Our team name for this week's pub quiz is 'Dwarf' which was chosen by Dave not with reference to any individuals that are vertically challenged and round but as an acronym. Thus it should properly be D*W*A*R*F standing for "Dennis Wise is A Rat-assed F**ker". You see, Dave and Marty are fervent Leeds United supporters, and Dennis Wise who was until very recently the Leeds manager, decided to high-tail it to Newcastle United as the "Director of Football Operations" or some such random post. The team name was a rant as his two-faced traitorous behaviour.
It was a tough news round this week, with us only managing seven which was still top. There were a few very random questions in this one including one asking which "children's product was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year". We were along the right lines and guessed Barbie but the answer was Lego. On a random aside, the word 'Lego' was coined by its Danish inventor from the phrase "leg godt" which means "play well" in Danish, apparently. We also missed a question on the (unprouncable) name of some African mosquito which was just thoroughly random.
We soon recovered and scored an excellent ten points on a round on "Cats" which had been picked as the joker round. Of course, there weren't really any questions on cat breeds and the like but references to cats including the author of the book of poems "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats", the name of Postman Pat's cat, the name of the cub in "Born Free" and the panther in the "Jungle Book" and other such references. Between our wide range of knowledge we managed to get them all.
The next two rounds on Sport and Westerns were also pretty tricky though we managed eight each on the two of them collaboratively. We missed a question asking which country won the inaugural cricket world cup when I realised far too late that it was the West Indies. For the Westerns, one question that stood out asked who was the female lead in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Despite having seen the film barely two weeks previously, I couldn't remember the answer, but Dave remembered that it was Kathryn Ross.
The Pot Luck round was a true collaborative effort when we managed an amazing 10 points with some inspired guessing. Dave got a couple including the usual anagram question. I somehow figured that the word "lemming" originated from the Norwegian language, and between the lot of us we guessed that Eva Peron died of cancer. So in the end another easy victory for the teachers as we are now called. At least there will be a more level playing field the following week from today, as we won't be taking part - Dave and Vicky will be in Australia, Marty in China, Keith somewhere else and it will be reunion dinner night for me.
It was also a happy and sad night both at the Shoe. Keith received some very good news today and had cause to celebrate. But it was also the last quiz night for Liz and Fletch who are set to depart tomorrow for England. Fittingly, their team was called "Archie Gemmill's last stand". We'll miss you Liz and Fletch.
30 January 2008
29 January 2008
Championship Manager
Having been forced to use my laptop to access the internet due to the malacious worm that was downloaded into my desktop, I discovered an old copy of the football game Championship Manager 2 installed on it. Drawn partly out of nostalgia, I started a new game, amazed that CM2 could run on Windows XP at all. To give you an idea of how old the game is, it begins in the 1995-96 season with Blackburn Rovers as the reigning champions (they still had the old SaS partnership of Shearer and Sutton upfront). And Steve Bruce was still the centre back and captain of Manchester United. I'll be blown.
Of course, there is no challenge in taking United in the game and winning it all oh so easily. So I resolved to take a Division 3 team (the modern day equivalent of a League 2 team, in the good old days the Championship was called the 1st Division) and get it promoted all the way to the premiere league - in just 3 seasons. That would mean winning promotion consecutively from the bottom to the top.
It was a challenge that is far easier virtually than in real life (where it is more or less impossible). I decided on Wigan Athletic, partly because they are in the current Premiere League, so I can make history happen virtually, only a fair bit faster. My cause was not aided by the fact that the first two times I got things going, the game crashed midway through the first season due to data corruption. It was third time lucky that the problem seemed to stop.
As a write this, Wigan did make it to the Premiereship in a scant 3 seasons. Things got very hairy towards the end of Season 3 in attempting to win promotion out of Division One with the two automatic spots (and the title) literally going down to the wire. It didn't help that all my strikers decided to stop scoring. And I must shamefully admit to restarting the game a couple times out of sheer frustration when results didn't go my way!
In my first match in the virtual Premiere League, I ended up facing, of all teams, Manchester United at Old Trafford. I was absolutely shocked when my team actually pulled off a 4-2 win (switching to a 4-3-3 formation must have bamboozled the virtual Alex). I got hammered 1-7 by Leeds at home the next match though.
I'll continue sticking with this and I aim to play as many seasons as it takes such that the virtual game time coincides with our real world (i.e play the game until it is the 07-08 season in the game). Like any good manager I'm setting targets for the team. I want to win the title by then. That will be a vast challenge seeing that Wigan's stadium in the game only holds about 4,500 people and I only have around 3m pounds in the kitty from selling various players (my biggest purchase was less than 100k pounds). Still, never doubt my virtual football managing abilities, nor the bug in the game that causes it to clone amazing new foreign players at the close of each season!
Of course, there is no challenge in taking United in the game and winning it all oh so easily. So I resolved to take a Division 3 team (the modern day equivalent of a League 2 team, in the good old days the Championship was called the 1st Division) and get it promoted all the way to the premiere league - in just 3 seasons. That would mean winning promotion consecutively from the bottom to the top.
It was a challenge that is far easier virtually than in real life (where it is more or less impossible). I decided on Wigan Athletic, partly because they are in the current Premiere League, so I can make history happen virtually, only a fair bit faster. My cause was not aided by the fact that the first two times I got things going, the game crashed midway through the first season due to data corruption. It was third time lucky that the problem seemed to stop.
As a write this, Wigan did make it to the Premiereship in a scant 3 seasons. Things got very hairy towards the end of Season 3 in attempting to win promotion out of Division One with the two automatic spots (and the title) literally going down to the wire. It didn't help that all my strikers decided to stop scoring. And I must shamefully admit to restarting the game a couple times out of sheer frustration when results didn't go my way!
In my first match in the virtual Premiere League, I ended up facing, of all teams, Manchester United at Old Trafford. I was absolutely shocked when my team actually pulled off a 4-2 win (switching to a 4-3-3 formation must have bamboozled the virtual Alex). I got hammered 1-7 by Leeds at home the next match though.
I'll continue sticking with this and I aim to play as many seasons as it takes such that the virtual game time coincides with our real world (i.e play the game until it is the 07-08 season in the game). Like any good manager I'm setting targets for the team. I want to win the title by then. That will be a vast challenge seeing that Wigan's stadium in the game only holds about 4,500 people and I only have around 3m pounds in the kitty from selling various players (my biggest purchase was less than 100k pounds). Still, never doubt my virtual football managing abilities, nor the bug in the game that causes it to clone amazing new foreign players at the close of each season!
Lunch with DT; Two Existential Questions
I met up with DT for lunch today. We had planned on heading to Holland V but a typically sudden Singapore downfall meant that we ended up going to Brewerkz. I remember having dinner with DT and Candida at Brewerkz shortly before I went on to join MFA. That seems a long time ago now.
The chief excuse for the lunch was as a form of repayment for DT earlier treating me (and Candida again) to lunch at the Tanglin Club. He had previously insisted that the Tanglin Club had the best steak and ribs in town and offered to bring me in to try it. For the record, it really was excellent. Lunch also afforded us a wonderful chance to chat and catch up. DT, to me is a kindered spirit in so far as being cynical about life (but not taking things too seriously) and in having a similarly warped sense of humour. It also was an opportunity for me to talk to him about Debs an me, as in his own words he is quite "protective of her".
Two interesting observations from the day. Firstly, the essential mystery that is ladies handbags. Candida had managed to cajole me into buying fifty dollars worth of ACJC fun-o-rama coupons. However since she was at a consultation, she told me to take the coupons out of her handbag and then leave the cash in her wallet. I went up to pass her the money in person, but I couldn't for the life of me find the coupons in her large brown handbag. Basically, I find come to realise that female handbags are incredibly complex mechanisms that no male of the species is able to fully comprehend, let alone find anything in. She later informed me the tickets were in a "side pocket, next too the tampons". Errr, right.
Secondly, I have yet to figure out how to effectively eat a Brewerkz chilli dog without one of two non really palatable options. Firstly, you can try to stuff it directly in your mouth, which causes an enormously huge mess. It is less messy in the case of the burger due to the fact that at least most of the stuff within it is enclosed. The chilli dog has beef chili treatening to spill over the sides at any instant and it usually does. The second option is to cut it up into bite size pieces and eat it that way. But seriously, cutting up a hot dog? That is just plain wrong. It is like, eating your peas in the UK by spearing them instead of scooping them oh so carefully on the underside of your fork (I still find that completely ridiculous).
If anybody has solutions to any of the two existential problems above, do let me know. I will be most grateful. I might even buy you a Brewerkz chilli dog so you can try it out for yourself.
The chief excuse for the lunch was as a form of repayment for DT earlier treating me (and Candida again) to lunch at the Tanglin Club. He had previously insisted that the Tanglin Club had the best steak and ribs in town and offered to bring me in to try it. For the record, it really was excellent. Lunch also afforded us a wonderful chance to chat and catch up. DT, to me is a kindered spirit in so far as being cynical about life (but not taking things too seriously) and in having a similarly warped sense of humour. It also was an opportunity for me to talk to him about Debs an me, as in his own words he is quite "protective of her".
Two interesting observations from the day. Firstly, the essential mystery that is ladies handbags. Candida had managed to cajole me into buying fifty dollars worth of ACJC fun-o-rama coupons. However since she was at a consultation, she told me to take the coupons out of her handbag and then leave the cash in her wallet. I went up to pass her the money in person, but I couldn't for the life of me find the coupons in her large brown handbag. Basically, I find come to realise that female handbags are incredibly complex mechanisms that no male of the species is able to fully comprehend, let alone find anything in. She later informed me the tickets were in a "side pocket, next too the tampons". Errr, right.
Secondly, I have yet to figure out how to effectively eat a Brewerkz chilli dog without one of two non really palatable options. Firstly, you can try to stuff it directly in your mouth, which causes an enormously huge mess. It is less messy in the case of the burger due to the fact that at least most of the stuff within it is enclosed. The chilli dog has beef chili treatening to spill over the sides at any instant and it usually does. The second option is to cut it up into bite size pieces and eat it that way. But seriously, cutting up a hot dog? That is just plain wrong. It is like, eating your peas in the UK by spearing them instead of scooping them oh so carefully on the underside of your fork (I still find that completely ridiculous).
If anybody has solutions to any of the two existential problems above, do let me know. I will be most grateful. I might even buy you a Brewerkz chilli dog so you can try it out for yourself.
26 January 2008
Goodbye Fletch and Liz
Today marked the farewell party of Fletch and Liz, two of the regulars at the Old Brown Shoe. And they were truly regulars. If you popped into the Shoe on almost any evening of the week you would find Fletch and Liz there, probably outside having a smoke, Liz drinking her rum and coke and Fletch his favourite Asahi.
In a random conversation one evening at the Shoe with a man from India who helped to run a Tiger wildlife refuge, Fletch mentioned that he loved Tigers and thought them to be the most amazing of creatures. I thus bought them a National Geographic documentary on Siberian Tigers. I hope they like it.
I got at the Shoe for the 'farewell do' a bit late, having had to settle some other stuff and the place was packed with people wanting to wish Fletch and Liz well. It made me realise how all the regulars there had coalesced into a community or sorts, sharing informal and happy moments. Just like a regular British pub. It also made me realise how much I love it.
On a more random note, I ended up watching some of the FA Cup football while at the pub, and amazingly, Liverpool twice went a goal down to part-time side Havant and Waterlooville [who play in Conference South]. A truly inspiring display by the non-league side who managed to go into half-time level before falling 5-2 at full time.
In a random conversation one evening at the Shoe with a man from India who helped to run a Tiger wildlife refuge, Fletch mentioned that he loved Tigers and thought them to be the most amazing of creatures. I thus bought them a National Geographic documentary on Siberian Tigers. I hope they like it.
I got at the Shoe for the 'farewell do' a bit late, having had to settle some other stuff and the place was packed with people wanting to wish Fletch and Liz well. It made me realise how all the regulars there had coalesced into a community or sorts, sharing informal and happy moments. Just like a regular British pub. It also made me realise how much I love it.
On a more random note, I ended up watching some of the FA Cup football while at the pub, and amazingly, Liverpool twice went a goal down to part-time side Havant and Waterlooville [who play in Conference South]. A truly inspiring display by the non-league side who managed to go into half-time level before falling 5-2 at full time.
25 January 2008
A Birthday Evening
I brought Debs out for a birthday dinner today at Sushi Tei in Vivocity. It was our second trip to Vivo during the week after having dinner at Marche's with Deanna and Tammy, two of Debs's closest friends on Tuesday, in another semi-official birthday dinner.
Despite us getting to Vivo before seven we were faced by an extended queue when we arrived in front of Sushi Tei. It proceeded to get longer even as we worked our way to the front. We were very lucky to get a large table meant for four all to ourselves in what was effectively a fully packed restaurant. I had a soft shell crab handroll and the Beef Yakiniku rice, and Debs ordered some seafood dish for us to share (I ended up with all the salmon because she doesn't like it, thankfully I do).
Afterwards, we just spent our time strolling around Vivo, and out on the open promenade, and perhaps attracting more attention that we would have liked (not that we really noticed). It was a kind of peaceful, placid happiness that comes with being with someone.
Despite us getting to Vivo before seven we were faced by an extended queue when we arrived in front of Sushi Tei. It proceeded to get longer even as we worked our way to the front. We were very lucky to get a large table meant for four all to ourselves in what was effectively a fully packed restaurant. I had a soft shell crab handroll and the Beef Yakiniku rice, and Debs ordered some seafood dish for us to share (I ended up with all the salmon because she doesn't like it, thankfully I do).
Afterwards, we just spent our time strolling around Vivo, and out on the open promenade, and perhaps attracting more attention that we would have liked (not that we really noticed). It was a kind of peaceful, placid happiness that comes with being with someone.
Malicious Worm
My computer has been the unfortunate recipient of a worm that was sent via MSN Messenger (from my mother). It has meant that not only Messenger but Firefox and Explorer are no longer functional on my desktop. I have never truly realised my dependence on the internet till now and my annoyance is profound.Part of the irritation stems from the fact that I really should have known better than to download the file and try to run the application. In my defence, I was multi-tasking at the time and I am inured to my mom sending me nonsense over Messenger. So perhaps the old joke and men and their inability to do more than one thing at one time is true.
How I am managing to write this post then? Well, given that only my desktop is affected I contrived to connect my laptop to my monitor and run the internet from there. My laptop is still functional except for the minor issue of the screen not working at all. I am running this jury-rigged system until I can figure out how to solve the worm issue on my desktop. Suggestions are welcome.
24 January 2008
Swinging Away
I attended my first Lindy Hop lesson today at Jitterbugs. It was a pretty brisk introductory lesson with a relatively large class (almost twenty people in total). I got a bit confused once they started combining the steps with actual movements. I also hope there will be more focus on individuals in later lessons, the sister agrees with me in that you sometimes feel you are doing everything wrong but nobody notices (except perhaps your partner).
On the plus side, the sister noted that in her opinion, a number of the girls in the class were "cute". Not that I'm actually looking, but I definitely concur. Hopefully more people from the class will stay for "Swing Fling" later on in the evening which would provide a useful way to get to know more people and get some much needed practice in.
After the class, we joined our parents for dinner (prior to their trip to New Zealand) and we ended up at Muthu's Curry at Suntec. They wanted to eat something spicy before subsisting on steak and potatoes for 2 weeks or so. We ordered the fish head curry, naturally, and I ended up eating more than half of it (dad isn't terribly keen on fish, the sister didn't have a lot). I teased the sister by leaving the eyeball on her plate (they actually are edible) and she proceeded to make a smiley face out of the two eyeballs, a ladyfinger and some naan bread.
On the plus side, the sister noted that in her opinion, a number of the girls in the class were "cute". Not that I'm actually looking, but I definitely concur. Hopefully more people from the class will stay for "Swing Fling" later on in the evening which would provide a useful way to get to know more people and get some much needed practice in.
After the class, we joined our parents for dinner (prior to their trip to New Zealand) and we ended up at Muthu's Curry at Suntec. They wanted to eat something spicy before subsisting on steak and potatoes for 2 weeks or so. We ordered the fish head curry, naturally, and I ended up eating more than half of it (dad isn't terribly keen on fish, the sister didn't have a lot). I teased the sister by leaving the eyeball on her plate (they actually are edible) and she proceeded to make a smiley face out of the two eyeballs, a ladyfinger and some naan bread.
23 January 2008
Agoraphobics Out!
The title of the post is actually the name that was chosen for our quiz team this week courtesy of the every witty Dave Sowden. For those of you who are somewhat puzzled, agoraphobia is the fear of being out in the open. Thus the wickedness of the title. Get it? Well, oh nevermind.
Anyhow, it was another good night, with the usual full team - Dave, Marty, Keith Prince and myself. Besides the weekly News and Pot Luck rounds, we were faced with 4-letter answers (all answers are four letters), History and Geography and a picture round featuring Movie Posters. We threw our joker in on Movie Posters based on Marty's confidence that the picture rounds are usually very easy (particularly the movie ones) - Keith and myself readily agreeing with him on that point.
We got off to a fantastic start with scores of 10, 9 and 9 respectively on the first three rounds. I was quite happy to nail the answer to the question "what is the only movie that is 4 letters long to win the Best Picture Oscar" - the others had guessed Crash and Rocky respectively when I pulled "Gigi" out of the hat. Gigi was a late 1950s movie, so definitely more of Dave and Keith's generation than mine.
A good joker round would nail it for us, and thankfully we had chosen well. Marty and Dave did the round separately from Keith and myself before we compared answers and we had a match on 9 out of 10 of the answers, with all of us unsure of the same one. But me and Marty both guessed that is looked like the poster for Tron, and that turned out correct for a maximum 20 on that round.
With a 5 point lead going into the final round, we scored a 7 (it could have been lower) and still managed a pretty comfortable win with a total of 55 points. If we had scored a full 10 in the Pot Luck we would have set a new record for points total (58). The elusive perfect 60 remains just within our grasp. On a personal note, I have decided to keep a record of my Old Brown Shoe pub quiz performances on this blog.
It turned out to be a very good evening thanks to the two free beers we won as part of the first place prize (along with all the dosh). It got even better for me when Keith Prince left without bringing his beers home with him - it meant a mild ethical dilemma for me (if you leave your beers behind does that mean it is a free for all) which was quickly resolved by my drinking them. Good times indeed.
Anyhow, it was another good night, with the usual full team - Dave, Marty, Keith Prince and myself. Besides the weekly News and Pot Luck rounds, we were faced with 4-letter answers (all answers are four letters), History and Geography and a picture round featuring Movie Posters. We threw our joker in on Movie Posters based on Marty's confidence that the picture rounds are usually very easy (particularly the movie ones) - Keith and myself readily agreeing with him on that point.
We got off to a fantastic start with scores of 10, 9 and 9 respectively on the first three rounds. I was quite happy to nail the answer to the question "what is the only movie that is 4 letters long to win the Best Picture Oscar" - the others had guessed Crash and Rocky respectively when I pulled "Gigi" out of the hat. Gigi was a late 1950s movie, so definitely more of Dave and Keith's generation than mine.
A good joker round would nail it for us, and thankfully we had chosen well. Marty and Dave did the round separately from Keith and myself before we compared answers and we had a match on 9 out of 10 of the answers, with all of us unsure of the same one. But me and Marty both guessed that is looked like the poster for Tron, and that turned out correct for a maximum 20 on that round.
With a 5 point lead going into the final round, we scored a 7 (it could have been lower) and still managed a pretty comfortable win with a total of 55 points. If we had scored a full 10 in the Pot Luck we would have set a new record for points total (58). The elusive perfect 60 remains just within our grasp. On a personal note, I have decided to keep a record of my Old Brown Shoe pub quiz performances on this blog.
It turned out to be a very good evening thanks to the two free beers we won as part of the first place prize (along with all the dosh). It got even better for me when Keith Prince left without bringing his beers home with him - it meant a mild ethical dilemma for me (if you leave your beers behind does that mean it is a free for all) which was quickly resolved by my drinking them. Good times indeed.
20 January 2008
Top Grossing Movies - 2007
The Life! section in Saturday's Straits Times (19 Jan) listed the Top 100 grossing movies of 2007 in Singapore. The results were predictable if somewhat depressing. Spider-Man 3 and Transformers were the highest grossing films of the year respectively, and set a local record by being the first movies to gross over S$7 million with Spider-Man 3 taking in a cool S$7.8m. The previous gross record was unsurprisingly held by Titanic which rode on a wave of teenage infatuation to S$6.2m at the box office back in 1997.
As expected, the Top 10 was full of the usual blockbuster fare. Besides the two movies mentioned above, the latest Harry Potter installment placed third, number four was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the new Fantastic Four movie, the Rise of the Silver Surfer, ranked seventh, Rush Hour 3 was eight and Shrek The Third was ninth. Mr Bean's Holiday also did very well, raking in close to S$4m to rank sixth, just behind Pixar's latest offering Ratatouille. The local film industry can be buoyed by the fact that 881, Royston Tan's ge-tai offering, raked in a cool S$3.5m to round up the top 10.
The results clearly show yet again the dominance of big-budget blockbuster sequels - six in the top ten alone not to mention National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (14th), The Bourne Ultimatum (20th), Die Hard 4.0 (21st), Ocean's Thirteen (23rd), Resident Evil Extinction (24th) as well as comic book or television adaptations - besides Spider-Man, Transformers and The Fantastic Four in the Top 10 we also had Alvin and the Chipmunks (15th), Ghost Rider (16th), 300 (17th), The Simpson's Movie (22nd), Resident Evil: Extinction (24th), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (32nd) among others.
The sum total of the above is a rather depressing situation for those who love critically acclaimed, art house and independent films. We might have Cinema Europa and the newly re-opened Picturehouse but the reality is that it is the blockbusters that the major cinemas are going to plumb for - the brainless action flick and latest Hollywood adaption of a Japanese/Korean horror movie rather than a movie that is truly interesting and creative.
It does pain me that a truly amazing movie like Pan's Labyrinth is way down in 72nd place on the list with a gross of only $475,000 (or 6% that of Spider Man 3), not to mention the critically acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima (77th - 439,000). Gallingly, Balls of Fury (36th place) grossed more than those two movies combined. Even more depressing is the enormous list of excellent independent films that didn't even make the list of the Top 100.
Not to sound elitist, someone with taste is so defined precisely because he has preferences that differ from the unwashed masses (would classical music and ballet be considered high class if they were as popular as say MTV and rock music?). This no doubt applies to film too, as evidenced all readily by the thermometer of unwashed mass popularity - box office receipts.
Addendum: One interesting thing I noted was that the R21 version of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution grossed twice as much as the NC-16 version (without the much hyped up sex scenes).
As expected, the Top 10 was full of the usual blockbuster fare. Besides the two movies mentioned above, the latest Harry Potter installment placed third, number four was Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the new Fantastic Four movie, the Rise of the Silver Surfer, ranked seventh, Rush Hour 3 was eight and Shrek The Third was ninth. Mr Bean's Holiday also did very well, raking in close to S$4m to rank sixth, just behind Pixar's latest offering Ratatouille. The local film industry can be buoyed by the fact that 881, Royston Tan's ge-tai offering, raked in a cool S$3.5m to round up the top 10.
The results clearly show yet again the dominance of big-budget blockbuster sequels - six in the top ten alone not to mention National Treasure: Book Of Secrets (14th), The Bourne Ultimatum (20th), Die Hard 4.0 (21st), Ocean's Thirteen (23rd), Resident Evil Extinction (24th) as well as comic book or television adaptations - besides Spider-Man, Transformers and The Fantastic Four in the Top 10 we also had Alvin and the Chipmunks (15th), Ghost Rider (16th), 300 (17th), The Simpson's Movie (22nd), Resident Evil: Extinction (24th), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (32nd) among others.
The sum total of the above is a rather depressing situation for those who love critically acclaimed, art house and independent films. We might have Cinema Europa and the newly re-opened Picturehouse but the reality is that it is the blockbusters that the major cinemas are going to plumb for - the brainless action flick and latest Hollywood adaption of a Japanese/Korean horror movie rather than a movie that is truly interesting and creative.
It does pain me that a truly amazing movie like Pan's Labyrinth is way down in 72nd place on the list with a gross of only $475,000 (or 6% that of Spider Man 3), not to mention the critically acclaimed Letters from Iwo Jima (77th - 439,000). Gallingly, Balls of Fury (36th place) grossed more than those two movies combined. Even more depressing is the enormous list of excellent independent films that didn't even make the list of the Top 100.
Not to sound elitist, someone with taste is so defined precisely because he has preferences that differ from the unwashed masses (would classical music and ballet be considered high class if they were as popular as say MTV and rock music?). This no doubt applies to film too, as evidenced all readily by the thermometer of unwashed mass popularity - box office receipts.
Addendum: One interesting thing I noted was that the R21 version of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution grossed twice as much as the NC-16 version (without the much hyped up sex scenes).
19 January 2008
Fearless Federer
I came back from lunch with Debs and turned on the TV to the Australian Open Tennis and a quite stunning sight greeted me. Roger Federer, Mr Cool, Mr Nearly Unbeatable, a man who has participated in the last 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals (winning eight of them), was down two sets to one in the third round of the tournament.Sure, there was talk of the illness that forced him to pull out of his usual warm-up tournament leading up to the Open, but he had absolutely demolished his previous two opponents, Diego Hartfield and Fabrice Santoro, for the loss of a mere three games in each match. His imperious displays had led to the possibility of him repeating his 2007 feat of winning the Australian Open without dropping a set.
Instead, when I picked up the action at the start of the fourth set, Federer was looking far from cool and he was down 6-7, 7-6, 5-7 against Jarno Tipsarevic, an unheralded Serb. Federer soon set things aright by taking the fourth set 6-1 after a few lapses in concentration by Tipsarevic, but the match soon turned into an almighty struggle.
Tipsarevic was taking the match to Federer, showing a complete lack of nerves, saving break points with huge serves and huge forehand winners, painting the lines and showing no fear at all. It was supremely telling that Federer had 25 break points by the end of the match, succeeding on only 5 occasions. Federer was often impregnable on serve, hitting well over 30 aces and winning 90% of his first serve points, but Tipsarevic was able to make the big points count and took all 3 of his break points.
In the fifth set, the match turned into a marathon battle of wills. From 1-1 when Federer had break points on the Tipsarevic serve till 8-8, i.e. for 14 consecutive games, both men stared each other down and neither deigned to blink. There was not a single break point in those 14 games. Lesser men than Federer would have become disheartened as opportunity after opportunity was either squandered, or more often saved by a terrific Tipsarevic winner. But he is a man already considered one of the all-time greats, with one eye on history.
The end of the match was a tribute to Federer's refusal to give up and his determination to play every single point. Tipsarevic was leading 40-0 on his serve and anybody would have been forgiven for giving up and having one eye on the next service game. Federer somehow managed to claw it back to deuce, and on a second break point in the game (and the umpteenth of the match) things finally went his way when Tipsarevic dumped a lunging backhand volley into the net. Federer naturally closes the set and match out 10-8 on his serve but not before exhibiting nerves (yes, even he is capable of them!), ending the nearly four and a half hour marathon.
The relative rarity of Federer's involvement in five set marathons - he quipped that he isn't often involved in five setters unless it involves Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon - is a testament to just how good he is. Federer involved in an almighty struggle, now that is a rarity given that he more regularly crushes his opponents, and it made for quite the spectacle. The crowd certainly appreciated it, giving both players a relentless standing ovation when the match was over. This was tennis of the highest quality, a true test of will and determination, profoundly captivating.
Take no credit away from Tipsarevic who played bravely, and often brilliantly, but faced with the relentlessness, the confidence and the coolness of Roger Federer, the bets were always on him to crack first, no matter how much he played outside of his skin. Because, at this rate, this is now about a battle between Roger Federer and history, and there is only ever going to be one winner there.
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