Back to top

rickeyre's blog

Bring back the Don's cap, and onya the Black Caps

The streak is over. Australia's run of twenty-one successive one-day wins has been cut down by the West Indies in Trinidad this morning. Which is a good moment to spare a thought for the New Zealand cricket team.

The Kiwis defeated Pakistan in the Sri Lankan town of Dambulla on Friday to win the Bank Alfalah Cup. This would be a totally forgettable event if it were not for the fact that this was the second time New Zealand had won a one-day cricket tournament. That's the second time ever. In three decades of trying. Onya Kiwis.

A book not to be judged by this year's cover

Sitting on my desk at this minute is the 1970-71 edition of the New South Wales Cricket Association yearbook. The cover design features a bright orange background with the text "Cricket Year Book. 34th Edition. NSW Cricket Association. $1.40" on it, and a black-and-white action photo of Kerry O'Keeffe bowling a leg-break. By today's standards it looks drab and tacky.

More on:: 

J Paul Getty Jr 1932-2003

It would be nice to be so filthy rich that you could give untold amounts of inherited wealth away and still live the most extravagant life of reclusion yourself.

John Paul Getty Jr, who died the day before Good Friday at the age of 70, was a classic case. One of the richest of rich kids who almost wrecked his health through the drug addiction that eventually killed his second wife, Getty reinvented himself as a British gentryman and generous philanthropist. He even became a cricket fan.

More on:: 

It's time for the UN Security Council to be decisive

It's time for the UN Security Council to live up to its responsibilities and take a stand. It's time for the UN Security Council to tell the United States of America to get nicked.

The United Nations must take leadership now and accept the will of the majority of the people of the world - that there is no case for a US-led military invasion of Iraq. The draft resolution currently before the UNSC authorising the use of force against Iraq must be defeated. The United States and its bizarrely-titled "Coalition of the willing" must accept whatever decision is forthcoming.

Another surrealistic technicolour yawn masquerading as entertainment

Opening/closing ceremonies of major sporting events stopped being fascinating a long time ago. I think it was the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Olympics where they irretrievably crossed the boundary into the realm of surrealistic technicolour yawns masquerading as cultural ballets. After Sydney 2000 (the one where Captain Cook discovered Australia on choreographed bicycles) I thought that wanky, over-indulgent sports ceremonies could go no further. Cape Town 2003, the opening ceremony of the Cricket World Cup, in fact proved that.

The AB Medal telecast 2003

I watched the Allan Border Medal telecast on Channel Nine on Tuesday night. All two-and-a-half hours of it. That's a lot of cringing on my part.

Congratulations to Adam Gilchrist on winning the AB Medal, and to the other winners - Ricky Ponting, Martin Love, Nathan Hauritz and Karen Rolton. (And it was good to see this year that at least they mentioned the women's award in the telecast, even if the presentation had to be pre-recorded. Was it too hard to set up a live cross to Christchurch, where the Australian team is currently playing?)

More on:: 

Scary Movie (2000)

If you've seen one, you've seen them all - at least I laughed at "Scary Movie" a bit.

A spoof on "Scream", "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and other teen horror flicks of the late nineties. It comes across more often like a satirical review of the hit movies of 1998-99, eg "The Sixth Sense", "The Matrix", Shakespeare In Love" (I did like the trailer for "Amistad II" though). What it is really derivative of is, of course, 1980's "Airplane" ("Flying High" to us Australians) and every other film in the genre spoof line since.

Going Places (1938)

This is the film where Louis Armstrong sings "Jeepers Creepers" to a racehorse of the same name. Ah, great moments in movie history...

"Going Places" is a silly, lightweight, nonsensical comedy-musical from Warner Brothers. Certainly not to be seen for its profundity, or for its insights into the racing industry. Dick Powell as the salesman who poses as a jockey and finds he has to actually ride a horse in a race. Ronald Reagan has fourth billing in this film, and proves yet again that his acting improved after he was elected to the White House.

Shrek (2001)

I found "Shrek" to be a quite charmless movie - in many ways the antithesis of everything a good animated fairy tale should be.

The whole film had a smugness and self-consciousness that made me feel rather uneasy. Eddie Murphy as the voice of the ass was, well, just an ass. The choices of contemporary music didn't gel, as far as I was concerned. The animation was OK, although I am from the Old School and like seeing black borders on all my cartoon characters...

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - rickeyre's blog