Posted in June 2010 …

Jun 22 2010
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Life

Off to Glastonbury…

Emily and Michael Eavis

On Wednesday I will be heading off to Somerset to attend the 40th Glastonbury Festival. It feels weird for two reasons. Firstly, after watching it on TV for so many years I can’t begin to comprehend actually going to the sight of the famous Pyramid Stage itself. Secondly, I’ll be without my girlfriend. Long story short: her work were a bit farcical in handling days off and managed to mess her around unnecessarily. I’ll be camping with a big group of friends but it’ll feel odd to have a spacious three-person tent to myself.

Glastonbury makes a refreshing change from my current predicament. I’m still hunting for jobs but still relatively upbeat about the whole situation. The emergency budget tomorrow will make for interesting viewing, especially given my predicament. My time at One Little Indian Records is almost up. In hindsight, it was the best thing I could have done in order to enhance my job seeking opportunities, both in the music industry and beyond that. Right after my final day is my university graduation in Guildford. I still don’t know for certain if I really have a 2:1 or not. I’ve also started doing some reviews for Artrocker, which is rather exciting.

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Jun 19 2010
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News, Media & Sport

Why are England so bad at the moment?

Rooney is frustrated

  1. Certain player selections – Emile Heskey can win headers but there’s no aim or agility. Peter Crouch has both of these attributes. Also, why is Shaun Wright-Phillips preferred to Joe Cole when the (soon-to-be former) Chelsea man is far better in midfield.
  2. Formation – It’s clear that 4-4-2 isn’t suiting England. Rooney isn’t allowed to roam as much as he would want and the wingers in the midfield can’t cope at all. An alternative would be to go 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1. Gerrard, Barry and Lampard anchor the midfield and Crouch and Defoe (in an ideal world) would the providing Rooney with support should he need it. It also allows the full backs, Johnson and Cole, to attack more, which is only a good thing.
  3. No unity – Once again, the England players on the pitch are playing for themselves as opposed to the team. This showed throughout the entire game. The passing in midfield was appalling, especially in midfield, and when they do try and support their team mates it’s, ironically, the worst thing they could have done in that situation. For example, Steven Gerrard was through on goal and, instead of blasting it, put it across the box to no one. Quite frankly, if England want to win the World Cup at all, they need to put their own egos aside and actually figure out how to play as a team.

An even more damming indictment of last night can be heard on a live edition of The Guardian’s World Cup Daily podcast. I attended this at their HQ and the mood after watching the game was one of anger and disdain. As Barry Glendenning says, it was a nation getting a wake up call. For my money, the game against Algeria was the worst England performance at a major tournament that I’ve ever seen. Depressing.

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Jun 15 2010
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News, Media & Sport

A day at Queen’s Club

Sam Querry

I’ve very rarely been a spectator of live sport. I’ve only been to two Woking football games in 1998 – one where they played superbly and one where they played not so superbly – and the final day of the England-West Indies test match at Lord’s in 2004 (that’s the one where Freddie Flintoff told Timo Best to aim for the windows of the pavillion…Best promptly got himself out). So an afternoon in West London to watch some top quality professional tennis at semi-finals day at Queen’s Club was a very exciting prospect.

The first semi-final we saw was between Germany’s Rainer Schuettler and the USA’s Sam Querry. It wasn’t a golden match. There were no spectacular shots nor were there any amazing rallies but the workmanlike method of both players was captivating to watch. Initially, Querry’s lack of good judgement and Schuettler’s experience counted towards the German being one set up and as it reached 5-5 in the second set it was widely expected that he’d win. The pendulum swung in the opposite direction. Querry broke serve to give him the second set before doing so again in the deciding set to win 6-7, 7-5, 6-3. The American is very much a player in the Andy Roddick mould but, sadly, not as good as Roddick.

The second semi-final was a much more swift affair. American Mardy Fish, who was the conqueror of Andy Murray, comfortably disposed of Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in an hour and two minutes – nearly half the time it took in the game that preceded it. It seemed like Fish was ready for almost anything Lopez threw at him: every serve was met by a ferocious return shot and he rarely put a foot wrong. It was to my great surprise when I discovered on Sunday night that he lost to Querry in the final because out of the two the Florida-based player was a far more impressive all-round player. Maybe he just ran out of steam when it really mattered.

The day out was very enjoyable though once you get past how staggeringly expensive food and drink is for punters. If they want to get more people watching live tennis then £9 for an open club sandwich and £3.30 for a a can of Diet Coke is overly excessive. Silly trivial grumbles aside, this was about as much tennis as I’ll see over the summer with work and Glastonbury getting in the way of the first week at Wimbledon.

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Jun 11 2010
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News, Media & Sport

A good example of sensible reporting of autism-related news

Autism has, in the past, been unfairly treated in the press. The whole idea that MMR is to blame for autism, which is bogus, was created by some of the more scaremongering parts of the press. On the other end of the scale, you have certain individuals/organisations who believe that autism can be ‘cured’, which is impossible at this moment in time. It felt like an insult to those, like me, who are diagnosed with the condition. However, there are some autism-related stories that are reported so well that you can’t help but feel think that we’ve reached the beginning of the end of the scandalous levels news reports of the past.

The story that featured on page 4 of yesterday’s Guardian (taking up a whole page) was news of possibly revelatory breakthroughs in autism research. The Guardian’s report is pretty much grounded in the facts of the findings by the Autism Genome Project. They also give readers a very fair and accurate idea of what autism is in their Q&A sidebox and there is also a terrific case study of a parent who reflects on these findings and, quite rightly in my opinion, thinks that no one should be set on finding a cure for autism, but instead focus on figuring out how to deal with the effects that autism has on families and friends. If only all reporting of the condition was as good as this.

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Jun 09 2010
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Arts & Entertainment

Catching up with films

Batman Begins

Because of getting used to work and it’s routine-based nature, whilst also allowing my body to get used to the travel and such, there hasn’t been much time for film-watching. I’ve made up for that as of late by watching a couple to get me back into the swing of things.

First up was Man On Wire, the documentary that told the story of how Phillippe Petit planned his unbelievably daring and extraordinary attempt to tight-rope walk across the World Trade Centre in 1974. It is a remarkable story that defines ‘stranger than fiction’ and tells how, whilst everyone else around him was completely fed up with him and his own plans and his own craziness, Petit defied almost every probable outcome (just so you know, every ‘probably outcome’ revolved around certain death). The leading man is an excellent, enigmatic and highly entertaining storyteller and that alone is something that makes this documentary worth watching. A joy and well deserved of its Oscar in 2009.

The second film was Batman Begins. I’ve watched every Batman film apart from this one and, considering that I watched The Dark Knight two years ago, that is quite embarrassing. If I were to compare the two, the acting may not be as strong as The Dark Knight but the story is its heart and it is one that is told in an expert and thrilling way. If this was the first Batman film you saw then you’d be very satisfied. In terms of the overall scheme of Batman films, it’s certainly one of the better ones. Nothing will ever come close to becoming as soul-crushingly bad as Batman & Robin. Nothing. Ever. Mr. Freeze, as played by Governer Schwarzeneger, was as threatening as a nightclub bouncer – without any of the fear that a bouncer should put into drunken clubbers.

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