Take a bow, Mr Murray
I just witnessed, a few minutes ago, Rafael Nadal beat Andy Murray in 5 sets to move into the quarters of the Australian Open. In the end, Rafa simply bullied Murray with sheer physical strength. Murray just didn't have much left in the tank by the 4th set, while Nadal had that same pit bull look that Mike Tyson used to have when he was just about to knock someone out.
But I'll tell you what, Andy Murray is the guy who will get me excited about tennis again. If tonight was a taste of things to come, he's going to be awesome. Maybe not Federer good, but very very good nonetheless. He's what every tennis purist dreams of. At 19 years of age, he's already a master tactician. He's ridiculously flexible on the court. Not particularly fast, not particularly strong. Not even particularly consistent. And he's shown tonight that he lacks the stamina. But he's a thinker. Uber creative. Yet he's also emotional and expressive.
Not since Pat Rafter and Gustavo Kuerten has anyone gotten me so excited about tennis. The other two never quite made the most of their talents (mostly due to injuries). Let's hope Andy does better.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Introducing... THE IMPRACTICALS!
What happens to the superheroes who got cut from the X-men?
What happens to the ones that Spider-man doesn't wanna be friends with?
What happens to those whose super powers have limited practical applications to fighting crime?!
They've banded together to form...
THE IMPRACTICALS!
Name: The Sweeper
Alter ego: Sweepy Chan
A mild-mannered computer programmer by day, Sweepy Chan becomes The Sweeper by night. With the uncanny ability to locate all the mines in any Minesweeper computer game, The Sweeper almost made the Avengers roster until it was discovered that his powers did not actually work with Mac OS versions of the game.
Name: Heidi Seek
Astronaut Heidi Seek was sent on a scientific mission to Uranus, during which she got caught in a cosmic storm. Upon her return, Heidi discovered that she had gained the power of invisibility - but only when her eyes are closed!
Name: Exchanger
Alter ego: Karen C Ekschange
Not much is known about this former international superspy, except that she has the incredible power to convert all foreign currency to local currency at the touch of her finger. She decided to join the Impracticals since her last gig paid her in Mexican pesos while being based in London.
Name: The Shrink
Alter ego: Mike Smaller
As psychiatrist Mike Smaller was cleaning his attic, he discovered a mysterious box in the corner. When he opened it, he found the Shrink suit! This remarkable suit allows the wearer to shrink by about 4 inches off their normal height, making crime fighting in low-ceilinged spaces just that much easier!
What happens to the superheroes who got cut from the X-men?
What happens to the ones that Spider-man doesn't wanna be friends with?
What happens to those whose super powers have limited practical applications to fighting crime?!
They've banded together to form...
THE IMPRACTICALS!
Name: The SweeperAlter ego: Sweepy Chan
A mild-mannered computer programmer by day, Sweepy Chan becomes The Sweeper by night. With the uncanny ability to locate all the mines in any Minesweeper computer game, The Sweeper almost made the Avengers roster until it was discovered that his powers did not actually work with Mac OS versions of the game.
Name: Heidi SeekAstronaut Heidi Seek was sent on a scientific mission to Uranus, during which she got caught in a cosmic storm. Upon her return, Heidi discovered that she had gained the power of invisibility - but only when her eyes are closed!
Name: ExchangerAlter ego: Karen C Ekschange
Not much is known about this former international superspy, except that she has the incredible power to convert all foreign currency to local currency at the touch of her finger. She decided to join the Impracticals since her last gig paid her in Mexican pesos while being based in London.
Name: The ShrinkAlter ego: Mike Smaller
As psychiatrist Mike Smaller was cleaning his attic, he discovered a mysterious box in the corner. When he opened it, he found the Shrink suit! This remarkable suit allows the wearer to shrink by about 4 inches off their normal height, making crime fighting in low-ceilinged spaces just that much easier!
To be continued...
Monday, January 08, 2007
My weekend
It seems to be true that gay guys are crap at ball sports.
On saturday, I was playing captain ball on a team of women in their 40s and 50s, and we managed to beat a team of young (well, around my age) gay guys.
OK, so we did lose to the gay cops team. But considering that one of our team members can't squat and that probably only I could run 100m in under 2 minutes, I think that's saying something.
At this point, you may be wondering where I was that I was playing ball games with middle-aged women and gay cops.
Well, yes. I would wonder too if I were you.
On SundayI had another jam session with Mark and our new drummer friend, Trevor. We're really coming along nicely, I must say. Much better than I had expected, to be honest. We have a song list now of 8 or 9 songs and they're beginning to sound alright. Trevor's drumming really adds so much to our guitars that we no longer sound like two guys playing in our living rooms. I can't say we're 'a band', but there are definitely moments when we sound like one.
One thing I'm trying to do (besides generally becoming a better guitarist) is finding 'my own voice', so to speak. I mean, when Ryan Adams sings Wonderwall, it sounds like Ryan Adams doing his version of Wonderwall. But I feel like when I sing Wonderwall, it sounds like a guy trying to sound like Liam Gallagher, which is a hard habit to break and a bad one to have. I know we're all just starting out, but I guess I'm just thinking out loud.
Speaking of the Gallaghers, sure they might be tossers, but playing their music has made me appreciate more that some of their songwriting are just brilliant. Their melodies and chord progressions are simple but they just work. I mean, the pre chorus of Don't look back in anger is just beautiful, and when the same chords are played underneath the solo, it still sends shivers down my spine no matter how many times I've heard it before.
This music thing has really been a godsend to me and I wish I had started much earlier. There are times when I'm playing and singing (especially with the psuedo-band) when I can genuinely get lost in the moment. I can't say that many other things in life can do that for me. Maybe there is something to that whole 'dance like nobody's watching' saying. I always just assumed it was cliched crap.
I'm loving this because it's something new that I'm learning and it's creative and it's collaborative and sometimes you get that whole 'the sum is greater than the some of its parts' feeling.
My tutor told me that he envies where I'm at right now because I've just cracked the surface of what I can do with the guitar and there's a whole new world under there. Oh, I do hope he's right.
It seems to be true that gay guys are crap at ball sports.
On saturday, I was playing captain ball on a team of women in their 40s and 50s, and we managed to beat a team of young (well, around my age) gay guys.
OK, so we did lose to the gay cops team. But considering that one of our team members can't squat and that probably only I could run 100m in under 2 minutes, I think that's saying something.
At this point, you may be wondering where I was that I was playing ball games with middle-aged women and gay cops.
Well, yes. I would wonder too if I were you.
On SundayI had another jam session with Mark and our new drummer friend, Trevor. We're really coming along nicely, I must say. Much better than I had expected, to be honest. We have a song list now of 8 or 9 songs and they're beginning to sound alright. Trevor's drumming really adds so much to our guitars that we no longer sound like two guys playing in our living rooms. I can't say we're 'a band', but there are definitely moments when we sound like one.
One thing I'm trying to do (besides generally becoming a better guitarist) is finding 'my own voice', so to speak. I mean, when Ryan Adams sings Wonderwall, it sounds like Ryan Adams doing his version of Wonderwall. But I feel like when I sing Wonderwall, it sounds like a guy trying to sound like Liam Gallagher, which is a hard habit to break and a bad one to have. I know we're all just starting out, but I guess I'm just thinking out loud.
Speaking of the Gallaghers, sure they might be tossers, but playing their music has made me appreciate more that some of their songwriting are just brilliant. Their melodies and chord progressions are simple but they just work. I mean, the pre chorus of Don't look back in anger is just beautiful, and when the same chords are played underneath the solo, it still sends shivers down my spine no matter how many times I've heard it before.
This music thing has really been a godsend to me and I wish I had started much earlier. There are times when I'm playing and singing (especially with the psuedo-band) when I can genuinely get lost in the moment. I can't say that many other things in life can do that for me. Maybe there is something to that whole 'dance like nobody's watching' saying. I always just assumed it was cliched crap.
I'm loving this because it's something new that I'm learning and it's creative and it's collaborative and sometimes you get that whole 'the sum is greater than the some of its parts' feeling.
My tutor told me that he envies where I'm at right now because I've just cracked the surface of what I can do with the guitar and there's a whole new world under there. Oh, I do hope he's right.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
Ever wanting to be poetic, I felt that I should buy this book while I was in England, but the exchange rate at the time scared me away and I bought the Stepford Wives at a bargain bin price instead.
But I eventually got around to buying it once I got back to Sydney. I'd heard so much praise for it from my preferred literary circles (geeks and snooty intellectual types - the two rarely agreeing!) and now I've finally finished reading it.
And boy, has it lived up to the hype! It's probably the longest book I have ever read (at about 1000 pages) but it was a breeze to read. And not in a Dan Brown kind of way. Actually, I probably went through it a little too quickly and probably missed some little things along the way. But instantly it climbs up my all-time favourites list!
To summarise, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a fantasy of sorts set in England during the Napoleonic Wars. It has been 300+ years since England kinda lost its magical mojo and all that is left of English magic are simply remembered and studied, but never practiced. But this is only until a new magician appears on the scene to revive English magic and bring attention to himself by bringing a girl back from the dead.
And then a second magician appears.
And this is pretty much how it starts.
Yes, it is fantasy. But not Tolkien fantasy. Or even Harry Potter (I must confess that I've never been able to get into the Harry Potter books. I just never found the writing style very agreeable... but that's another story.). This reads more like Jane Austen. In fact it is as much a portrait of the 19th century English idle rich as it is a fantasy novel. The actual magic in the book is bizarre and often clumsy. Like when Mr Strange animates a bunch of sand banks into horses to defeat the French, except that he didn't know how to turn them back into sand banks so they just ran around for a few days and then returned to their sand bank forms, except in really inappropriate places.
Also, the novel is peppered with footnotes that further elaborates on the lore of this version of English history, while at the same time intertwines fiction with real historical figures like Buonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, the mad King George and Lord Byron.
The scope of this novel is just so immense. Its sheer ambitiousness would be praiseworthy enough, except that it actually does what it aims to do. It's a tight story. There won't be moments like in da Vinci Code where you go: 'Why the hell don't they just freeze the damn vinegar and crack the thing open?! It's the bloody 21st century!!!'
I really cannot praise this book enough. I know I'll be spending hours on the internet now looking for stuff to read about it (commentaries, reading guides, etc.). You all really HAVE TO read this book! It's brilliant! It's fantasy, but it's also literary and has oodles of mass market appeal.
If you still won't go and get a copy on my recommendation, then read Amazon's reviews and if that doesn't get you, then eventually the movie (when it's made) will convert you.
__________
On a separate note, there's a film being made that I'm also really looking forward to. Stardust should be ready sometime this year and this is also based on a (very English) fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman that I love (though on the Jonathan Strange level of love). Read this book too. This one is short.
As usual, I'm happy to lend out my books and... um... OK, I'm going to bed.
by Susanna Clarke
Ever wanting to be poetic, I felt that I should buy this book while I was in England, but the exchange rate at the time scared me away and I bought the Stepford Wives at a bargain bin price instead.
But I eventually got around to buying it once I got back to Sydney. I'd heard so much praise for it from my preferred literary circles (geeks and snooty intellectual types - the two rarely agreeing!) and now I've finally finished reading it.
And boy, has it lived up to the hype! It's probably the longest book I have ever read (at about 1000 pages) but it was a breeze to read. And not in a Dan Brown kind of way. Actually, I probably went through it a little too quickly and probably missed some little things along the way. But instantly it climbs up my all-time favourites list!
To summarise, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a fantasy of sorts set in England during the Napoleonic Wars. It has been 300+ years since England kinda lost its magical mojo and all that is left of English magic are simply remembered and studied, but never practiced. But this is only until a new magician appears on the scene to revive English magic and bring attention to himself by bringing a girl back from the dead.
And then a second magician appears.
And this is pretty much how it starts.
Yes, it is fantasy. But not Tolkien fantasy. Or even Harry Potter (I must confess that I've never been able to get into the Harry Potter books. I just never found the writing style very agreeable... but that's another story.). This reads more like Jane Austen. In fact it is as much a portrait of the 19th century English idle rich as it is a fantasy novel. The actual magic in the book is bizarre and often clumsy. Like when Mr Strange animates a bunch of sand banks into horses to defeat the French, except that he didn't know how to turn them back into sand banks so they just ran around for a few days and then returned to their sand bank forms, except in really inappropriate places.
Also, the novel is peppered with footnotes that further elaborates on the lore of this version of English history, while at the same time intertwines fiction with real historical figures like Buonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, the mad King George and Lord Byron.
The scope of this novel is just so immense. Its sheer ambitiousness would be praiseworthy enough, except that it actually does what it aims to do. It's a tight story. There won't be moments like in da Vinci Code where you go: 'Why the hell don't they just freeze the damn vinegar and crack the thing open?! It's the bloody 21st century!!!'
I really cannot praise this book enough. I know I'll be spending hours on the internet now looking for stuff to read about it (commentaries, reading guides, etc.). You all really HAVE TO read this book! It's brilliant! It's fantasy, but it's also literary and has oodles of mass market appeal.
If you still won't go and get a copy on my recommendation, then read Amazon's reviews and if that doesn't get you, then eventually the movie (when it's made) will convert you.
__________
On a separate note, there's a film being made that I'm also really looking forward to. Stardust should be ready sometime this year and this is also based on a (very English) fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman that I love (though on the Jonathan Strange level of love). Read this book too. This one is short.
As usual, I'm happy to lend out my books and... um... OK, I'm going to bed.
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