Cricket: Doug Bollinger becomes SCG Bay 13 hero. Dougy walked to fine leg to a reception he will never forget.
Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh clear standouts as Aus Under 19s advance to final of World Cup.
Doubts over whether Siddle will return to the ODI team after Ryan Harris takes a brilliant 5 wickets in his absence, while McKay continues to look good taking 3.
NRL: Media continue to crap on about Mason, linking him to Manly, who immediately quashed the rumour. Great journalism.
Tennis: Venus Williams forgets to wear undies... Oh wait, no she didn't.
Music: Them Crooked Vultures rock Sydney. What a great band.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Wednesday Snapshot
NRL: Henry quits as 'assistant' coach for QLD. Queenslanders worry at the prospect of head coach Meninga actually doing the coaching.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy believes the clubs move to their new purpose built stadium will solve all their financial problems. Oh, and a $30 million a year grant. The club is striving to be financially viable which is seen from the results of their membership drive. At the present time in January, they have rocketed up to 0 ticketed members.
Union: A French Rugby player suspended for 70 weeks for gouging explains how his next game is not in sight.
V8 Supercars: Tickets are now on sale for the Yas V8 400. No tickets have been bought, but two comments were left, both stating "Where's Yas?".
Cricket: Pakistan, self proclaimed as specialising in Twenty20, have had none of their players picked for the worlds biggest Twenty20 tournament.
Dave Warner refuses to bore Sydney crowd in dead T20 rubber by belting a great 20 ball 50 to demolish the minuscule 81 run total set by SA.
Man kicked out of T20 game for trying to catch the attention of and signaling to a friend while holding a taco in his hand. Meanwhile on the other side of the ground a security guard gave a punter, his uniform and badge, the keys to his car, the security keys for the ground and $1000 in return for a KFC Pocketful.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy believes the clubs move to their new purpose built stadium will solve all their financial problems. Oh, and a $30 million a year grant. The club is striving to be financially viable which is seen from the results of their membership drive. At the present time in January, they have rocketed up to 0 ticketed members.
Union: A French Rugby player suspended for 70 weeks for gouging explains how his next game is not in sight.
V8 Supercars: Tickets are now on sale for the Yas V8 400. No tickets have been bought, but two comments were left, both stating "Where's Yas?".
Cricket: Pakistan, self proclaimed as specialising in Twenty20, have had none of their players picked for the worlds biggest Twenty20 tournament.
Dave Warner refuses to bore Sydney crowd in dead T20 rubber by belting a great 20 ball 50 to demolish the minuscule 81 run total set by SA.
Man kicked out of T20 game for trying to catch the attention of and signaling to a friend while holding a taco in his hand. Meanwhile on the other side of the ground a security guard gave a punter, his uniform and badge, the keys to his car, the security keys for the ground and $1000 in return for a KFC Pocketful.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Mexican Wave Madness
It's been a couple of years since the world renowned Australian fun police banned Mexican waves at cricket events but it still baffles some people when they hear about it today.
Well the other day I was baffled, shocked even, to learn that at the recently concluded test in Tassy you receive the sort of punishment you would expect for running onto the field and tackling a player , just for starting a Mexican wave.
That's right, fans heading out to Bellerive have been warned that these instigators will receive life bans. It has to be the most over the top and wrong penalty possible.
Let me just note that I fully understand why the wave was banned. It is not always harmless fun as most people believe. Objects got thrown into the air as a part of the wave - some filled with undesirable waste - and that absolutely is a problem.
But their solution to fix this is wrong. The Mexican wave itself is not the trouble, it is what is done as a part of it. So don't kick out the wave starters, chuck out the idiots throwing stuff in the air. Flash it up on the screen, "Patrons who throw stuff will be ejected", it will seem a lot more reasonable to the crowd than "Innocent people who just want to have a bit of harmless fun and start a Mexican wave will be ejected".
Besides, the current wave ban probably just encourages more people to start them, just to stick it up authority for making such a stupid rule.
It is not like it is any harder to police. Identify a troublesome area and spot the people throwing stuff. Definitely no harder than singling out an individual from a group of wave starters and punting them. It's time the authorities used their brains a little and did their best to keep crowd safety as a priority without trying to ruin the fun of going to the cricket.
And as a little fun, here is some footage of a guy at the cricket who, while being kicked out from our bay, decided he had nothing to lose and so started a pretty successful Mexican wave. Marvellous stuff.
Well the other day I was baffled, shocked even, to learn that at the recently concluded test in Tassy you receive the sort of punishment you would expect for running onto the field and tackling a player , just for starting a Mexican wave.
That's right, fans heading out to Bellerive have been warned that these instigators will receive life bans. It has to be the most over the top and wrong penalty possible.
Let me just note that I fully understand why the wave was banned. It is not always harmless fun as most people believe. Objects got thrown into the air as a part of the wave - some filled with undesirable waste - and that absolutely is a problem.
But their solution to fix this is wrong. The Mexican wave itself is not the trouble, it is what is done as a part of it. So don't kick out the wave starters, chuck out the idiots throwing stuff in the air. Flash it up on the screen, "Patrons who throw stuff will be ejected", it will seem a lot more reasonable to the crowd than "Innocent people who just want to have a bit of harmless fun and start a Mexican wave will be ejected".
Besides, the current wave ban probably just encourages more people to start them, just to stick it up authority for making such a stupid rule.
It is not like it is any harder to police. Identify a troublesome area and spot the people throwing stuff. Definitely no harder than singling out an individual from a group of wave starters and punting them. It's time the authorities used their brains a little and did their best to keep crowd safety as a priority without trying to ruin the fun of going to the cricket.
And as a little fun, here is some footage of a guy at the cricket who, while being kicked out from our bay, decided he had nothing to lose and so started a pretty successful Mexican wave. Marvellous stuff.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Wednesday Snapshot
After a week off on holiday the snapshot returns for 2010.
NRL: David Gallop to have a chat with Johnathan Thurston to make it look like he is doing something to try and keep him in the game.
Telegraph report on "Why Bellamy wanted Mason at Storm". I didn't read it but I imagine it has something to do with bolstering their premier league team.
Cricket: Rana Naved-ul-Hasan takes hattrick for Tassy Tigers in last nights T20. Unfortunately in these games 3 dot balls wouldn't have been less valuable, and South Australia still won comfortably.
Ponting says he will move down the order if there is a better candidate for the number 3 spot. In other words, he is not moving anywhere.
Pakistan fan group threaten to replace a member, Cupsan Staknow, after he dropped a beer snake on 4 occasions while watching the 2nd test in Sydney.
V8 Supercars: Another proper traditional circuit lost off the calender. QLD Raceway and V8SC failed to come to an agreement for 2010 and so the race will not feature. Another big blow for a series with flailing interest.
Campbell Little has signed on to engineer the Mark Winterbottom Falcon, giving a huge boost to the team for 2010.
NRL: David Gallop to have a chat with Johnathan Thurston to make it look like he is doing something to try and keep him in the game.
Telegraph report on "Why Bellamy wanted Mason at Storm". I didn't read it but I imagine it has something to do with bolstering their premier league team.
Cricket: Rana Naved-ul-Hasan takes hattrick for Tassy Tigers in last nights T20. Unfortunately in these games 3 dot balls wouldn't have been less valuable, and South Australia still won comfortably.
Ponting says he will move down the order if there is a better candidate for the number 3 spot. In other words, he is not moving anywhere.
Pakistan fan group threaten to replace a member, Cupsan Staknow, after he dropped a beer snake on 4 occasions while watching the 2nd test in Sydney.
V8 Supercars: Another proper traditional circuit lost off the calender. QLD Raceway and V8SC failed to come to an agreement for 2010 and so the race will not feature. Another big blow for a series with flailing interest.
Campbell Little has signed on to engineer the Mark Winterbottom Falcon, giving a huge boost to the team for 2010.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Top 10 Albums of the 2000's and Album of the Year
The "noughties" have concluded and with that I have compiled a rough list of my favourite albums that brought me through the decade I grew up in.
The top spots were somewhat easy, I know my absolute favourites and so filling out those most important records required less thinking. But when it came to the back end of the top 10 it was a struggle to separate a few from about 20 possibilities.
In time I will probably publish a top 30 or so, because I feel it really unfair that some albums don't get a mention here
But anyway lets get into it, starting from the top.
1. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
This album opened up a whole new world of music for me. Before QotSA and Songs for the Deaf, it was all what I heard on the radio or saw on the charts. Thanks to this album, those days are long gone and my rock boundaries have widened dramatically. I will never tire of listening to the crazy drumming belted out by Dave Grohl or the heavy and infectious riffs. Josh Homme is a dead set genius and is now all but my favourite musician. Songs for the Deaf is a cracker, and we can only hope that QotSA will return in the teens to produce something else just as good.
2. Linkin Park - Meteora
Linkin Park were a huge part of my first half of the decade. At times they were all I listened to, when I couldn't decide on anything else to listen to LP was the easy choice to revert to. Despite thousands of listens the songs still spark immediate excitement in me when hearing them. A mash of hip hop and rock, LP were something different. You got a feast of good music in every song and I related with them all. The difficult thing for me was separating Meteora and Hybrid Theory. They are very similar albums, and most prefer Hybrid Theory. In the end (unintended pun) I rated more songs in Meteora 5 star. That is pretty much what it came down to. A new Linkin Park album is approaching (I think) and it would be great if they moved back closer to the sound of the first two albums.
3. The Living End - State of Emergency
It is only fair that my favourite 3 bands (not including The Who, but obviously they don't fit into the time period!) have an album in the top 3 spots. State of Emergency was an unbelievably good album. Every Friday for months I would come home after school, plonk myself down in front of the telly, boot up the PS2 and rock along to this perfect feel good album. Even now I love to hit play on "Long Live the Weekend" when I rush out of work on Friday arvo. A dead set anthem.
4. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
And so this is where the other LP album slots in. In the End - what a great song. It will always be a favourite. I remember seeing it on rage for the first time and it sent shivers down my spine, just an incredible track.
5. Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
C-c-c-c-c-cocaine! While Songs for the Deaf is my favourite QotSA album as a whole, R provided me with some of my favourite tracks. I loved Auto Pilot from the second I heard the main riff for the first time. In the Fade is another cracker and I Think I Lost My Headache is a great song to drone along to. The whole album is just great.
6. Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Misfit Love - probably the best beginning to a song I have ever heard. The way it builds up is great. Another complete QotSA album, with this they marked 5 albums with not 1 negative point, an astonishing effort.
7. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
I had to think twice before adding this in. I thought, the fact that it is new might affect my opinion. But when it all boils down, the album is great from beginning to end. A great hard, clean rock sound that involves the QotSA influence that I love. Perhaps after I see them late this month I might be wishing I put it even higher!
Them Crooked Vultures also snag the album of the year, quite easily.
8. The Living End - Roll On
The Living End get a second spot. For mine, Australia has never produced better music. An album that is always fun to sing along to, with the catchiest songs imaginable.
9. Metallica - Death Magnetic
This Metallica album assured fans (well most) that they were still alive. Their classic thrash sound returned and more masterpieces were created. The Unforgiven III capped of a great trilogy of songs and along with The Day That Never Comes, they were two songs that I couldn't stop myself from listening to over and over.
10. The White Stripes - Elephant
And finally something a little different! The White Stripes are a great band and Elephant is a great album. Again they are quite different, they provide more of an old unpolished sound. This album opens up with probably the most well known bass riff ever. Who doesn't recognise Seven Nation Army.... At the end of the year that I got this album in I looked at the amount of times I had listened to the album and was shocked when I saw over 30.
And that is my top 10. I hated leaving some albums out and I will be sure to give them recognition somehow. What will the teens bring? Will it be more of the same? Will there be awesome new stuff? Bring it on!
The top spots were somewhat easy, I know my absolute favourites and so filling out those most important records required less thinking. But when it came to the back end of the top 10 it was a struggle to separate a few from about 20 possibilities.
In time I will probably publish a top 30 or so, because I feel it really unfair that some albums don't get a mention here
But anyway lets get into it, starting from the top.
1. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
This album opened up a whole new world of music for me. Before QotSA and Songs for the Deaf, it was all what I heard on the radio or saw on the charts. Thanks to this album, those days are long gone and my rock boundaries have widened dramatically. I will never tire of listening to the crazy drumming belted out by Dave Grohl or the heavy and infectious riffs. Josh Homme is a dead set genius and is now all but my favourite musician. Songs for the Deaf is a cracker, and we can only hope that QotSA will return in the teens to produce something else just as good.
2. Linkin Park - Meteora
Linkin Park were a huge part of my first half of the decade. At times they were all I listened to, when I couldn't decide on anything else to listen to LP was the easy choice to revert to. Despite thousands of listens the songs still spark immediate excitement in me when hearing them. A mash of hip hop and rock, LP were something different. You got a feast of good music in every song and I related with them all. The difficult thing for me was separating Meteora and Hybrid Theory. They are very similar albums, and most prefer Hybrid Theory. In the end (unintended pun) I rated more songs in Meteora 5 star. That is pretty much what it came down to. A new Linkin Park album is approaching (I think) and it would be great if they moved back closer to the sound of the first two albums.
3. The Living End - State of Emergency
It is only fair that my favourite 3 bands (not including The Who, but obviously they don't fit into the time period!) have an album in the top 3 spots. State of Emergency was an unbelievably good album. Every Friday for months I would come home after school, plonk myself down in front of the telly, boot up the PS2 and rock along to this perfect feel good album. Even now I love to hit play on "Long Live the Weekend" when I rush out of work on Friday arvo. A dead set anthem.
4. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
And so this is where the other LP album slots in. In the End - what a great song. It will always be a favourite. I remember seeing it on rage for the first time and it sent shivers down my spine, just an incredible track.
5. Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R
C-c-c-c-c-cocaine! While Songs for the Deaf is my favourite QotSA album as a whole, R provided me with some of my favourite tracks. I loved Auto Pilot from the second I heard the main riff for the first time. In the Fade is another cracker and I Think I Lost My Headache is a great song to drone along to. The whole album is just great.
6. Queens of the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
Misfit Love - probably the best beginning to a song I have ever heard. The way it builds up is great. Another complete QotSA album, with this they marked 5 albums with not 1 negative point, an astonishing effort.
7. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
I had to think twice before adding this in. I thought, the fact that it is new might affect my opinion. But when it all boils down, the album is great from beginning to end. A great hard, clean rock sound that involves the QotSA influence that I love. Perhaps after I see them late this month I might be wishing I put it even higher!
Them Crooked Vultures also snag the album of the year, quite easily.
8. The Living End - Roll On
The Living End get a second spot. For mine, Australia has never produced better music. An album that is always fun to sing along to, with the catchiest songs imaginable.
9. Metallica - Death Magnetic
This Metallica album assured fans (well most) that they were still alive. Their classic thrash sound returned and more masterpieces were created. The Unforgiven III capped of a great trilogy of songs and along with The Day That Never Comes, they were two songs that I couldn't stop myself from listening to over and over.
10. The White Stripes - Elephant
And finally something a little different! The White Stripes are a great band and Elephant is a great album. Again they are quite different, they provide more of an old unpolished sound. This album opens up with probably the most well known bass riff ever. Who doesn't recognise Seven Nation Army.... At the end of the year that I got this album in I looked at the amount of times I had listened to the album and was shocked when I saw over 30.
And that is my top 10. I hated leaving some albums out and I will be sure to give them recognition somehow. What will the teens bring? Will it be more of the same? Will there be awesome new stuff? Bring it on!
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