Insanity of Jordan 11 Concord

23rd Dec would have been circled since the start of the year for sneakerheads. Its re-release 12:00am this morning of Jordan 11 Concords was met with hysteria all around the world.

To begin to understand the hysteria you’d have to be one of us. For the people who love shoes, explaining or understanding the fascination is beside the point. The latest Jordan 11 re-release has played out like the golden ticket in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, but with web servers and eBay and overwhelmed shoe stores everywhere. Exactly the way it happened 15 years ago, when the shoes first hit the market.

Jordan 11s are the one shoe that really did feel magical when it came out. There's never been an athlete so magnetic like Michael Jordan, and he lent a mystique to shoes that we'd never seen before or since.

In 1995 he was at the height of his powers. He'd just left the NBA for a year and a half, leaving the whole world begging for more, and then sending the world into ecstasy when finally decided to come back. And as we all became entranced by the Jordan mystique again, he was out there wearing these that futuristic-looking patent leather wrapped around the bottom of his shoe. If there'd been any doubt that he was the coolest athlete on earth, his shoes ended that debate.

16 years on, needless to say, this kicks remain the legendary king of all sneakers.

Hysteria around the world:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/nike-air-jordan-xi-concord-shopping-frenzy/story?id=15220618#.TvT8VDWDv4s

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1223/Air-Jordans-Sneakerheads-flock-to-grab-retro-kicks-VIDEO

http://www.waff.com/story/16383548/shoppers-throw-punches-while-waiting-for-sale-of-popular-tennis-shoe

240. Signing Off

Only the unloved hate...

Bye 2011, see you lot in 2012. Peace :)

239. Barca

“We teach the boys the same principles ​that any wise parent would teach to their children,” says Folguera. These principles are respect, responsibility, commitment, work, discipline, self-demanding and, above all, humility.

http://www.totalbarca.com/2011/youth/la-masia-the-value-of-having-values/

Not only do they have the best team in the world, and the best three players (Messi, Xavi and Iniesta), the best right back (Alves), the best defensive midfielder (Busquets), the best defender (Pique), and the best supporting cast (Fabregas, Thiago, Sanchez, Villa)...they also have the best youth team.

And all these guys are thought to have principles and values that would make any parent proud. No Beckhams, Bartons, Gerrards, and Lampards here. No, no. Only humility and old-fashioned values like hard work and discipline.

Bastards.

238. Holiday Cheers All Round

C'mon Chels. Spread some of that goodwill over the festive season. And if you're hating, then what the hell's a Mata with you?

Heh.

237. Summer 2012 Come Already

236. How To Get Your Groove Back

Without wanting to sound too jaded or cynical, let me just put this precious 'lil nugget out there...losing your mojo is an inevitable part of life.

Sooner or later, it's bound to happen. Sometimes it just sneaks up on you, like that little beer gut that doesn't seem so little any more, making you wonder just how did you let yourself turn into a slobbering pile of protoplasm that keeps on expanding.

Sometimes it hits you right smack in the face. As in getting a freaking epiphany whilst you're sitting through an umpteenth meeting to discuss the exact same thing in new and interesting ways that aren't really new and interesting. In fact, watching water evaporate while reciting the alphabet backwards would be infinitely more entertaining and sad to say, meaningful.

Sometimes you let it go willingly, letting it slowly slip away in the sunset with a wistful but dignified sigh. Other times you aren't about to let it go just yet, and hence you cling on...with your every being...wiling for that part of you that made you so cool before in days long gone to stay on, even when it might no longer exist in a way that makes sense any more.

And why would you let it go? Your mojo was your essence...it was who you were in your prime, that one thing that defined you and gave you your swagger bitch. People could say you faked this and that, but damn 'em if they said you faked your mojo. This ain't no strange Valley Girl hybrid accent we're talking about here. Not something you picked up after watching a season of the OC. No, this was your mojo dawg.

Like the fact that sometimes it seemed that you existed in some parallel dimension where everything about you seemed to move in slow motion. With your own theme music playing to boot. Or the fact that you could appear dark, mysterious and oblivious to the world, hinting of deep ocean of inner turmoil and pain beneath...when in fact you were really just pretty darn oblivious to the world, with a bad case of indigestion. Or the way you had about you that made everyone crazy, mad in love with you.

It's that twinkle in your eye that made you Mischief. That stupid bravery that made you indestructible. It's that steadfast self-belief that made you a leader in your group. It wasn't a switch you could you just turn on or off, or something that you consciously did. It was just there...something that came naturally, because it was real. And it was you. And it made you you to others.

Then one day...it goes away.

The Indy series lost it's mojo the moment Indy found himself fighting atomic bombs, a dominatrix Russian broad and visitors from another dimension

Probably the first sign of it slipping away is when you give up on the things that had special meaning for you in your youth (not masturbation you sicko). I mean those simple things that brought you infinite joy. Model-making...drawing...reading fantastical stories...writing fantastical stories...I dunno...even playing video games. Things that stirred the imagination.

It's stuff that defined you that you let go...one by one. Because you find other replacements as you grow and mature (but is it really a sign of maturity when you replace those simple joys with more sophisticated and expensive ones?). Things like accumulating material things...cars, condos, houses. Or trying to impress the chicks with whatever means you have.

Thing is...once you've let those bits that made you so different and interesting in the first place, it's pretty darn impossible to get it back. Like innocence lost.

So question is, like Stella...just how the heck do you get it back?

There's no easy answer I'm afraid. But the question you really should ask yourself...do you want it back? Is the person you are now the real you, and that person of the past just a work-in-progress before you discovered your true self? Or was the person you were before the real you, and the person you are now just a pale shadow?

Hmmmmm...

These guys never lost theirs...bastards...