The new Rocket Man

Aussie soul singer, and one of my faves, Eran James has been selected to support Elton John on his upcoming Australian tour.
Makes me more interested in going...

These are a few of my favourite things....

Fave time of year: autumn (March and April specifically)
Fave year so far: 2000 (awesome New Year's, Olympics, Wheel Of Fortune, new job)
Fave movie: Wonder Boys
Fave food: lasagne
Fave drink: cranberry juice
Fave pastime: horse racing
Fave pastime that doesn't involve horse racing: walking along Bondi beach with my mate Craig
Fave song(s): `Hero' by Mariah Carey, `Crash & Burn' by Savage Garden, `I'll Be There For You' by The Rembrandts
Fave TV show (all time): Friends
Fave TV show current: One Tree Hill & Brothers and Sisters
Fave Simpsons episode: Homer The Heretic & Lisa Gets An `A'
Fave non-Simpson Simpsons character: Ralph Wiggum
Fave female singer: Mariah Carey
Fave male singer: John Mayer
Fave band: Lifehouse
Fave bible verse: Philippians 4:13

Backing down

Today started like any other but half way to the train station all of a sudden my back started to really hurt. I pressed on and made it to work but in quite a deal of discomfort.
After about an hour and a half I came home and went to the doc, then to a physio. Interestingly I was told that some of my ribs were out of place and were causing the muscles to spasm hence the pain.
So after a bit of prodding and such I'm all taped up for a couple of days. Still hurts a bit, probably not as much as earlier, and I'm told it will take a bit of time to settle. Amazing how such a little thing, and I don't recall straining anything on the way to work on the process of getting ready, can cause so much discomfort.

Hangin' Tough

I know it's a bit daggy, but this song is typical of the 80s pop, catchy, and unfortunately I still like it.
I bet most of you do too....

Ten Songs About Love - the review

It's all about the deepest and most honest emotion - love.
Easily my most anticipated album of the year, Eran James delivers the goods - and then some.
While the album title Ten Songs About Love is slightly misleading - there are 12 songs on the CD - there is nothing misleading about what you're supposed to feel listening to it.
For the uninitiated, Eran James is just 18. However, he possesses, in my opinion, the most amazing voice. Soulful, spiritual, warm and classy, it's just hard to believe the sound you hear comes from someone so young.
I loved his first album, Reviewing The Situation, which was largely covers and a couple of original songs and really was unpolished. Perhaps that was the intention because it showcased that voice. I still liked it, but the follow up is 100 times better.
The single Touched By Love is an awesome song, as I commented a while back, but the CD opens with the beautiful Halo (I could be wrong but this really appears like a tribute to his mother, who died during the making of the album, and if so it is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time).
There's less of the jazzy stylings of the first album here, it's just been wound back a notch in that respect but this doesn't make the music any less classy.
My favourite tracks are Halo, Touched By Love, You Know When It Feels Right, I Still Do, Ten Songs About Love, and the sensational closer The World At Your Feet.
This guy just blows me away. Such a positive vibe from the words and the music is a change from the pop production line we get too much of these days.
I could go on and on and on, this is one of the albums of the year. If you're curious check him out, you won't be disappointed.

Storm earn their shot

Melbourne , despite beind unimpressive, beat Parramatta to make the NRL grand final, played next weekend, today.
The Storm have been the best team all year and deserve their shot at the premiership. Just some advice boys, from an armchair expert, the game goes for 80 minutes.

Ratatouille

It seems Pixar can do no wrong. Ratatouille is not their best film but it's a pretty damn good one.
The hero is Remy (Patton Oswalt) a rat who, despite the disgusting reputation of the rodent, longs to be a chef. He has a nose for food, not garbage or leftovers but cuisine, and is somewhat ridiculed by his rodent family.
He is seprarated from pack and ends up in Paris at Gusteau's Restaurant, a once high class eatery that has faded in popularity after being savaged by the critics.
It's up to Remy to save the day in a manner that is at the same time hilarious and heartwarming as it is very unsanitary, shall we say.
I tend to refuse to see any animated feature (aside from the Simpsons Movie of course) that isn't made by Pixar - and for good reason. Everything else is inferior.
From Toy Story through Monsters Inc, Cars, The Incredibles and others in between, Pixar always hits the spot. It amazes me how they can give a rat a personality, make him likable - even adorable - and make you want everything to work out.
Perhaps it's the more universal themes they explore rather than the tools they use, but Ratatouille is quite surreal. Much more so than Cars or Finding Nemo. Perhaps the stigma associated with rats has a lot to do with it.
Like I said, Ratatouille isn't the best Pixar film but it is worthy to stand in the collection. You'll enjoy it, guaranteed. A tasty 8 out of 10.

Punching bag

Today was one of those days when I wish I had a punching bag at home.
The frustration level was very high.
It really gets me when people complain about things going badly, work wise, yet are willing to do nothing to try and change that.
I have been throwing in some suggestions for improvements/changes at work and been well received generally but then they become in the `too hard' basket because noone is willing to change things as they are nice and comfortable.
My workplace is littered with people resistant to change, which is strange as I work in a global communications company. But today, man, I really wanted to explode. I'm sure I wasn't particularly pleasant to be around for much of the day. I've calmed down a bit now but the big issue remains.
Now, where's my punching bag???

Shame on Iemma

News today that, despite the equine influenza that is crippling the NSW racing industry, the Iemma Goverment has pressured the DPI into letting people enter Randwick and undertake some preliminary works for the World Youth Day festival next year.
This is the festival that shouldn't be at Randwick but the Government doesn't seem to care about that. It seems the livelihood of tens of thousands of taxpayers aren't as important as a visit from the Pope for a few days.
This is the same DPI that busted a trainer for driving an unauthorised track across a racecourse and a jockey who wanted to use the same skull cap and vest he used in a different state the week before.
Double standards anyone?
Aside from the shocking disregard for the quarantine status of Randwick, and the potential for the spread of EI by allowing outsiders into the restricted area, the Government has really shown it doesn't care about racing, despite the millions of dollars in generates.
To them it's a cash cow they'll milk for everything but sell out if it means a quick buck.
Among all of this, the new racing minister Graeme West has gone missing. He was hailed as the savious of the racing portfolio but has disappeared just when his division needs leadership and someone to stand up for the people.
Fortunately racing has great leadership in Racing NSW but they're fighting an uphill battle against a Government that has abandoned them. Shame, shame, shame.

Turn It Up - the review

By far and away the best thing to have come from Australian Idol, Shannon Noll continues to widen the gap between himself and other Idol alumni with his third CD, Turn It Up.

Much like Kelly Clarkson, the inaugural American Idol winner, Shannon continues to up the ante. Not winning Idol was probably the best thing that ever happened to him.

I've got to admit he had me sold when he covered What About Me, the 1982 classic that I grew up with. His first album, That's What I'm Talking About, was good. His second album, Lift, was outstanding.

This third release has grown on me significantly between first and second listens and I expect it will continue to impress me further the more I play it (and it will get played a lot this coming week).

I'll get the neagtive out of the way first: Shannon, where are the lyrics? Printing the lyrics really helps you connect with the songs and just printing one verse or one chorus from each song is not good enough.

I've got to admit the opening track Loud still hasn't grabbed me. I like it, perhaps I was expecting another Lift which opened the previous album. Everybody Needs A Little Help is a solid track, earmarked as a surefire hit by some reviewers, but it's not a standout at this stage for me.

After two listens, the highlights for me are Breakdown, Only Thing Missing, Won't Let You Go and Sorry Is Just Too Late - all of which are on the second half of the album. So I guess I can say if the first few songs don't grab you initially stick around because it gets better.

As stated earlier, this is a genuine grower. It's just going to get better. Shannon can carve out a long career with the sound he has established for himself and the likeable Aussie country boy background, and just edge in the soft rock direction.

So when you pick this one up, Turn It Up!

(By the way, I believe it's Shannon Noll's birthday tomorrow so I hope it's a good one!)

New leadership

The ALP unveiled its election strategy today as the PM began his backpedalling on what he said during the week about retiring mid-term if the government is re-elected.
My feeling about this election, whenever it will be in the next couple of months, is not so much whether the government can win it but whether the opposition can lose it. They lost the unlosable GST election a decade ago so it can be done.
I don't comment much on politics, in fact I really prefer to ignore it, but I thought this warranted a mention.

The Final Winter

More than just a movie about rugby league, The Final Winter is one of the better Australian films I've seen in recent years.

To Mick `Grub' Henderson (Matt Nable) rugby league is life and when he is faced with the reality that his career is ending he's left wondering what he's going to do.

And it doesn't matter that he has a wife and two daughters because most of the time he doesn't see them, just the game and how he's devoted his life to it. Added to his woes is the news that his brother Trent (Nathaniel Dean) has just been signed to the club he's devoted his life to. Mick and Trent rarely see eye to eye, stemming from when Mick was forced into the role of provider and surrogate father for his family.

As Trent so touchingly points out `I didn't want a father, I wanted a brother'.

Set in the 1980s, before rugby league turned professional, The Final Winter is a raw film about loyalty, passion and mateship - and a love of the game based around the Newtown Jets.

Matthew Johns plays coach Jack Cooper and while it's hard no to picture him as the clown, lovable as he is, he has become since retiring from the game, he puts in a solid performance.

Matt Nable also wrote the screenplay and he's captured a unique time in Australian sport beautifully and poignantly. As the film points out, Grub is a fictitious character but the era he represents is not.

The graphic and confronting football scenes add another dimension to the film. It's a side of rugby league that is filtered to us as viewers - we don't feel a lot of the hits the guys put on each other. Admittedly also the game has changed a bit since the 80s and some of the toughness has been diluted from the game (the contested scrums are a prime example and a bit of a hobby horse of mine).

I thought the film was thoroughly believable, engaging and a shade moving. Not bad for a game where a bunch of blokey blokes thunder into each other for 80 minutes a week. Very much a quality Aussie film and an 8 out of 10.

Testing the water

I posed a question last week that, cryptic as it was, needs some serious answering.
Nobody else can answer the question, it's an answer I have to come up with myself. So the time is looming when I must settle it.
Exactly how I am going to come to a conclusion I haven't exactly worked out. Actually, I have a fair idea I'm just not prepared to announce that theory here.
When it comes down to it the question probably has already been answered for me, I just have to find out for sure.
That's coming soon.....

Listening to...

Here's my top five songs at the moment*.

1. On The Verge Of Something Wonderful-Darren Hayes
2. Dance Floor Anthem (I Don't Want To Be In Love)-Good Charlotte
3. Big Girls Don't Cry-Fergie
4. Dear Mr President-Pink
5. First Time-Lifehouse

* this list doesn't include Eran James' Touched By Love as yet as it hasn't been officially released yet.

Take racing seriously

On July 13, I wrote a comment piece in the Sportsman slamming the NSW Government for their bad handling of the racing portfolio.
This is what I wrote, I have more to say in the light of the EI crisis but I thought this is good background.

WHEN is the NSW Government going to wake up and take the racing portfolio seriously.The state's department of liquor, gaming and racing website says its responsibility, among other things, is to ``support the growth and economic viability of NSW racing''.
By kicking the horses and trainers out of Randwick for 10 weeks on the eve of the 2008 spring carnival surely hosting Pope Benedict XVI and 500,000-plus pilgrims is going against its charter.
Perhaps if premier Morris Iemma and his new racing minister Graham West can convince the pontiff and his followers to stick around and have a punt it could be seen as aiding the economic viability of racing.Consider what the World Youth Day festival, which actually runs for about a week, has the potential to do to racing at NSW's premier track.
There's the inconvenience to the trainers having to uproot and shift their horses, many of which will be Group One class gallopers preparing for the spring.
There's the potential that owners could be lost to the trainer and/or the state with the disruption. Consider the impact this could have on the spring carnival and on the Randwick track itself, which has already had more than its share of problems.
Closing Randwick also means closing the Kensington track which means we lose two racecourses for 10 weeks -- consider the impact on Canterbury, Rosehill and Warwick Farm racecourses from extra workload.
There's the loss of turnover as its is perceived by TAB Limited that punters bet less if the races aren't at Randwick or Rosehill. If the AJC moves a Randwick race meeting to Warwick Farm it must compensate the TAB for loss of revenue.
Talk of compensation for all parties involved is welcome but there's no way anyone can put a figure on the actual cost until the event is over. No-one knows the extent of the damage to the track (the WYD website says Sydney is mild and dry at this time of year), the loss of turnover and revenue and all the other factors.
Then there's the logistics.
Anyone who has been to Derby Day at Randwick, which regularly attracts 50,000 people, knows what a nightmare it is to get around largely because the government decided to sell off an important piece of adjoining land.
They're talking 500,000 people or more descending on the area, one which lacks infrastructure. Is everyone going to catch a bus? The Government says it is too late to move the event. We're just on a year away.
Surely it can be done.
Sydney Olympic Park was built to cater for large crowds -- Randwick has already proven it can't handle them.
The Government must realise they can have their cake and eat it too with this event -- they don't need to cripple racing and the livelihoods of many of its participants to host the Pope.
Like so many other things in racing, one thing you can say for sure is that this wouldn't happen in Victoria.Can you imagine the VRC agreeing to close Flemington for 10 weeks ahead of the Melbourne Cup Carnival so its surface can be destroyed and its carnival compromised?
As Richard Freedman said recently on 2KY, the Victorian government would close an airport for the event before it even considered messing with the racing industry.
Their government knows how important racing is to the state.

A question...

Where do we go from here?

In summary

Aside from a week of no racing due to the EI outbreak my short hiatus from work has been a good one. (Some would say that forced break from the races is good for me. I can see their point.)
I'm also feeling pretty well (touch wood) on the whole. The trip away was really good for me and despite it not being a massive deal it proved to me that my limitations aren't as great as I had led myself to believe.
I haven't worked out what the next step is yet, but I'm sure it will come.
But I'm looking forward to going back to work, as much as everyone needs time away from their jobs I really do enjoy what I do. It keeps reminding me of a line in Michael J Fox's book Lucky Man which was something like `if you love your job you'll never work a day in your life'. I see what he means.

The Bourne Ultimatum

Who is Jason Bourne? It's the question the Matt Damon character has been asking for three films now and in The Bourne Ultimatum we finally learn the truth. Sort of.
Bourne, who was last seen at the end of Supremacy in Russia, is hunting for the men who know his past and , as in the other films, this takes him all over the globe in remarkably quick time.
Still on his case is the CIA. Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) was the one chasing Bourne in the earlier film but she's been outranked by an agency bent on killing Bourne and anyone else who gets in the way.
When Bourne learns of project Blackbriar he finds the key to unlocking his past.
That's the plot, which sadly is a little secondary in Ultimatum compared to the first two. There's certainly plenty of action and cool car chases (well one cracker in particular).
In the end, do we really learn who Jason Bourne is (or was). Yeah we know his name is David Webb but that seems insufficient. In the end, Jason Bourne is Jason Bourne as he turned his back on Webb long ago. I don't think there's any big secret or spoiler there.
The Bourne Identity raised the bar for this genre of film, which is why Mission Impossible 3 sucked so badly. The third (and seemingly final as Damon has apparently said no to any more) film is no better than its predecessors but it is well worth another journey into the world of Jason Bourne. An entertaining 8 out of 10, but it could have been heaps better too.