Best of lists are part of Christmas. Well, seeing as I have the power to publish my own opinions, here are my topper picks for the year…
Best Record The Killers - Sawdust Ok, it’s a B-sides n rarities comp. But The Killers are simply so far ahead of anything else out there right now.
Best Film The Bourne Ultimatum A fantastic, pant-wetting finale to a brilliant trilogy. Paul Greengrass is the best director in the world right now. Period.
Best Book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Incomparable thrilling last book to a quite stunning series. Easly as good as the hype suggested.
Best Podcast Guardian Unlimited’s Football Weekly. This is exactly why MoTD is a waste of everyone’s time. Intelligent, witty, and much, much better than The Times’ Liverpool-obsessed effort. James Richardson is twice the presenter Lineker is (worthy mention: No Agenda with John C. Dvorak and Adam Curry).
Best Radio Show Start the Week Basically the Review section from the weekend’s broadsheets. With added Andrew Marr (worthy mention: Russell Brand).
Best Video Game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Just, and I mean just ahead of Halo 3. The graphics and combat in COD4 are unmatched (worthy mention: other than Halo 3, I’d say Bioshock).
Best Gadget XBOX 360 XBOX leads the way online. XBOX Live is unmatched, and the 360 offers far more quality games than either the Wii or PS3 (worthy mention: New iPod Nano - new form factor and new features. Now the true iPod classic).
Best App Twitteriffic Twitter is by-far the most enjoyable social networking site. It’s simple and genuinely co-operative. And I don’t agree with Dave Winer, simplicity is intrinsic to twitter’s appeal. Leave it alone.
Best Political Blog Obsolete A tricky one this, but septicisle’s analysis of the media - not to mention the abundant bile - is a joy to read (worthy mentions: Reading Mike Power is much better than scouring the net yourself. Mr. Eugenides still compels. And Ministry of Truth is still capable of brilliance).
Best Non-political Blog scaryduck Should be read everyday.
Best Politician Alex Salmond It’s hard not to admire the way the SNP leader has captured Holyrood. Even if he is an opportunist and a seditious git (worthy mentions: Vladimir Putin and David Cameron) (Note. this is not an endorsement).
Best Newspaper & Website The Guardian No other paper is quite as creative with formats and online offerings.
Best sportsperson Lewis Hamilton I’m not into F1 at all. But you can’t argue - it was a phenomenal first year for the McClaren rookie (worthy mentions: Kaká, Kumar Sangakkara, and Christino Ronaldo were brilliant in 2007).
Notts captain Stephen Fleming secured a New Zealand victory today against Bangladesh with a stonking century off 92-balls.
C’mon you Kiwiiiiisss!*
*tyger is not a Kiwi, in fact if anything he should support Australia (his mother grew up there and he still has family in Adelaide), but when it comes to cricket he hates them soooo much. So, in the absence of a competitive English side, he’ll plump for the Kiwis led by Notts-based Fleming.
Posted: March 24th, 2007 | Author:Aaron | Filed under:cricket | Comments Off
I am going to write a book on my tenure as Pakistan coach. I shall only start after the World Cup… I believe, regardless of the money, the story is worth telling, has to be told and in the correct way. I am not a name and shame guy, just the honest facts. Let the punter make up his mind etc.
The murderer(s) was either someone Woolmer trusted or who he thought was properly coming to his room (room service, as it usually is in the movies). He was either drugged or the killer was an expert in hand-to-hand combat. It would seem to have been a very professional ‘hit’. I will leave the speculation there.
Note to non-cricketing readers: this is very, very rare. As far as I know it’s happened 3-times (once by Garfield Sobers, once in Indian domestic cricket, and on this occasion).
Well the weighted seeding system should ensure we’ll get through to the next round, but the Kiwi’s are bobbins. Bond is an excellent bowler and Scott Styris is your stereotypical Kiwi all-rounder, but if we can’t beat New Zealand then we really don’t have a chance.
I don’t have Sky TV. So I can’t watch the Aussies take the Scots apart. I have to make do with the Guardian’s over-by-over coverage.
I used to have Sky, but I found spending every evening watching The Daily Show and South Park re-runs wasn’t good for me. So I cancelled my subscription and now I have to make excuses to go to my brother-in-law’s to watch the cricket (I also enjoy immensely the pleasure in not putting money into the pockets of one Rupert Murdoch, but that’s probably because I’m a rather petty and disagreeable person).
I asked Mrs. tyger if I could go over tomorrow to watch Ireland v Zimbabwe (yes, I’m that desperate). She said this was fine as she has friends coming over; one of which, I am informed, is stunning 24-year-old Polish girl. Mrs. tyger thinks that the combination of my dribbling and our polished wooden floors could be lethal. She does have a point, but I rather wish I’d kept my mouth shut. You, dear reader, will get used to my screwing things up. I’m not as sharp as I sometimes think I am.
So what does a guy do? There is nothing on the box. Mrs. tyger is out. The boy is sound asleep. I have the house to myself. I had a wander over to some other blogs - but I just can’t find the energy to engage. If I drink anymore tea I’ll be getting up for a piss all night long - I don’t need that. I’m thinking about an early night. Radio Four on the bedside radio and just fall asleep.
I have been reading for most of the evening (now the boy is back, loud music is out of the question, so we’re reduced to Tim Buckley’s Morning Glory anthology played low). I have a biog of Bill Hicks and the latest issue of the brilliant Monocle, but now my eyes are getting tired and my brain is fried. A scotch would be nice. A fine single-malt. But alas, I have run out. Donations greatly appreciated and all that. Maybe I could review whisky in return for samples? They may be rubbish at cricket, but the Scots do know their whisky. Jesus dude, what the hell are you twittering on about? Shut the fuck up and go to bed.
As one commenter has alluded to the Big Brother controversy, I’ll throw in my comments. This is the very first series of Big Brother I have watched more than 10-minutes of. I probably catch about half-an-hour a week, but I see enough to know what the hell is going on (yes, it’s that primitive).
(My reasons for viewing BB are here. My opinions of the viewers are here. My apology for my hypocrisy is here.)
The controversy, of course, is that some viewers have made accusations that several of the contestants have been racist towards Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. Not Dirk Benedict I may add, who like this blogger, is rather spell-bound by the sultry Bollywood star.
I’m not sure it’s overtly racist, just that a trio of chavvish troglodytes (Jade Goody, Teddy Sheringham’s WAG Danielle, and the blond bit who used to front S Club 7) have basically ganged up on Shilpa because, unlike them, she’s a gold-platted A-Lister. Indeed Shilpa has starred in over fifty films; unlike Jade, who we all know, is just a “minger.â€
The only thing in my opinion the other girls have shown is that women can be bitches and that each one of them is a moron. Novelist Hari Kunzru disagrees, he thinks that there were indeed classic instances of racism - and I respect Kunzru, so maybe I’m wrong. I just can’t help but think that the dynamic of an Indian film star cooped up with the likes of Goody, was always going to go tits-up.
I’m sorry the blog has been dodo-like over the weekend, but I was out yesterday; and then, last night I was up until four watching the Kiwis fail to turn over Austrailia in their one-day-international. New Zealand looked promising at one point, with their spinners frustrating the Aussie middle order, but as ever it all went wrong with the Kiwis being bowled out 184 in reply to the Aussie total of 289.
My boy didn’t think papa needed much sleep and woke me before 8am this morning. I have been wandering around like a zombie all day. Had some tasty bacon and egg bagels though. You missed a treat…
Received this joke circular at work, thought I’d share it with you…
Billy was at school this morning and the teacher asked all the children what their fathers did for a living. All the typical answers came: fireman, policeman, salesman, chippy, captain of industry etc, but Billy was being uncharacteristically quiet and so the teacher asked him about his father.
“My father is an exotic dancer in a gay club and takes off all his clothes in front of other men. Sometimes if the offer is really good, he’ll go out with a man, rent a cheap hotel room and let the man sleep with him.” The teacher quickly set the other children some work and took little Billy aside to ask him if that was really true. “No” said Billy, “He plays cricket for England but I was just too embarrassed to say.”
I’m utterly shattered after yesterday’s travels and staying up until gone three to watch England’s batting crumple in the third test. Actually, I missed the collapse by about 10-minutes, as when I finally went to bed (knowing I have work at nine), Flintoff was on 48, and both he and Pietersen were motoring along quite nicely. However as my climbed between my sheets Flintoff got himself clean bowled by Shane Warne on 51, and the English tail, for now surely Geraint Jones is part of the tail, was killed off for five runs. Of course the run-chase was always futile, but England’s top order looked like giving the Aussies a bit of a fright and that’s always nice.
I’m not sure if I should have stayed up for those extra ten minutes. Yes I could have seen the wickets; but surely, going to bed on that threadbare dream of a fight back, was better than watching a sting of English batsmen trundling back to a pavilion they have only just vacated.
Posted: December 14th, 2006 | Author:Aaron | Filed under:cricket, sports, uk | Comments Off
No one would argue against the obvious fact that it was the bowlers who won the Ashes in the summer of ‘05. Yes, of course we had to put runs on the board, and Pietersen and Tresco both did brilliantly with the bat, but it is was our ability to bowl out the best batting side in the world that triumphed. Langer, Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, and Gilchrist have utterly dominated the contemporary game, and it was the ability of the English bowlers to capture the dark arts of reverse swing, which ensured that we had the capacity to cut down Australia’s batsmen.
How things have been different this winter?
First we lost the Welsh dragon Simon Jones. Jones, who had to change his action after numerous injuries, tore apart the Aussie batting line-up last time. Aggressive batsmen will always struggles against swing bowling. If you move forward to attack the ball, you reduce the available reaction time and can leave yourself unable to pick up the balls trajectory. Hayden and Gilchrist, Australia’s two most aggressive batsmen, were particularly vulnerable.
Andrew Flintoff, the talisman of ‘05, has been similarly struck with injuries. Add to the list captain Michael Vaughn and finger-spinner Ashley Giles, and England’s victorious side looks rather frayed. Giles, often nicknamed wheelie-bin after his charismatic action, has not been the same player, yet has been selected because he strengthens England’s long tail immeasurably (for the none cricket lovers, the tail are batsmen at the end of the order - the non-specialist batsmen).
Yet Giles has been unable to take the wickets and bowl as well defensively as last time. The fans, and the media, have demanded that England’s other finger-spinner, Mudhsuden Singh Panesar, or as he is now invariably known: ‘Monty’, be selected. Finally in the crucial third test, Monty along with quickie Sajid Mahmood, were selected, and what an impact Monty has made?
The cry for Monty has been deafening. English spinners with real turn are few and far between, and his brilliant summer form meant, to many at least, that Panesar’s inclusion from the off would be a formality, but the England management, somewhat understandably, wanted to stick with the side that had been victorious 18-months ago. However, with England’s abject inability to bowl out the Aussies in the first two tests, Monty’s return was inevitable. And overnight he collected a hand-full of wickets. 5 for 92 runs is spectacular bowling, and Panesar inspired the English attack to clean up the Aussie’s for a mere 244 runs, putting England firmly in the driving seat.
Panesar’s influence should not be underestimated; attacking batsmen love to take on finger-spinners. Indeed, the Aussie’s consider orthodox finger-spin with some disdain and were looking forward to taking on the young Panesar. But Monty devastated them; and finally, the English bowlers are competing again. And not a moment too soon.
This blog, without any hesitation, salutes Monty Panesar. All Hail Monty.
It was great, an honour. But as I had to get the Groom to the wedding, and as Mrs. tyger made her own way there, we had two cars = no prospect of tyger enjoying a drink.
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