Football World Cup 2010 - downunder???

I know WTF? The Sydney Morning Herald this morning has reported that South Africa has dropped the ball with their hosting of the 2010 Football World Cup..... and the replacements would likely be New Zealand and Australia!

Basically theyve been too slow off the mark and are way behind schedule, meaning companies are now pulling out of the tendering process due to the ridiculous timelines.

Its all in the way it rotates around - after Africa, the America's would be due next, then Asia/Oceania, then Europe. But Brazil the lead candidate for 2014 is no where near ready (only has 1 or 2 Fifa standard venues) - opening the way for us - Aussie has 5 Fifa Standard venues - (Telstra Stadium, Aussie Stadium in Sydney, Telstra Dome and the MCG in Melbourne and Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane) plus Perth is currently building another, and New Zealand is of course upgrading venues, so will have 3 (Eden Park, Westpac Stadium, and Jade Stadium) potentially 5 venues (if Carisbrook is rebuilt as is planned and Waikato Stadium is big enough).

Now the final will obviously either be at the Olympic - Telstra Stadium in Sydney or the now even huger MCG, but still even if we only hosted a pool and maybe a couple of quarter finals - how sick would that be!

Its all reliant on South Africa continuing to make a hash of it - so keep up the good work!

My NZ Idol post

Alright yes it is rubbish - and frankly who cares, but hey thats what blogs are for!

Now with Idol, I always watch the first episode - to see the awful tragics, the first show with the whole top 10, and then possibly the last couple of shows.

Tonight was the first night with the top 10, and was also their soul music night, which was basically a Motown night. Soul is one of my favourite genres and is a great test - if you cant bring the funk you will be exposed by soul music.

So for me there were only three good performances and they were actually outstanding. The rest were frankly awful - not much better than karaoke.

Becks who sang Lady Marmalade, Ben who sang Aint No Mountain High Enough and Indira who pulled out Aretha Franklin's Think. One of those three should be the winner - none of the others can sing!

Also the best of the rest - Matt is from Levin! But he sang Stevie Wonder's Livin in the City - he was a bit out of depth, but hey LV represent!

West Side Mofo

Well given the awful weather today I decided to use up the paint I had left over from the bathroom (Resene Geyser) I decided to paint the kitchen cupboards.

Naturally this got way out of control - I decided to also paint the splash back above the sink, but wanted an outrageous colour. So I charged down to Resene and for some reason didnt go with my usual red. (Red couch and rug in lounge, red mat and towels in bathroom)

No no the colour I went for was Resene West Side - which is a bright orange, almost tangerine. I half thought this was gonna clash horribly with the red couch - but it works!

I would link to the Resene site, but the colour shows up waayy duller.

Snapped!

I caught someone red handed this morning!

Doing what you ask??? Downloading "data" at work!

You see I have iTunes loaded on my machine. Now because we're on a shared drive, if someone else uses LimeWire to download free songs etc... everyone with iTunes can see it.

So this morning while listening to some Radiohead - Ok Computer (still awesome), I noticed that one of our IT support people from Unisys had been using LimeWire - meaning I could see his library. Now normally you find some gems for example - one media assistant from another office had a huge Bryan Adams (no no not Ryan) collection and also the Baywatch soundtrack (WTF?) so I was looking for a similar laugh.

HOLY FUCK was what I exclaimed when I saw this persons - five downloads listed, one song - a Justin Timberlake one it was too, and then four video clips - some of the titles as follows

"cumshot jessica fuck"
"blowjobs jessica drake tits" and so on.

You would think an IT guy would know better, and if not at least know how to cover his tracks!

After considering all sorts of blackmail and extortion - I did the decent thing and emailed him to tell him - you do realise everyone can access your LimeWire and see everything you've downloaded....

Fair to say its now an empty LimeWire.

What a dick, although it has provided much entertainment around the office - we have now coined a new phrase too: To do some gardening - his last name is Gardner.

They're small!

Yes it is about time that the Reserve Bank has replaced our coins, and the new coins have made the wallet much lighter - but its the hell confusing when being given change - for example the new 50c coin is smaller than the old 20c! So just about everytime you get given change you give that old are you ripping me off look to the cashier.

Also what is funny about this whole shebang is that people are now selling their old coins on Trade Me. Campbell Live featured an article about the now extinct 5c coins - apparently if you have a 5c coin with the date '2004' on it - you're in the money! well kind of... on average theyre selling for about $50 due to the fact that it was a really limited run in 2004.

Check out www.newcoins.govt.nz

TV Themes

Spareroom has blogged 25 of the greatest ever tv themes - including my favourites, CHiPs and Greatest American Hero.

There are some other classics though - Three's Company, Magnum PI, A Team, and of course WKRP in Cincinatti!

Check it out - theyre a crack up

Freedom! Forever!

This is actually a review of V for Vendetta, the Wachowski brothers (the Matrix) latest work.

V for Vendetta is based on the 1980s comic (sorry graphic novel) of the same name. Its the story of a fictional Britain ruled by a facist dictator - High Chancellor Sutler, and how a revolutionary - or terrorist (depending on your view point) named V, goes about undermining the government, murdering figure heads left, right and centre, and blowing the shit out of places like the Old Bailey and Houses of Parliament.

The original comic was written in the 80s for an 80s audience, using Thatcher's government as inspiration, however the movie takes on a modern theme suggesting that the facist govt is a result of the middle east conflict and terrorism. This works, and makes the story more relevant to modern audiences - it has pissed the writer off though, who distanced himself from the film.

This is one of the best political thrillers that I have seen - it is far enough removed from our reality to be entertaining, and would reach a far broader audience than most in this genre.

Hugo Weaving's performance as V is fantastic - wearing a mask for the whole film meant he really had use his voice to project V's emotions - no mean feat, and this isnt a robotic masked character like a Darth Vader, V is still just a man.

Natalie Portman looks the part of Evey, big innocent eyes and comes across strong, but her accent slipped in just about every scene - I wonder if they should have just abandoned the accent and had her speak naturally?

Anyway V for Vendetta is fantastic, this is definitely another purchase.

****

Rock the Casbah!

What a start to the day I had today! As you will recall, I bought a new car - a Peugeot 206 a couple of weeks back. The top of the line in compact hatchbacks - lovely stuff.

Anyway, this morning when I arrived in the building at work, and was about to storm into an elevator... my phone goes. "Hi is that Andrew? (before I could say anything) Its So and So here from Classics Hits 90-something FM, how are you this morning?" Great thanks I replied, radioman then said - I understand you bought a Peugeot 206 a couple of weeks ago from Shackel Motor Group? I said Yes I did, its fantastic! And he said well your name has been drawn and we are going to pay all your payments on the car for one year!

How cool is that!?!?! basically saving me $4600!

This is probably the first proper thing I have ever won!

Back of the net!

Doco Sunday

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Cuppa Joe's

Now for some good ol' US politics - just to bore the wee wee out of everyone!

Ive just been reading a fascinating article in the New Republic - one of the leading US political journals, talking about former Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman's failed primary election campaign to hold his seat in the Senate out of Conneticutt (sp? - im sure thats wrong anyway). Lieberman failed in his nomination for the Presidency in 2004, and was as mentioned Al Gore's running partner in 2000. Aside from these loses though, he has held a seat in the Senate for four terms, and was initially seen as a front runner in 2004 (before Howard Dean was endorsed by Gore, and John Kerry took the middle ground).

Lieberman's problem though, is that he is seen as pro-Bush, arguing that people shouldnt criticise the President at a time of war. Which if the country is under attack, or in a situation like WW2, then yes he is right - you don't need an opposition politicking at the sidelines. But the Iraq situation is different, there was/is no immediate threat and the Democrats were needing to act as an opposition (exactly the same problem for the ALP in Australia).

What is interesting though is how this Democratic Party primary could effect the main vote in 2008. Middle America were scared off by Bush's attacks on Kerry's indecisive - limp wristed "flip flop" nature in 2004. For the Democrats to abandon one of their senior players in such a fashion, could leave them open to the same attacks again in 2008.

In saying that Hillary Clinton is looking as solid as ever in the New York senate race, which is promising for 2008. However Howard Dean (avid Clinton hater), has taken over the running of the Democratic national body - the DNC, meaning that Hillary's ride will be rocky to say the least, and expect to see toes being tread on and blood spilt along the way.

The Democrats seem to almost be like NZ or UK Labour in the 90s, to busy fighting each other - therefore losing time and time again.

So looking to 2008, I expect to see the race being between Senator John McCain (Republicans) and Hillary (Democrats), to be honest - I could handle either, neither are nutbars of Bush proportions, and frankly from a New Zealand perspective McCain visits here a lot, and has been our biggest backer for a free-trade deal - he even referred to NZ as an ally, which we havent been called since ANZUS broke down over the Nukes issue in 1986. So while I will hopefully head over to campaign for Hillary victory, a McCain administration should suffice.

This is history

Today is the tenth anniversary of Oasis' landmark Knebworth gigs. The gigs were frankly huge and the zenith of the Britpop phenomenon. 125 000 people attended each night (10th and 11th of August), and to give an idea of how big this was the support acts on the first night were The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers and Ocean Colour Scene followed by The Charlatans, Kula Shaker and The Chemical Brothers on the second. 1996 was the year that Britpop - and Oasis dominated and the Knebworth gigs became the stuff of legend. They were Cool Britiania.

The next year all the great acts faded - Oasis included, Blur disappeared, Sleeper produced their weakest work, Pulp took nearly three years to produce This is Hardcore and all of the bands listed above never scaled the heights of 1996 again. Knebworth was nirvana.

Also while marking this occasion, Top of the Pops after 40 years has been canned (hence the video) - to be fair I dont think it will really be missed! The world has moved on a bit. You should have noticed something strange with the video - Oasis upset the BBC in mid 1995 with this performance of Roll With It. After being forced to lip synch the lads spiced things up by having Noel act as lead vocalist (with no guitar) and Liam "play" lead guitar - making it obvious that they are lip synching. Great stuff

Stalking

Modern day stalking is soo easy - you can pretty much Google any one and at least be able to track their background etc (dont lie, you know you have) - and if they live in Wellington - get an aerial photo of their home!

But in the US, its got even jucier! Russell Brown in his Public Address column today has covered how AOL has made possibly the worst decision of all time by selling the search history of 500 000 of their clients to market researchers - who promptly put it online. Of course, once somethings online, you can't stop the spread. AOL Stalker has been set up, so you can search what people have been looking at! Trouble is of course - who would now use AOL? and probably the more worrying issue is - AOL is basically Google reskinned, so does this mean Google could do the same thing? Users could basically be held to ransom, or blackmailed with this information. This could ruin people.

Anyway here is a juicy snippet -
Woman searchs for flowers, venues etc for dream wedding... The fiance, not so much - he's more interested in "forced deep throat", "rape stories" and "lolita sex" ..... holy shit.

What a wonderful world.

The best music video ive seen for ages

And arguably the best ever use of exercise equipment!

Its on like Donkey Kong

Well after last week's slow start to my virtual picks for the Air NZ Cup, ive managed to pull a few points back - outscoring quite a few people, and now only sit 11 points shy of Hameadom. The Heartland Championship begins in Round 4, so that should mix things up a little - brings an element of luck - who knows who would win between Wanganui and Thames Valley? North Otago and Poverty Bay? Im actually willing to bet some of my competitors dont know where Poverty Bay is?? (and no googling doesnt count). Am I wrong?

The great Wikipedia Meme

Ok so this is a bit of fun, I saw it on another couple of blogs, and was actually surprised by the results!

1. Go to Wikipedia
2. In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3. List three events that happened on your birthday
4. List two important birthdays and one death
5. One holiday or observance (if any) - (mine is a cracker)

16 July

3 Events
- 1945, Manhattan Project - First plutonium nuclear bomb tested.
- 1951, Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger first published.
- 1969, Apollo 11 launches - first manned mission to the moon.
and one more since its a good one
- 1994, Rwandan Civil War ends.

2 Births and a Death
- 1918, Tsar Nicholas II executed by the Bolsheviks during the Russian revolution.
- 1963, Fat Boy Slim born
- 1967, Will Ferrell born

A holiday or observance
National Ice Cream Day (USA) I kid you not, it was set up by who else..... Ronald Reagan!

Some people

Im having one of those mornings this morning.

First of all, the idiot messenger has now knocked over my Rubber plant - dont worry about cleaning it up eh! Though its not nearly as badly injured - may need re-potting at some point though.

On top of this though, and granted this wouldnt normally grate me quite so much - but doesnt it just annoy the tits off you when you say "morning" to someone - and they reply "afternoon" and do one of those heavy breath laughs - the "heeeeeee" while exhaling, as though thats funny. Actually it isnt the afternoon.

Argh

He's aliiivvve

First off the title should be read in a mad scientist style. Now who's alive you ask? My Yucca! With my care he has regained his strength, and has largely straightened himself (and yes he is a he) and the gardeners have (finally) turned up and put a stake in - so he's looking good. I did have to amputate a couple of leaves, but he is now expected to make a full recovery - after the early prognosis of - its a dead duck, and then the "well all going well hopefully just the top half will die".

Pictured is the Yucca, with its Rubber Plant friend on the floor (which as I said earlier has been cut in half) also take note of the David Brent album flyer on my noticeboard - free love on the free love freeway i say! (this was only taken with my phone - so apologies for the quality!

Review: Rather Ripped, Sonic Youth

Over the years ive never liked Sonic Youth that much - a little too avant garde for my liking, and I think arguably a little snobbish or pretentious. But over the years they have also produced some great stuff - 1997's Washing Machine, and 1998's A Thousand Leaves were both great albums - and the song Sunday from A Thousand Leaves would probably make my top 100.

Their new album has again taken the same route as Washing Machine etc, with less bullshit noise, sorry art, and more great songs. Rather Ripped has some great tracks - the opening Reena is stunning with unmistakably Sonic Youth riffs, and Incinerate kicks ass (which they performed on Rove Live last week - hardly the show you would expect to find alt-punk gods like SY), my favourite track though had to be Do You Believe in the Rapture? - a fantastic track.

All up this is a good album. Sonic Youth are a band that grows on you, but at times they're difficult to grasp, Rather Ripped is definitely one of their more accessible works.

****

Let down

Before you think this is going to be about how some people are letting others down by not updating their blog for 12 days - its not.....

No im talking about this years Film Festival. Frankly the quality this year seems down on previous years - not much has grabbed my attention. Of course there was the compulsory Tristram Shandy (its starred Steve Coogan), and im probably going to see the Holocaust drama - Fateless but other than those - for the first time since Ive been in Wellington (7 years), Im just not into it.

Also the other let down of yesterday was my Yucca plant - which I had nurtured, grown to about 1m tall, and had sitting on my desk (blocking the view of my screen to people walking into my office) - the fucking messenger knocked it off my desk - bending its spine in half. Bastard. Its pretty much ruined - the gardeners will be up this morning, and i spent the day watering it etc, but prognosis isnt good. I still have my Rubber plant - but that has recently been cut down (apparently 2.5m is too tall!)and Ive had to bring in another subsititute - its some ugly leafy thing - not in the same ball park of cool as my Yucca. Gutted.