I suppose I should justify, or maybe clarify my vulgar and fairly unintelligible outburst which made up that last post.

Australia lost its round of 16 match to Italy early this morning 1-0. The entire game was closely contested, with possession being mostly Australia’s, but with the more spirited attack from Italy. There was a questionable straight red card handed to Italian defender Marco Materazzi which meant the Azurri were playing with 10 men for most of the second half, but Australia failed to capitalise on the extra man on the paddock. However, the decision that handed the match to the Italians came 20 seconds from the end of the match, when it appeared that Australian Lucas Neill tripped and fouled Fabio Grosso. On replay it became fairly clear that the challenge was above the board and the Italian had taken a dive to milk a penalty kick. As must be expected from one of the best players in the world, Totti slotted the ball home with relative ease using the final kick of the match, and the curtain fell on the Australian cup challenge. The boos echoing throughout the stadium as well as the faces of thousands of Aussies wandering the streets of Melbourne at 3am demonstrated that most other people in the Socceroos camp felt the same.

This morning (or rather afternoon) I awoke to ponder the shortcomings of the game. Australia played a bloody good match, however there were points on which we really, REALLY could have improved. Perhaps another set of fresh legs towards the end of normal time would have taken pressure off the Aussie defence and avoided the disastrous circumstances that followed, and the inclusion of Wilkshire in the side to offset Emerton’s absense due to expulsion in the Croatian match was maybe not the best option to go with.

However, tactics aside there are far more fundamental problems with the sport in general that need to be addressed if there is ever to be fairness in soccer. The referreeing is clearly the most obvious. Each match that the Australians have played in has been plagued with abominable decisions, and the overall referreeing across the board over the last two weeks has been less than desirable. Australia’s opening match against Japan was almost derailed by a clear foul committed on Aussie goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer not being called, which resulted in a weak goal and a 1-0 lead for Japan that lasted until the 82 minute mark. The Brazilian game saw the world champions recieve almost 4 times as many free kicks as Australia, and the game against Croatia included missed penalties, Simunic being yellow carded three times, and a disallowed goal within the dying seconds of play. There are several ways in which this sort of ridiculousness can be stamped out. Firstly the sanctity of referrees must be removed. In ‘proper’ footy (Aussie rules) the umpires are constantly questioned and reviled by players and crowd alike. In soccer it seems that the referrees are omnipotent, above the petty activity occuring in front of them and never at fault. This has to change, and referree’s decisions must be questioned if there is to be even the slightest chance of improvement in the so called ‘beautiful game’.

On top of this change in attitude towards the refs, an increase in the number of eyes on the pitch would mean the overall quality of decisions would have to improve. Although the field is somewhat larger in Aussie rules, the game uses three on-field referees as well as two on the boundary and two in goal. Although bad decisions are still a fact of life in the sport, the play is far more closely watched and overall fairness in understandably greatly improved. Another aspect of other sports that should be considered for soccer is the inclusion of video based decisions. Although implementation would result in the slowing of an already slow game, it would surely ensure dirty play that really mars the game such as dive taking and behind the play fouls would be all but stamped out. The outcome of last night’s match would surely have been different if this were the case, as the actual skill of the game would have been rewarded, not the acting of the players such as Breciano and of course Grosso.

Whinging aside the Italians, although having perhaps not played the most attractive brand of football certainly played effectively. The defensive wall rarely failed and the Azurri counterattack was fierce and quite honestly scary. It’s just such a pity that an otherwise entertaining match finished in such a manner.

Attention passengers: this is the last stop for the Socceroo bandwagon. Could everybody please disembark immediately.

Pete

FUCK SHIT FUCK GOD SHIT COCK TWAT SHIT FUCK

Bloody, undeserving, theatrical FUCKING Italians. What a joke of a match – I mean how the hell does a referree award a contentious penalty IN INJURY TIME when the score is 0-0?

I suppose I shouldn’t be so disappointed – after all Australia did make the round of 16, playing in a tough group with Brazil, Croatia and Japan. Even so, it still hurts to go down like that.

Pete

I got up for the 5am start. Some may say this is a stupid thing to do the day of an important exam (especially considering I also watched Scrubs at quarter to 12 last night), but it doesn’t matter, because we made it. Although that said what do you need to do to get some competent refereeing?

Pete

Although Western Australia has had a long and rich musical history, it has only come to the notice of many other Australians in the last few years. With the emergence and success of bands such as Gyroscope, Jebediah, The John Butler Trio, End of Fashion, Little Birdy and The Sleepy Jackson WA has stood up and been counted as a real centre for music in Australia. One of my long time favourite bands to have come out of the state are Eskimo Joe, who as far as I can remember formed sometime in the late 90′s but for years were virtually unheard of until 2001′s debut album ‘Girl’ which saw the band shoot to popularity, especially on Triple J (back when I was a commercial radio junkie).

Anyway, the boys from Freo have been hard at work this year recording their third studio album, a follow up to 2004′s insanely popular ‘A Song is a City’ which made it to #2 on the ARIA chart. The result is ‘Black Fingernails Red Wine’, which was released earlier this month and is already looking quite promising, debuting this week on top of the charts. The title track has been released as a single and breached the top 10 for singles, but never looked like challenging the traditional poppy chart toppers like Rihanna’s increasingly annoying S.O.S. and the hip-swaying resurgence that is Shakira.

Anyway, personally I didn’t really enjoy ‘A Song is a City’ as much as many people I know, however this new album has really got under my skin in all the right ways. The music flows from track to track, the mixing and ordering of the tracks is just about right and the overall sound of the band has moved away from the generic rock of the O.C. to a far more concept driven, personal sound. I really like what the band have done here, and I have a feeling that although the album may not bring the band fans and money by the truckload as the last CD did, what ‘the Joe’ has done is right. Top effort, fellas!

Anyway, I have to pick a song to share with you all now. The title track has been on our airwaves now for a good month and a bit, so when I heard the band on Robbie Buck’s program about 4 weeks ago, specifically that they were to share for the first time two other tracks from the then-forthcoming album, my interest piqued and I stayed in the car to hear them out. ‘Sarah’ is the first of those two tracks that was shared and has become the most played in my playlist since aquiring the album a few days ago. Although after listening to the opening lyrics it is difficult not to question the intelligence of the lead Kavyen (Sarah, won’t you tell me your name?) the song is funky, starts very nicely and brings the better aspects of Kav’s vocals to the fore. The song is on grannytunes (EDIT: Removed from playlist 24/5/07. Sorry!) at the top of the page right now, so check it out!

Pete

P.S. CARN ‘STRAYA! JUST BEAT THE CROATS AND WE’LL MAKE THE SECOND ROUND!

So. I’m in quite a conundrum. As everybody should be aware (it is afterall only the biggest sporting event in the world), the group stage of the World Cup is wrapping up tonight after providing us all with a couple of weeks full of soccer. My problem stems from the fact that the timezone discrepancy means matches from Germany are played between 11pm and 7am Australian Eastern time, and I can’t really afford to be up all hours, considering three of my four exams this semester fall during the World Cup.

However, my real pickle is upon me right now. The final match for Australia – against Croatia – is to be played at 5am tomorrow morning, and I have my final exam, and the one I am least confident about tomorrow afternoon. Now, normally I would take the sensible option and worry about the exam, knowing with careful selection as to who I talk to I can watch the replay tomorrow afternoon without spoiling the outcome of the game. BUT, Australia has found itself in an interesting situation where a win against what on paper looks like a poorer performing Croatian team will guarantee us promotion to the second round, and a draw will require Japan to pull a miracle win over Brazil to rob us of that honour. As a result, if I don’t get up early and watch this match tomorrow, I am a bastard, un-australian and no sports fan. If I do…. I may very well fail Human Anatomy.

Worth it?

Pete

I am a sorry little boy. I came down with a slight cold on Thursday evening, and it’s starting to really bug me. To make things worse, along with the aches, pains and congestion from a run of the mill cold, I’m physically exhausted and blistered to high hell thanks to these bloody uni exams (which I finish this Friday!), and perhaps more importantly the harsh physical labour of an Anglesea garden on Saturday.

I finally caved into the constant pleading of my parents to go down to Anglesea to help in the garden, and agreed that Saturday would be the day I’d be available. The house has recently been restumped (as in the stumps that the thing stands on) so all the timber that skirts the house as well as the little staircase to the raised verandah has been removed, and as a result the place doesn’t look too hospitable, but the stupid thing still needs a ridiculous amount of work to counter the 30 years of utter neglect that was only broken eighteen months ago when we bought it. Anyway I spent the ENTIRE day ripping out old tree stumps that had been left in the earth, and let me asure you it is no easy job. Constant switching from shovel to mattock to axe to crowbar and back again for several hours to remove a mass of roots and trunk is not terribly fun or intellectually stimulating, but it is hard work and by gum it’s bad for your back. So I woke up after the ordeal on Sunday morning with four separate blisters (two are broken and quite painful) on my left hand, severe internal bruising to most of my metacarpophalangeal and interphalangeal joints – basically it feels like I’m suffering arthritis in all my fingers along with cracked, dry skin on my palms.

But I shouldn’t whinge, afterall I did actually enjoy myself – it was great getting down to the coast even for just a day – and there are plenty of things going for me, first and foremost that as of a minute ago today is my 21st birthday! For those wondering, I’ve been particularly lazy this year and so it looks like the party (which will happen, contrary to popular belief) will be more like 21st-and-a-bit, but that’s a whole other story. For now I think I’ll catch a bit of a kip because the Australia-Brazil match starts at 2am and I need to be up at a respectable hour to go to breakfast, so a nanna nap is probably a good idea. Night dearies!

Pete

There’s a new advertising campaign being launched on Sunday for Cricket Australia, revolving around a series of TV ads featuring a five metre statue of His Royal Highness Warnie being delivered as a gift to the people of England in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. It features a horribly exagerrated Aussie accent and borders on the jingoistic, but considering that’s what this country really stands for it has been written and executed exceptionally well. Don’t take my word for it though – have a geez and make up your own mind. I’m quite partial to the 2nd last ad, where the old bloke protests, is met with a “That’s ok mate, that’s just fear that you’re feeling” and retorts “It’s not fear, it’s outrage!” Heheheh.

Pete

In early January (at least i think it was early January, it may have been December – that whole summer thing is always a blur) I was driving from our holiday house in Anglesea to the ferry terminal in Queenscliff to pick up my little brother, who had been frolicking over on the other side of the bay for a few days. Because the drive is substantial, with the roundtrip Anglesea-Queenscliff-Anglesea taking about 90 minutes I made sure I brought along some music to keep me company, and as fate would have it the particular CD that I chose for that particular trip was Wolfmother’s debut – an album I’ve posted about a couple of times here, and one which has since become a fixture in just about every young Australian’s music collection.

Somewhere on the Bellarine penninsula during the return leg, the CD had played through to about track 7 or 8 when Rich piped up with the keen observation that not a single track that had so far played happened to be a dud, and that as a result it was his opinion that the album was really quite decent. I heartily agreed, and we got into conversation comparing the ‘efforts’ of various bands to cricket teams. I think the comparison started when one of us noticed that most albums seem to include around about 11 tracks (the pedantic smartarses in my readership will no doubt point out that the Wolfmother album actually has 12 tracks). Anyway the two of us continued this for some time afterwards, and to this day when either of us need to describe an album to the other, phrases like ‘the middle order is fantastic on that one’ or ‘there’s a very decent nights watchman in after the first two short tracks’ are thrown about.

Anyway I’ve gotten a little off topic. What I want to post about this evening I fear none of you will care about, due to the fact that I wrote a long and meaningful post about the buggers only a couple of weeks ago. As I wrote then, Muse are releasing a new album entitled ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ early next month. Unfortunately at the time I hadn’t heard any more than the first single ‘Supermassive Black Hole’ which had been (and continues to be) thrown on high rotation at JJJ. However, due to the wonders of piracy, the album has since been leaked onto the interweb, and guess who got his greedy hands on it?

So. Last time I expressed caution, even pessimism about this album. I said (and you only need scroll down to read this for yourself) that the new single was a new side of Muse I wasn’t so crash hot on, and (at least I thought this to myself) that if the rest of the album followed suit, there was going to a sad and dejected Pete in July. The good news is that those fears seem unfounded. The album is…… magnificent – a side truly ready for the Cricket World Cup to be held in the West Indies next year. There are patches of old Muse in there, and there are more experimental songs which I really dig, but the best news is that the poppy, over-produced sound that the first single showcased is thankfully absent throughout the rest of the album. My early favourites include the second track ‘Starlight’, the very barebones rock track ‘Exo-Politics’ as well as today’s feature track. Oooooh how classy is that!

‘Knights of Cydonia’ hit me the instant the torrent finished as the one track that would be impossible to ignore. At 6:02, it is the longest song on the album and that, whenever Muse are concerned is a great thing. Muse have a history of finding spots for epic, six or seven minute songs on their albums and WOWOWOWOWOWOW this is one of the better ones. Influences range from Freddie Mercury-like falsetto based chorus lines, to Zeppeliney guitar riffs, trumpets in the background and what I can only describe as the synthesizer effects from Doctor Who. In short the track is unbelievable, but it’s the etymology which is even more interesting. For those non-nerds or conspiracy theorists out there, Cydonia is an area of Mars which is most famous for it’s ‘Face on Mars’ landmark and conspiracy, and has since become one of the biggest names as far as the red planet is concerned, appearing as the evil Mars base in computer games, movies and TV series. God knows where the whole knight thing comes from, but the cover of the album features four blokes sitting around a table on Mars, playing with toy horses. I read somewhere it was meant to symbollise the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Interesting.

Right I’m starting to lose interest and if I don’t finish up this may never get around to being published. ‘Knights of Cydonia’ is up on grannytunes at the top of the page – as usual click the player window and you should be set (EDIT: Sorry kids, the track has been cycled out of grannytunes as of 25/5/07 . It shouldn’t be too difficult to find elsewhere though…)

Pete

Holy toledo Batman! Has this last weekend been jam packed full of sport or what?

First and foremost, the World Cup started on Friday and for those keen enough to stay up all through the night (at least for us Aussies, where the first match of the day starts at 11pm), there has already been some spectacular soccer played. Although I was quite unimpressed by England’s possession based, dirty and tedious 1-0 win over Paraguay, the opening 4-2 match between Germany and Costa Rica, as well as Australia’s 3-1 win over Japan last night were spectacular, although admittedly I am starting to agree with the detractors of Australian soccer that claim our team is too physical – we looked like a bunch of thugs against the Japs.

Other sports have a more sobering outlook. Webber once again disappointed during the F1 race at Silverstone in England, and the fucking Blues capitulated in what looked like one of the biggest upsets of the year against the top of the ladder Eagles. The blue baggers conceded 8.4 in the last quarter to lose by 10 points. I’ve purposely shyed away from footy related posts this year for the simple fact that until Carlton lift their game either on the field or in the boardroom, they don’t deserve my support – both in the form of membership moolah as well as free publicity here (however insignificant that may be). They aren’t worth my trouble this year – not after I sat loyally through 14 losses out of the 17 Melbourne matches last year, then had to read report after report during the off season about mismanaged funds and ineffectual, unprofessional and just plain sloppy business tactics.

Anyway while Carlton are flailing about, there is at least short term distraction in the form of other sports. Rugby league’s Melbourne Storm are flying high, two points clear on top of the ladder, and the national rugby union side seem to have put last year behind them as well. The Wallabies may have played a scrappy game against England on Sunday night, but a win’s a win, and if it’s by 30-odd points then that’s a good win in my books anyday.

I think that’s about as concise and sportastic wrapup I can give. Togo are at this moment giving Korea a run for their money, so I better waddle off and watch that. I think I’ve bored you all enough for one night.

Pete

Goddamnit. An otherwise brilliant day ruined by the fact that I just missed a sneeze. That has to be among the most horrible feelings in the world. All that buildup for nothing!

Anyway quite apart from sneezing I have some news for everyone. Trying to find new procrastinatory methods throughout exam periods can be quite difficult at times, so imagine my glee when I decided today was to be the day that I’d organise all my new music into iTunes. Started with 6453 tracks, and just a couple of hours ago…

That’s right! 7000 songs! Just a wee bit over 20 days of music! Holy crap. Oh and if anyone remains even the slightest bit interested, it was Belle and Sebastian that tipped me over. Classy.

(edit 23:56) I’ve just found out that on the 12th of May last year (the earliest that iTunes can remember) I had 3400-odd songs. Considering I’ve just hit 7000, that means I’ve bee running at an aquisition rate of close to ten songs a day, which means close to a new album each and every day for the last year. Oh, errr… I swear I’m not a pirate? YARRRGH!

Pete