Up goddammit

My plan was to listen to the first 10 overs and then go to bed in order to get up early enough to hear the final 10 overs however this plan has failed. First there was a couple of quick wickets and the prospect of an early dismissal/quick win and then there was a prolonged coughing fit of backin15-junior.

Now I'm up, munchy and alert - not so much so that a fifth of bourbon wouldn't suffice but for the fact I've not got one/any...

Bondy's just knocked over Silva LBW ... hang about Cricinfo is reporting an inside edge:

34.3 Bond to Silva, OUT, unlucky! Bond switches to a fuller length, gets it to angle in from outside off stump, Silva gets stuck deep in the crease, jabs the bat down onto it, gets a relatively thick inside-edge back onto the pads - an awkward noise, if ever there was one - and after a couple of seconds Koertzen raises the finger. Unfortunate decision for Silva

Oh well...

Bring on Australia and yet another sleepless night... practice for the Rugby World Cup perhaps?

67 for 2

After 13.2 overs, NZ has Sri Lanka two down for a respectable 67 - 5 an over. The two dangermen are out, Jayasuryia and Sangakara. I might now retire for the night/morning in the expectation/hope we'll win this...

Radiosport and baggygreen have kept me fixated on the game... and Vettori strikes, Tharanga's gone bowled. This must be the break-through. NZ must bowl the Sri Lankan's out for no more than 250.

Glamour boys

Hamish McDouall's post over at publicaddress has got me thinking about what makes a balanced team. You need a couple of dead-set stars, you need a solid group of players who don't get injured and seldom have an off-day, you need consistent selection policy, confidence and form, excellent leadership and a Plan B.

To the extent that he's following my advice, Fleming probably thinks his team exhibits these characteristics and a few more besides. In him, Bond and Vettori NZ cricket has a clutch of players who are at or near the top of their class. Fleming is clearly one of the best captains of the last 5 years and, when he's playing well, he is dominating and elegant, capable of playing all around the park. Bond and Vettori deserve to be second and eighth best bowlers in One Day Internationals. In Oram, McCullum, Styris we have three players who are never intimidated but perhaps a little too injury prone (McCullum excepted). Bracewell's selections have been predictable, perhaps not Tuffey however, and form and confidence are high - particularly for the likes of McMillen and Ross Taylor.

I'm not so sure about whether or not they have a Plan B* however and possibly this explains the loss to Sri Lanka - now a run of four in a row - NZ need to revisit their strategy for Sri Lanka else win or lose tonight, they'll not progress to the final.


*I remember watching NZ play Wales in the 2002 Rugby World Cup where it was clear NZ did not have a back-up plan and Wales almost pulled off an upset win (interestingly, it seemed to me that Justin Marshall took over leadership of the team just after the second half started and Wales scored a try...).

Don't do it John...

Don't coach Pakistan! Why move to Lahore and have to deal with the endemic fraud of cricket on the sub-continent when you could instead take-over England (with its endemic pomposity)?

I'm looking forward to tonight's clash with Australia. Australia will think that the 3-nil loss in NZ doesn't matter since so many of their stars were unavailable and, with both Oram's unavailability and Watson being back, it's a game between very different sides however NZ must feel confident nonetheless. Both teams have form with bat and ball, both are confident.

I've read that the toss has been very important in some of the games with conditions greatly affecting bowling - it'd be a pity if that was the case tonight (unless we were the beneficiaries) however either way NZ can afford no wayward bowling and must not lose earlier wickets - watching England beat Australia in the tri-series, it was obvious that Ponting's team don't have many back-up options (why would you if you were almost always successful with plan A?) and make uncharacteristic errors when under sustained pressure (another reason why the loss of Oram is a real disappointment).

Barrack with your heart but bet the odds...

Eyes on the undercard

In keeping with sporting metaphors, in the fight for the Lodge, keep your eyes on the undercard match-up between Peter Garrett and Malcolm Turnbull.

Rudd and Howard's fight will be oh-so-cautious. Both will keep their distance, preferring the staged and heavily refereed engagements over anything bare-knuckled. Control of the ring is their objective and already Rudd seems to have the upper-hand as Howard's distracted by the constant movements in his corner. Garrett and Turnbull on the other hand are willing and eager - both are used to media attention and used to winning. They'll wade in, confident of their training and tactics and not in the least bit wary of their opponent.

But it's not just the protagonists that make this an interesting match-up, it's also the issue; sustainability. Five rate rises since the last election and doubts about AWAs have the Howard-government on the backfoot. The Liberal party's moves on water, on clean-coal and on carbon sinks are all designed to bloster their bona fides on sustainability without the need for compromise. Howard's constant message on Kyoto has been it'd costs Australian jobs and therefore he'll not sign - Turnbull will struggle with this (witness the disagreement with Stern) Labor's policy is to ratify Kyoto, but this presents problems in a number of key seats where there's a risk of job-losses (remember Latham's* ham-fisted management of forestry policy cost them two Tasmanian seats).

This election will be compelling. It'll go to the judges for sure; expect no knock-out punch this time, no Tampa nor interest rate scaremongering. This will be a close points decision and in the early rounds at least, I've got the ALP ahead.

*Thinking about Latham's post-election meltdown, I'm reminded of Oliver McCall's breakdown in his 1997 fight with Lennox Lewis. Bonus points for other obvious comparisons (no points for rope-a-dope, it's too obvious).

So un-hip it's a wonder your bum doesn't fall off...

Somehow I've managed to avoid being an Arthur Dent in this MotherJones guide to all that's hip in music... fortunately I'm in love Arcade Fire (and quite like Peter Bjorn and John).

Hat tip: whoar

Martin Luther King's Beyond Vietnam speech

In 1967 Martin Luther King gave his Beyond Vietnam speech - I remember studying it as part of some high school course though I don't recall why. I've not thought of it since, but tonight as I gave my father a lift across town, I heard it on the radio - I don't think I've ever heard it before. King's rhetorical style is compelling; he is lyrical and passionate but somehow restrained and calm.

The full text of the speech is here but there's one part that struck me tonight, the part that spoke of the American malady. King could be speaking of current events, his prescience is profound.

First he implores the US to cease its aggression in Vietnam saying:

"If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative that to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people."

Later he states that there Vietnam is a tragic symptom of an American malady, that if the lessons of the 60s aren't learned, the mistakes will be made again and again. He says:

"The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organising "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy..."

King urges us to protest, however we feel we might saying "Every man of man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that suits his convictions, but we must all protest".

Thinking about the debate about the invasion of Iraq and the war on terror, it is impossible not to see the parallels with Vietnam and to wonder what might have been had the advice of King been heeded.

Milestone (of sorts)

I've blogged for a year now, 268 posts, I suspect that puts me in the 90 percentile? I imagine most bloggers quickly lose interest as either their audience or their spare time diminishes. For me its a bit of both. Good blogging is not something that can be done quickly. The best bloggers are good writers and good writing is time consuming.

In this last year, the single most challenging blog post I've read was written by krimsonlake (earlier blog posts no longer appear). Her post about the banality and frustration of life on a benefit was the perfect antidote to the likes of Lindsay Mitchell. It was honest and simple and it was searingly authentic.

I now content myself with a clutch of regular reads, publicaddress, NRT, span, mainlypolitics and the always amusing grabthar and spareroom, plus a few others mainly through their feeds. I still regularly check for when waiterrant, browncardigan, and cheezy have posted new stuff too.

I hope to be able to blog a little more frequently after last months hiatus - regular trips to Canberra mean early starts and later nights (I spent 38 mins waiting for a taxi at Sydney airport last Wednesday night, that's almost exactly how long I was in the bloody air getting there)...

If I could choose just a few posts of my own that I enjoyed writing it would be this little series on migration.

I still don't own an iPod.

ARU muddle

There's a strongly held view in Australia that the Australian Rugby Union have seriously lost their way. This is the same view that holds that John O'Neil is the saviour - he's always seemed a prat to me. Regardless, current CEO Gary Flowers is no fool. He was one of the group that forged the professional framework including the tri-nations. That said, this is bollocks. Gary, mind-games are a valid form of gamesmanship, but mate, seriously mate, this latest attempt, you know, when all but the Force are at the wrong end of the Super 14 and the Wallabies appear like a bunch of aged journeymen... mate, it's shite. Best you give it a rest.

Rudd's race

Watching Kevin Rudd, I'm reminded of the legend of Jack Lovelock; particularly his win at the Berlin Olympics. Lovelock was one of NZ's greatest ever athletes and an Olympic gold medalist. He was part of a select group of runners, stars during the '20s and '30s, who purused the dream of a sub-4 minute mile.

What's all this got to do with Kevin Rudd? Lovelock's race tactics might be just the thing for Rudd.

The "Lovelock kick", the unexpected but decisive break, is what won Lovelock gold in Berlin in '36 (David Robertson's short film is a brilliant dramatisation of Lovelock's training regime). It's about knowing your opposition well enough to know when they're attending to their own race and not paying attention to yours. It's also about having the stamina to break when you're ready and also about being able keep up if they go first.

Rudd's in this race, much more so than the last couple of Labor leaders and his position and strategy appear much more robust. He's overcome the initial wrestle for position, he'd copped a few elbows but he's still got form, a good position and appears calm under pressure. His current lead will undoubtedly reduce in the run-up to the election so he needs to focus on when to make his decisive break.

Howard race tactics already appear all too familiar but I can't see any mileage on interest rates, none either in Iraq, and possibly not even in migration. On IR, the government is very vulnerable.

Watching Howard on the 7.30 report last night, it was clear he was behind - the Santoro scandal blunted any advantage the he'd hoped to gain through his negative campaigning.

So where too next? Rudd has to be thinking "who cares, I'll make my move when I'm ready and if he moves first, I'll run him down".

Mr. Sylvester McMonkey McBean

I've never been particularly fond of Canberra. It feels vaguely sterile, perhaps because it is a city by design (Walter Burley Griffin in fact) rather than evolution? It is a town populated almost exclusively by public servants and, being a public servant myself, I'm somewhat happy about that (it at least means the profile of amenities suits my lifestyle and I'm not talking about Fyshwick). I'm down there a bit at the moment (and will be for the next six months or so) on a project for the Commonwealth.

Security is big in Canberra, which makes sense as the Australian capital, however I've been surprised by how much more security conscious Commonwealth agencies are compared with State. I used to work directly next to the building where State Ministers have their offices - a target of sorts I guess (not wanting to sound particularly paranoid) - and yet our security wasn't particularly zealous, nor did it seem were other State agencies. Canberra however is the land of star-belly sneetches; almost every single one of the city's workers wears a photo ID, so much so that you needn't wear a McDonald's uniform - if you don't have a photo ID you must work in FMCG simple as that (cautionary tale, returning to Sydney wearing your photo ID is-not-on... I know this thanks to a Tori Spelling-lookalike who advised me of this potential fashion faux pas).

So anyway, for the next six months I work for the Commonwealth, I am one-of-them (the rivalry between States and the Commonwealth can be significant). I'd like to say I'm a schizophrenic policy mercenary but working for both Liberal and Labor governments has so far been surprisingly easy because, basically, all sensible public servants accept that politics is for their Ministers, not for them.

Oh and Mr Sylvester McMonkey McBean... both parts of his little scam can be seen here and here.

Howard's end?

Scandal, disaster, death and deception. Australian politics has it all at the moment, you'd never guess election season had begun.

Howard's on the back-foot on many fronts, but it's the misbehaviour of his Ministers that'll be most frustrating him. First it was three Queensland members, including one Minister, under investigation for allegedly misusing allowances now two Minister's have been forced to resign for dubious dealings. Ian Campbell's resignation was convenient; sure he'd met with disgraced former WA Premier, Burke, but only as part of a delegation, whereas Kevin Rudd had dined with Burke. Sadly for Johnny, Rudd's popularity has only increased and now a third Minister has been forced to resign, this time for failing to properly disclose his investments.

Perhaps its the problems at home that led him to speculate about increasing Australian troops in Afghanistan?

NSW voters get their chance next week and appear odds-on to re-elect Labor for a fourth term. The Liberal leader has all but conceded defeat in the hope he'll pick up a few more votes but I can't see it. Iemma's played the cleanskin well. After the 24th, he'll likely lead the largest party in parliament , but with train failures, cover-ups, and even feral senior civil servants, he's going to have to deal with an expanded number of independents as well as the radicals such as the fanatical Fred Nile. Fred's called for a moratorium on muslim immigration - always the moderate - fortunately states' exercise no power over immigration thus enabling both Lib and Labor leaders to sidestep this controversy.

On less banal matters, the plane crash that claimed five Australian lives hit home for me this week. I was in Canberra and attended a lunch at the National Press Club. It wasn't until the MC reminded us that a several of the Australian victims were regulars at the Club that I really thought about the tragedy. Many who lunched around me knew and worked with some of the people who'd been on the flight and were clearly distressed by their passing.

International man of mystery...

Not!


create your own here

Chippy's bought my attention to this little personalisable map to allow me to reveal my complete unworldlyness.

I've visited a measily 4% of the world's countries. If Mrsbackin15 creates her own, I suspect she'd have visited well over 50% (and before anyone asks, I know what she sees in me).

I take some solace from having lived in four cities in NZ and one in Australia during my adult life. I'd like to add to that number, particularly if somehow I can land a flash job in Barcelona.

So many things

Life's been busy; change of jobs, parent stuff, family stuff, other stuff... conspired to keep me away from blogging.

The new job's interesting. Commonwealth government means great IT support and lots of blokes in cardigans (with facial hair of dubious fashionable value). There'll be a bit of inter-state travel which is both appealing (overnight's in hotels with the latest shitty blockbuster DVDs) and shitty (overnights where Mrsbackin15 has to finish early and do the dreaded breakfast-dropoff-pickup-dinner-sleep-breakfast routine).

Parent-stuff... some little treasure's a biter.

Family-stuff... Already there's bids for Christmas '07.

Other-stuff... house-hunting in Sydney...

The storm's coming

The temperature's dropping out at at the Sydney airport, 8 kms away from home, which suggests the forecast storm is not far away; thank Christ!

It's been in the 30's most of today. Last night was unbearable. At midnight, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the apparent temperature (explanation here), was 27.6 degrees.

My capacity to lead a carbon-neutral life is severely diminish by my love affair with airconditioning...

WTF is John Mitchell on about?

Mitchell's Force and playing the 'Tahs tonight, should be an average game between two ordinary sides where one or two talented players dominate. The Force will target new Five Eighth Beale; fair enough he is (a) young, (b) inexperienced and (c) the bloody Five Eighth for crying out loud. So what the hell is this comment about:

"When you are gifted and instinctive like Kurtley [Beale] you can tend to premeditate what's in your mind as opposed to indentifying what's in front of you," he said. "And when you are challenged by defensive teams in your career those gifted players sometimes don't take the opportunity that the opposition presents. That is probably going to be the biggest growth curve for Kurtley."

I think his point is that rather than responding to what's in front of you, some players determine what they're going to do regardless of the defensive pattern which can get them into trouble... Could he have said it more simply?

I want to go home...

How ridiculously cliched; half a dozen tracks by the Finns, McGlashin, Che Fu and even Shihad and here I am looking up airfares and jobs... I was worse after Dave Dobbyn's gig... this wasn't it but it's nice nonetheless...

Sousaphone

I know the bags under my eyes probably won't go away. They're not temporary, I'll not recover the sleep I've lost. I've realised this is a small but significant badge; perhaps I'll sleep when she's 3? But Don, Don you've aged mate. You taught me trumpet (WTF is a sousaphone?) and that moment when I told my big brother than my music teacher was the lead singer for Blam Blam Blam...

Ahhh fuckit, you're still lyrically, stylistically, fashionably cool.

And Don, the gig you did at the old theatre in Wellington, the gig for the opening night of Jackson's Frighteners, fantastic.

Downtown train

It's bedtime and I was thinking about who I'd like to sing me to sleep; Tom Waits or JJ Cale?

You think I should've had a woman? Whatever...

Here Tom Waits sings a lullaby. Here JJ Cale does too. Can anyone find the Waterboys doing A Man is in Love?

mo' better blues

I've linked to this before, I'll link to it again.

'mo better blues.

Branford Marsalis trio from the Spike Lee movie featuring the late Kenny Kirkland.

Night all.