Posts by Matthew Littlewood
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
It was worth staying up late to see the cricket, where despite the cheating Aussie keeper and an unbelievably bad LBW decision on the second ball of the innings, the New Zealanders were able to take the Aussies' slump to a new low.
I'd say, I don't think I've seen an Australian batting lineup look as demoralised against NZ as the one last night- okay, there was that Chappel-Hadlee match a couple of years back where we trundled them for 120, but that was due to Bond tearing through them, rather than a New Zealand who merely stuck to a simple but well-executed plan.
Mills was fantastic, he really seems to have gone up a notch under Vettori's captaincy, while Vettori's spell was close to perfect as goddamnit. I was impressed with Southee, too.
And yes, NZ's batting was hard-done by those two frankly disgusting decisions, but on the other hand, it never should've been that close, there was a moment of pure panic near the end of the match where I wondered whether it was possible for us to actually blow it, but thankfully Vettori showed a cool head and finished off what Mills and Taylor pretty much did by themselves.
God, Taylor's in wicked form though, he must be one of the most consistent ODI batsmen in the world right now.
The commentators were on their usual form. Was it Healey who said something like "when you've got a bowling attack like Daniel Vettori has, you've got to play to a plan"? Translation: what a bunch of plodders.
They didn't seem to grasp that New Zealand has two bowlers in the top five of the one-day rankings, including the best one-day bowler in the world, Daniel Vettori. (The other is Mills at No.5) Dicks.
True, and once we see the return of Styris, Ryder and Oram, there's a good argument to be made for NZ being the most finely balanced ODI side around. Now, if only that could somehow translate to our test performances....
-
What surprised me the most about the final was Federer's poor service game. In the third set he was only getting about 50 percent of his first serves, which is unheard of for him. That said, the sheer power of Nadal's returns was just gobsmacking, I know Federer won the fourth set 6-3, but geez, he had to work hard for every point. Some of the returns were coming back to him at more than 100mph.
What I love about the rivalry between Nadal and Federer is the difference between the two styles- Federer in prime form just glides, there are times when his ability to almost teleport to exactly the right place on court. Nadal, on the other hand, is just this bundle of energy, which means he's tiring to watch. He seems to bustle.
Perhaps last night's final lacked some of the elements of Wimbledon 2008, such as the final three sets going to tie-breakers, and the game interrupted by rain, but there's no denying that we've been spoilt by the contest between those two. And what's even more frightening is that both have got a few years left in them.
Yeah, I'm a Nadal girl, for basically the same reasons I'll support Brazil if they're playing Germany at football: prettier to watch. I'm shallow, who cares
I'm sure I can't be the only bloke who was disappointed that there wasn't going to be a repeat of the Sharapova-Ivanovich final this time around...
But in all seriousness, wasn't there something mindnumbingly predictable about the way Serena Williams tore Safina apart? I've never really liked the Williams sisters, but credit where it's due, every time they can be bothered to step up, they just take the game away.
-
.
Matthew, if you want to organise a little PA Dramfest group, I can probably get you a discount. Especially if someone writes about it ...
Hey, cheers, I'll get onto it over the next few days!
And which sets a 1998 sample ("We ain't ready for a black president") from the late Tupac Shakur against an Obama speech recording ("They said this day would never come/They said our sights were set too high"). That's some conflicting feelings there.
Yeah, it's a fascinating track for the reasons you mention there. I do think that Nas has only released one stone-cold classic record ( Illmatic ), and all his subsequent records have been patchy at best, but every now and then he releases a track like the one above which reminds you why he was so feted in the first place. I actually think "Black President" works as a post-election treatise as much as an anticipatory one. I mean no one knows what the next four years are gonna hold instore at all...
-
Let me guess. You don't really know anything about Russell Simmons, right?
If you're looking for figureheads for Obama's new "age of responsibility", Simmons is your guy. If all millionaire businessmen displayed his acumen and conscience the world would be a better place.
Quite. Simmons, who, for all his flaws, has actually shown something of a conscience in the way he's used his clout. The story of Def Jam records is a fascinating one, really, and in many ways a nice distillation of how the Music Business has changed, and how rap music became so pervasive over the last twenty-odd years.
Also, it'll be interesting to see where the label (in its current form) goes next, now that Jay-Z has stepped down as its CEO, too. The label is undergoing many of the same problems as most major subsidaries these days, although they seem to display slightly more business acumen than the majority. But that's for another discussion.
As for the gig which got FOX (is there a pundit in the world more unhinged than Michelle Malkin?) so hot under the collar, it looked pretty damn intense, actually. Would've been a lot of fun to be there. Incidentally, the track ("My President is Black") is worth comparing to Nas's more self-questioning, uncertain "Black President," which was released before Obama's eventual victory.
And I agree with the general consensus on Ryall's early performance, the words "contradictory" and "shambles" spring to mind. Btw, do any ChCh PA members want to meet up at Dramfest? I think it'd be...educational.
-
"....but some of the character's casual anti-Semitism was a bit hard to take even if (of course)"
Oops, not quite sure what happened with that sentence there. Forget the "even if (of course)" bit.
-
I got up to quite a bit of reading, even if a lot of it was merely catching up on classics that I shamefully hadn't read yet.
Ernest Hemmingway- Fiesta: The Sun Also Rise
On the one hand, there's no denying the tough delicacy of Hemmingway's first great novel, or the way he's able to observe the four principle characters who slowly but surely drive each other to distraction, but some of the character's casual anti-Semitism was a bit hard to take even if (of course).
That said, the love triangle between Brett, Michael and Jake was beautifully observed in its suffocating oppression- the sense that any moment they expressed their real feelings for oneanother they would tear each other asunder. And on a superficial note, I loved Hemmingway's descriptions of the bullfighting and the fiesta activities, and the novel made me want to go to Spain and act all louche and decadent.
Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Hard to tell whether the fact the film shifts the POV from the Indian to Jack really changes the thrust of either. I suppose the book is slightly more rhapsodic, and probably not as broad in its depictions of its characters, but finally reading the novel merely goes to show how close to perfect as makes no difference the film's adaptation was. It got the tone right, above all else, even allowing for the fact it skimped on some of the flights of fancy.
Ray Davies- X Ray
I love the 60s-era Kinks, me, ( particularly that run of albums from The Kink Kontroversy to Village Green Preservation Society, to say nothing of their peerless singles from that era), so I enjoyed Ray Davies's recollections of how the Kinks started, but I think the format, where Davies casts his the autobiography as a sem-fictional novel, only sometimes worked. He's an interesting stylist, but too in thrall to himself, and there were times I wish he'd stop dicking around with the characters and actually tell the story of his life.
On the other hand, there's a bit of fun to be had in the way he fucks with people's perceptions, and you're never totally sure whether he's telling you the whole truth. Certainly it's not your run of the mill rock bio, which is nice.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road- superb, taut, and at once utterly despairing and strangely moving. And you can just tell that like No Country for Old Men, it's got the potential to be a winner of a film. He practically writes the script for it right here.
There were a couple of others, but this post is long enough!
-
Oops, okay, it's been 10 years, rather than eight, since Stewart's first show, but still, the point stands...:)
-
I thought Friday's (Thursday their time) show was weak, relatively to the past few weeks.
I think the political stuff will take some shaking out, but come a year or so, it will be less of a focus, but still there.
The trouble is, to a degree, they've had relatively little to work with over the last couple of weeks on the homefront, pomp and circumstance aside (granted, they tentatively dipped their toes into the Israel/Palestine issue, but it's a thorny one to wrest any comedy out of, that's for sure).
But you're right, I think- and one way for them to change the show would be to enhance the interview segments of it, as the guests, no matter their political leanings are usually good value, and Stewart can occasionally ask some good, probing questions amidst the gags. Then again, the risk there would be that by tipping the balance too far in that direction they become Just Another Talk Show. So it's going to be a new learning process, that's for sure. They're well aware the Dick Cheney/GWB impersonations just won't do it anymore.
@ Danielle- you're right, Stewart looks ridiculously young in those early episodes. And it was "only" eight years ago. Proof positive that the Bush Administration took years off his life!
Re: Michael J Fox. Yeah, it is sad to see him like he is now- I've always thought he was a really likeable screen presence.
-
Btw, for those wishing to geek out, Super Obama World is strangely addictive.
-
Unless Faux News goes away, I'd say he has a job for life.
True, but you wonder whether the show might need an overhaul, rather like the one it had in 2000, when it brought in a lot of new writers (including the original guys behind__the Onion__) and switched from a rather facile sketch show to the politically-orientated format it has now.
It remains to be seen how much juice he can get out of the current format, or whether they need to take a different tack. Mind you, I think their post-inaugruation episodes have been pretty solid so far, even if you can feel the political ground moving underneath their feet.
On another note, does anyone else think that Stewart's interviewing skills have improved immensely over the years? I really reckon there would be something to be said for beefing that part of that show up, even if it would change both the tone and possibly even its format. Certainly, he's a very gracious with people of all political stripes, in the way he allows it to be an exchange of opinions rather than a shouting match. Perhaps the main flaw with the interviews is (by Stewart's own admission) he feels like he has to be funny all the time, whereas there are occasions where he could just let it flow a bit better. But they're always watchable.