely in order to poke his football fandom in his football ribs, that during the 1999 European Champion’s League Final, Manchester United were a goal down to Bayern Munich with a couple of minutes left. Dan was beside himself with nerves and did what every sports fan does when his team is down. He bargained with the football gods. Dan said to the people watching the match along with him, “If Utd pulls this one out of the flames I will take off all my clothes and run down the street.” Dan was living in Cardiff at the time. Of course we all remember what happened, Utd scored twice so Dan ran down the streets of Cardiff buck naked.
With typical Dan Amor aplomb and wit (Dan, I can’t stay mad at you even if you do love Manchester United) he chillingly described the scene to me, “Unfortunately it was quite a cold day so this ended up being both one of the biggest yet smallest moments of my life.”
That is SO Dan. What fun!
This week’s Wales song is “Aros o Gwmpas,” a tune which came out some time ago now but is still garnering lots of airplay on BBC Radio Cymru and streams etc. Dan says he can’t help “thinking of Miami Vice whenever I hear this track.”
According to Omaloma’s Bandcamp page, “Omaloma is the new project of Penmachno’s George Amor. As well as playing bass for Palenco, George is also a founder member of Penmachno psyche band Sen Segur.” George is also a member of Serol Serol, another Welsh band doing well at the moment.
Enjoy!
