GAME WELL AND TRULY OVER

A Monday-copium of posts

• Congrats to the West Indies on their innings victory over England. I've seen many false dawns in West Indies cricket in the past ten years, so I'm cautiously jubilant. It's important to remember that in 1994 when England were bowled out for 46, they (England) bounced back to win the next test match. But it's a strange feeling to take pride in a West Indian performance, and to listen to "Rally round the West Indies" in happiness rather than as a spirit-lifting exercise.

• In case you missed it, Kate Winslet won the BAFTA for Best Actress last night to add to her Golden Globe. Bring on the Oscar.

• I saw some of the highlights of the Grammys, and I have a question for MIA; Why would you perform when you're 9 months pregnant? What are you trying to prove? Am I supposed to be impressed? I'm no expert on the health of unborn children, and I'm a firm believer that Ms. MIA can do what she wants. But I would have understood if she said "I'll attend, but I'd better not perform."

• I wrote a post a few months ago about Liverpool signing Robbie Keane for an enormous sum. I said that time will tell if it was a wise move or not. Well, time has told that it was an unmitigated disaster, and Keane is now back at Tottenham Hotspur. Rather than go on and on about it (hell, everyone else is), I choose to draw a line under it and celebrate the fact that Liverpool are still in with a chance at the Premier League title, and the Champions League. I am, however, concerned about the lack of depth in Liverpool's squad, especially up front: Kuyt, Babel, and N'gog all have a part to play, but none of them are really good enough to provide cover for Fernando Torres. I can't understand the thinking of keeping Krisztian Nemeth and Adam Hammill out on loan at other clubs (Andrei Voronin can stay on loan; NO problem with that at all). But 2nd in the league in early February...I can't complain. Much.

Formula 1 and Sony

Formula 1 is the perfect example of how something can be hyped up enough for me to take an interest in it, even though I really genuinely don't care. I'm indifferent about the sport, and I really don't like ITV's coverage in the UK.

First of all, must there be so many advertising breaks? I understand the realities of ad revenue, but if football can manage to go 45+3 minutes without interruption, surely F1 can limit the breaks to 2 or 3 during the race itself. I also get annoyed when they refer to the race as a "Grand Prix." Yes, I understand that it IS a Grand Prix, but it still annoys me - don't ask me why. And finally, I HATE the pre-race walk through the paddock where they go looking for celebrities to talk to. Yet despite all these things, I was up at 7am on a Sunday to watch the China Grand Prix (Use of Grand Prix in the title is absolutely fine by me).

Also, I'd be curious to know how often the driver in pole position wins the race. I would guess it's over 80%, including this morning when Lewis Hamilton barely broke a sweat (figuratively...it must be boiling inside the helmet).

But even though I don't like the ad breaks, my favourite part of the whole F1 tv experience, is the Sony break bumper (1 / 2 / 3 / 4) at the beginning and end of each commerical break. I don't understand it exactly (can you really advertise high definition to an audience without HDtv?), but you can't argue with "Rocket" by Def Leppard as a soundtrack.

Lip syncing

One of these days I'll write a non-Olympic post, but this thing only happens once every four years, so you'll have to excuse me.

The brewing controversy over the lip syncing girl at the Beijing Opening ceremonies brings up many issues. Why should the looks of a little girl matter? Who determined that the actual singer wasn't cute enough? Couldn't an adult have done it instead? Who cares?

These are all relevant questions. But I'd rather focus on the concept of lip syncing, and while we're at it, here are my top 5 lip syncing controversies:

Honourable mention - Janet Jackson at the SuperBowl.

But lip syncing wasn't on anyone's mind that night.

5. China Olympics girl

This is at the bottom of my list because I really don't think it's a big deal.

4. Top of the Pops / Solid Gold

Lip Syncing used to be standard, and the careers of Flock of Seagulls or Whitney Houston didn't suffer as a result.

3. Tom Petty at the SuperBowl

I stayed up late to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in the SuperBowl halftime show. It was a good show, but the fact that they lip-synced left a bitter taste. The massive upset in the game itself kind of made up for it though.

2. Ashlee Simpson on Saturday Night Live

To her credit, Ashlee seems to have put all this behind her. She was in the West End production of "Chicago" and got married. Reports that her vows were pre-recorded were grossly exaggerated.

1. Milli Vanilli

It was always going to be number one. Rob and Fab top my chart, and inspired many "Girl you know it's true - ooh ooh ooh, we fooled you" jokes, and probably the most memorable episode of Vh1's "Behind the Music."

The NBA Draft

I was reading about the NBA Draft yesterday. The New York Knicks selected Danilo Gallinari with the sixth pick, but when Gallinari's name was announced, he was booed mercilessly by the crowd. They kept booing him through his television interview.

Now granted that Gallinari's last team was called "Armani Jeans Milano," there surely is no reason to boo him. He didn't choose when to be picked. More importantly, why are there fans at all watching the NBA Draft? Do you have to pay to be there? Is there demand for watching David Stern walk up to a microphone, say "with the X pick of the NBA draft, the Y team select Z" walk back, then repeat the process about 300 times?

To be fair, I've watched the draft on tv a few times. I used to get really excited about it, then after the first 8 or 9 picks, I'd realise that life's too short.

Truth and Fiction

There were two incidents in the past few weeks that made me think "Didn't this happen on The Simpsons?" First was the story of the Pink Floyd pig escaping (here).

Although Peter Frampton was responsible in "Homerpalooza"

And Sideshow Bob being elected mayor came to mind recently for some reason...