TALES FROM THE UNIVERSE newsletter
A few days in the life of a life...
Welcome to my first newsletter - part of it will be free, the rest for those who are paying subscribers; find here music, maybe samples from my novels-in-work or otherwise, original poems, bits from being a 21-year sports writer, Manchester City and Manchester United, the way the crimson clouds can make you feel, anything else, really…
Find nearly 7,000 stories by me, dating back to 2002, for The Guardian and Observer here
1. Part 2 of BECAUSE THEY CAN PLAY F’CKING GOOD FOOTBALL is coming:
Yes, on Wednesday the second chapters of my new Erik ten Hag book are published on here - a dash will be readable as a sample, the rest for those who subscribe to my substack for £4.99 a-month, the story coming in weekly chapters.
This week expect:::
'the ballad of ed woodward';
'o cristiano';
'Erik, the cool dude';
'this quiet genius christian eriksen';
And much more of the story of Ten Hag’s first season as the Manchester United manager.
2. Tune
Used by The Old Grey Whistle Test, a 1970s-1980s BBC music programme, as theme music. The band, Area Code 615, were from Nashville, the melody, I’m pretty sure, sampled by Mantronix.
3. It is all art, baby
Old Londinium townhouse hotel room garret vibes: stuck up where I stayed for the Carabao Cup final. When you’re in any building you’re in a bit of local history. Who knows what this place, in Bloomsbury, was used for down the centuries…
As with the below, too…
Previously a pub, surely, and previous to that…?
4. Poem to snap the synapses
and i cry
and i cry for you never having
been there, a punch to the heart,
like the moon has sunk
the silver stars wheel;
lonely is, in the end,
so very, certainly, quite lovingly, lonely
5. Rumination
Don’t hide in the open
6. Man City WARES:
Good to see Phil Foden back - four goals in four games; which reminds: after covering Man Utd’s Carabao Cup final win at Wembley the next day - Monday - I busted north back from London to Pep Guardiola’s presser at Manchester City: Euston Station to Manchester Piccadilly, then a tram to the Etihad Campus, up the stairs of the media centre, into Pep, he’s already started (it was 12.29pm, was due to begin at 12.30pm), do the press conference, sitting on the front row and then, right at the end, Pep leans forward and says: “And Jamie, you were late!!!”
P. S. Seated on the front row I truly appreciated how HANDSOME Pep is!!! Wow.
7. Man Utd WARES:
Erik ten Hag in his Tuesday presser, previewing West Ham, his first public appearance since winning the first trophy available to him as Man Utd manager, the Carabao Cup: he came in gleaming, he has a particularly warm smile, and today it fizzed about the place yet as soon as the questions started he was uber professional - this gent may just be the next genius manager. And guess what: he is a nice man too.
Cut to Liverpool 7 Manchester United 0. Oh dear. This is a test for Erik, 100%, but this is Man Utd: an ongoing test. Be brave Erik.
As in:
MacBeth, Act 1 Scene 7
‘Screw your courage to the sticking place,’ Erik…
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