Asterick - M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us - 2005

Once the game had wrapped up, Anand and I headed back to the team gift store to buy my birthday present (a new jersey). I assured him that after the massive depression that not seeing the game brought on us, that this was really not neccesary...but he was insistant that he get SOMETHING right. I thought this was a bit harsh, but hey, if a dude wants to buy me jersey, who am I to stop him.

Anyway, after that trip we went to a pub called Lord Nelson's were we were supposed to meet Rance. He showed up about 15 minutes after us. He felt appropriately awful when we told him what had happened to us at the game, but at least our team had won and the liquor was flowing. It was our last night of the trip and we weren't going to let that douchebag limey cocksucker cop ruin our time. In the morning, Rance and I would be on sepearte planes back to NYC (Rance was actually leaving super early and going straight into work from the airport), and Anand would be heading of for some solo traveling in Belgium. So we sat about our mission to squeze the last little bit of life we could from this trip.

Shots and beers seemed to be pretty flowing. Anand ended up getting into a 45 minute discussion about US Foreign Policy with some of the smokers outside the pub, while Rance and I talked soccer. Eventually, the boys decided to sic a fat and horny british girl in an Arsenal jersey on me, a fact that I was in no way thankful for...though it did somehow end up with me demonstrating that I could moonwalk in the bar. Mostly she just walked by me a bunch of times, running her hand on my arm or chest saying things like "oy, we like...we like a lot"

We sweet talked the kindly Irish bartender into letting us stay for an hour past closing with talk of how as NYCers we were used to later nights in the bar, how we had been shut out of the game by a dickish cop, and how it was the last night of the trip. I made my typically snide comment that the nicest person we met in London was an Irishman. Finally, at 2...he had to give us the boot. We hoped in a cab and headed back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep before we'd finish The Great Escape.

M83 do their thing very well...xtra big Gaulic synthesizers and squelling guitars give this song the impression of a space launch circa 1986. That's a compliment.