... of a geezer. just bumped into mike skinner. and it was much nicer than last time when i met "the streets". 3 years ago mike seemed like an aggressive little punk in need of some friends and a big bottle of clearsil, caught up in the hype around his persona, 3 million sold copies and a dozend awards.
now he seems more chilled and less hyped about his success. we met in berlin and mike was sporting his brand new, super-white reeboks he gets to wear due to his six-figures-advertising-deal he closed with reebok.
we ended up talking for 15 minutes about the differences in european table-soccer-standards (the french and their crappy balls and obnoxious rules, spain with their metall-figures and england as a whole not being able to play).
obviously mike claims to be englands best kicker-player, which yet has to be proven. anyway, we agreed on the fact that americans have the most idiotic idea of baby-foot: they dont believe in the idea of a goal-keeper and have three men as a defense-line instead. its silly, its not even football (13 players on the pitch), but it might help their understanding of the game because it looks more like american football...
anyway, mike told me a little about his life in the last three years (cruising around vegas in a red ferrari with no license, wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on betting, smoking some crack-cocaine with a female english b-list-celebrity, letting his father go and starting his own laben "the beats ...
... and his visions on the "great two european narcotics: alcohol and christianity"
one highlight is left to share with you:
johnpaul: cocaine, alcohol... how are your habbits doing these days?
skinner: i am totally sober these days. no alcohol, no drugs. not this year.
johnpaul: good, calming down a little...
skinner: yeah, sort of. hmm, which year are we in now?
johnpaul: 2006
skinner. oh. yeah. right. maybe next year
