Everything’s the Best: Catching Up

Liverpool Football Club are on one helluva run. Unbeaten so far this season. 22 points clear of Manchester City. Advancing to meet Chelsea in the next round of the FA Cup on the strength of LFC’s U23 team. Things are, genuinely, great.

And, well, that usually means that during a time with no Liverpool football on offer, an already dry news period becomes somehow more dry. We don’t have anything regarding Liverpool, at present, to write explicitly about. We also, and more crucially, don’t have anything as fans to be angsty about.

That last bit is usually what greases the mental wheels for me in terms of thinking about Liverpool. Because, for me, the anxiety of created by a Liverpool team on the brink of something is what speeds up that goofy little function in my brain that I like to call: the what’s-the-worst-that-can-happen-oblongata. And, friends, it turns out I’m incredibly good at churning out really bad scenarios for things that are going rather swimmingly in my life.

But, again, Liverpool are top of the table and while I’m not going to sit here and declare them Premier League winners, I am going to say that they are firmly in the driver’s seat towards that crown. The other teams? Well, it’s maybe a stretch limo and they’re lodged in the trunk.

What this all means, though, is that Liverpool being great and without a match to play allowed me to catch up on other things of interest this weekend. For example, I cooked a meal with my daughter as my assistant. Now, she’s helped be out before - helping with some challah that I baked (via recipe from TLO’s own Cruyff Turns Anonymous) and she often wants to be the one to pour the rice into the rice cooker. But this time, she helped me whisk eggs for a Filipino torta which was, of course, terrific. It’s a bit of a comfort food for me and it was so great to eat.

I’ve also been just entirely inundated with work. As some of you know, I work in immigrant rights advocacy (among other things) and so the last few years have been tougher than usual. My calendar is in its busy season, but some things involving my organization have thrown a few more things into my mix. So, no LFC to focus on has, at least, allowed me to maybe be more productive?

It’s certainly allowed me to enjoy certain accomplishments of late. Namely, I’ve had 7 poems accepted for publication in this coming year. That’s the most ever and the first time I’ll have my stuff in multiple publications over the year. To boot, one of the journals is one based in South Los Angeles - where I’m from - and is sold at MOCA and in my favorite record store ever, Amoeba in Hollywood. I always dreamed I’d have something of mine in that store...never thought it’d be a poem.

Lastly, I got to catch up on a bit of pop culture news but the only real thing I want to talk about is Parasite and its historic win in this past weekend’s Oscars. It is not only an historic achievement, but the film is an absolute masterpiece. Watching all of it unfold was such a treat and it was one of the most truly enriching films I’d had the privilege of watching this year. Please do yourselves a favor and watch it. Especially if you liked Knives Out. Those two films - and Us - are absolutely in conversation with each other about our time and place in history.

Soon enough, we’ll all be focused on the next round of Liverpool matches. Norwich City is, after all, just a few days away. But, for now, take a moment to just enjoy the pause in this magical Liverpool season. Check out for a minute. Be in solidarity with the first team who all took a holiday - minus Mohamed Salah who apparently didn’t and James Milner who was around for some rehab work. Basically, just enjoy things. Liverpool fixtures are going to come thick and fast in short order, so soak in the calm while you have it.