Peter Hooton's shoe, circa 1989. Still rather large.
My Pathetic Homepage was first created in mid 1995 so I could hotlink Glasgow Celtic photos, post scans of people shooting nautical flares at one another, tell people what to think about politics, convince them to buy my fanzine, and get dates. The first two succeeded wonderfully, the third got dull real quick, and the last two never came off at all. Ah the dreams of the springtime of my life!
Between then and now there have been several iterations of this thing. Most have been shortlived (the boredom thing). Most have been green in color. Most have featured a picture of Peter Hooton‘s rare original 1970s Stan Smith all green colorway I ripped out of a copy of The Face sometime in the mid 1980s.
Here’s a potted bio, for those interested.
Tommy Miles is an avid observer of Francophone West Africa, notably Nigerien and Malian affairs, as well as capitalism and anti-capitalist struggles worldwide. Once a PhD candidate in French colonial history at Columbia University, Miles decided he preferred life outside the stacks, and is now a dba and web based application developer in New York City. His other interests include the socialism, Glasgow Celtic, Adidas Kegler Supers, watching Europeans get in fights, collecting African commemorative Wax Prints, eating his vegetables, and keeping both his cat and his wife happy.
TOMATHON.COM has been the home of several incarnations of my blog since before the term “blog” existed. I began to break HTML and bore the world with my opinions in 1995, moved to tomathon.com around 1998, and hosted and developed — among others — a website devoted to anti-fascist football (soccer) supporters (“Rash Futbol”, which got a `1996 writeup in “When Saturday Comes”, of which I’m inordinately proud.), the online version of a print NY soccer fanzine (“Akitazine”), and more than a couple dozen football related, subcultural, and political websites using technologies from vanilla HTML, Flash, PHP, and implementations of WordPress, Drupal, PostNuke and other applications. This domain now includes the fourth incarnation of my weblog, focusing on the unlikely juxtapositions of football, fashion, and Francophone West African affairs, as well as single purpose statistical databases with PHP front ends, photo archives, half functioning old sites, and at least two websites hosted for friends. You can email “Tommy” at the above domain to find out more.
Reprint rights: This has, strangely enough, come up. All written content on this website is fully copyrighted from 1995 to present to Thomas (Tommy) Miles under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (cc by-sa)
CC describes this better than I might.
“This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.” See the full legalese.
This content may be republished for profit, but you may not claim copyright of this content, even though you can claim copyright of the larger publication and any marginalia or commentary. I prefer my full name and website address as credit, and a copy of the publication as a courtesy.
Need to contact me? |
||
                |
||
All written content on this website is fully copyrighted from 1995 to present to Thomas (Tommy) Miles under <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0″ target=”_blank”>Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike (cc by-sa)</a>
CC describes this better than I might. “This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use.” <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode”>See the full legalese</a>. This content may be republished for profit, but YOU may not claim copyright of this content, even though you CAN claim copyright of the larger publication and any marginalia or commentary. I prefer my full name and website address as credit, and a copy of the publication as a courtesy.
As I noted on the 10th of March, the CSRD junta in Niger has replaced all the civilian Region Governors with military men to administer local affairs during the transition. We now have the full list, and while I for one hate to see any military governing, a careful look at the men (all men) coming and going in Niger's Regions gives us an opportunity to examine what's going on behind the scenes, and what it augurs for the future.
More ...
Nigeriens were - are - undoubtedly pleased that the army stepped in to end a newly installed dictatorship. But criticisms of this so called "good coup" are beginning to appear even amongst its strongest supporters. With many months of transitional rule ahead, these whispers give us some idea of the problems the junta will soon face. 
One doesn't see much film, let alone color film, of colonial era African football. So you can imagine my delight when I stumbled across clips of a French colonial propaganda newsreel featuring the my favorite African club side wining a colonial cup final from 1956. 
The new military Junta in Niger has released their first real vision of their promised return to democracy. Niger's expectations, a redux of recent history, are being played to by the soldiers.
After a day of confusion, President Tandja and his supporters are under arrest by the military. I have maintained the live updates from the 18th, and added an in depth analysis of the new CSRD junta.
"Poets are feared by those in power that use violence, who are prosperous at the expense of the collective suffering." - Adamou Idé 
a dinosaur comic about about potable water conservation in sub-Saharan Africa?
The US government will make much of the arrests of three Malians who they say were part of a West African criminal network, devoted to drug smuggling and Osama Bin Laden. So far all we have is hype and what looks like the entrapment of low level criminals. 
The December 18th anniversary of the Nigerien Republic begins a series of dates which may bring the political crisis to a boil, just as mediators think they've made a breakthrough.
A brief look, if one is possible, at the simmering crisis in the northeast Central African Republic. As commentators try to come to grips with this often ignored nation, here is some recommended reading for Anglophones interested in the République centrafricaine.
Niger's rulers would have expected this to be wrapped up by now, with the previous legal deadline for a new president to pass on the 22nd with a shrug. But fears (or hopes) remain that some of those most loyal to the project are looking to abandon their President
Join the second march on the UN by Guineans and their allies in New York City, Thursday December 8th. If you can't make it, there are ways to get involved, so please do!
"If you watch it frame by frame you can pinpoint the exact moment his heart rips in half..."
Anti-fascist activist Ivan "Bonecrusher" Khutorskoy was murdered in Moscow this Monday. 
As the "Abuja I" talks begin with ECOWAS, President Tandja of Niger is increasingly backed into a political and financial corner. Will his "6th Republic" be sacrificed as a way out?
The local elections are odd enough. But "Claude Levi-Strauss" is the 4th most popular search on Yahoo? Right between "Dancing With The Stars" and "H1N1 Symptoms". 
I know all the debates about voting not changing anything, and while I tend to agree, I'm not asking you to overthrow capitalism with a vote. It won't do that. But it is a splendid soapbox.... So Vote Reverend Billy for NYC Mayor, Greg Pason for NJ Governor, and Debbie Rose for City Council. 
Popular sound systems blend traditional sounds with DJ beats, and keep people across Bamako on their feet. But will Mali's capitol ban the "Balani Show" dance parties?
A recent seizure of US arms in Nigeria highlights the profit and loss of small arms supplied to West Africa.
Blood on the streets of Conakry is a price the Junta is willing to pay for power.