Thursday Thoughts: Team Launches

Well, Thursday is upon us again which means it is time again for some Thursday Thoughts. This weeks question is:

Should F1 teams launch 2010 cars in a single launch event?

I am of opinion that this would be a very good idea. A whole weekend where all 13 teams get together to unveil their cars at a combined event would be fantastic. Firstly, yes, it would definitely save money. For all the cost cutting that’s going on, this would be a very simple way to save a little more without impacting on the racing at all. Additionally, with all the teams in attendance there would be more room for sponsor events along with increased with publicity which can only be good for the sport, right? James Allen suggests that an event like this could see less publicity for the smaller teams and that the event would be dominated by Ferrari and McLaren but I beg to differ. Firstly, although Ferrari and McLaren remain the ‘big two’ of F1, I think that with the inclusion of Mercedes GP (and to his credit this hadn’t happened when JA posted that) and with Red Bull emerging as a force in F1 people will definitely be interested in more than two teams. Also, many people (myself included) will be interested to see what the brand new teams can come up with and how competitive (or how uncompetitive?) they will be. All the smaller teams in F1 should be able to feed off of this publicity.

As for whether it will happen, well, that depends on whether Ferrari and McLaren and possibly Mercedes want to share their publicity with the smaller teams. In having the combined launch, it would serve as a show of strength for FOTA with the new teams to start the new season, but as I said, could steal some of the thunder of the larger teams. I doubt it though, I think that the bigger teams will still be able to get all the publicity they need.

This time last year, both Toyota and BMW had announced the launch date of their 2009 cars, but so far this year we’ve heard nothing. Does that mean the group launch might be on or is it that the teams are a bit more behind this year?

I don’t think we can conclude that it is definitely happening just from this. I mean, Toyota and BMW are no longer here, perhaps they were just the most organised of the teams? Or the two that needed to announce it early for a bit of publicity that they wouldn’t usually get, particularly in the case of Toyota?

But yes, personally I would love to see an event like this happen, but as for whether it will, we’ll just have to wait and see I guess.

Thoughts of a Trying Insomniac

You know how it is, you get up early because you have to go work, spend all night at the pub, wake up early on Monday morning because you just know that you should be studying for that exam you have the next day which you haven’t even looked at, spend the day procrastinating so you start all your studying at night, get up early on Tuesday to go to your exam, then Tuesday night you have to study for your even more important exam on Thursday because you know you won’t get anything done tomorrow. Gotta get up early to watch the Champions League and your mate is coming over later so you aren’t going to get anymore work done. Thursday you have to get up early for your second (and last exam) and you know you are going to spend the rest of the day/evening in the pub. You would sleep in on Friday morning but for the fact that you have work again first thing. And it continues…

I’m not sure who invented sleeping, but it does seem like an awful waste of time. Surely it’s not all that important. Surely we won’t all develop an anarchist luddite alter ego with a penchant for fighting and blowing shit up will we? That said, I have actually run out of soap… No, back on topic, I mean there’s only 24 hours in a day as it is, why do we need to spend all that time asleep. Don’t get me wrong, I love to sleep in, but that’s not always possible and I can’t go to bed early as there’s too much to do (by which I mean too many blogs to read, too many films to watch etc etc etc). But, if we are going to need sleep, I’d prefer it the way cats do it. Sleep wherever you want, whenever you want, wake up and chase a mouse around until you get bored then go and get someone else to feed you. You then spend the rest of the evening plotting how you can take a dump on the floor and pin it on the pet dog. In fact, I reckon it’d be pretty damn cool being a cat.

But we’re off topic again. I don’t really have much more to say on this, but I guess my point is that sleep is overrated. Damn you God, or whoever it was that put us here. I mean sure, thanks and all, but you could’ve solved the issue of the short battery life a bit earlier couldn’t you? It didn’t take Nokia or Apple that long…

Shine Like It Does: 12 Years On

The 22^nd of November 1997 was a sad day for the music industry, especially in Australia. And although I didn’t know it at the time as I was still only in single digits, it was a sad day for me personally as well. It marked the day that meant that I would never be able to see one of my favourite bands perform live.  Today, 22 November 2009, is the twelfth anniversary of the tragic death of Michael Hutchence, lead singer of Australian new wave rock band INXS.

Micheal Hutchence and INXS formed in 1977 (then known as the Farriss Brothers in reference to brothers Andrew, Jon and Tim Farriss, who made up half of the six piece band, alongside Hutchence, Kirk Pengilly and Garry Beers) and by the late 80′s had become not only one of the biggest bands ever to come out of Australia, but also one of the biggest bands touring at that time in the world. Starting out as teenagers playing the pub circuit in Sydney, they battled their way to number one on the charts in 1987 with Kick, featuring such singles as Need You Tonight, New Sensation, Devil Inside and of course, Never Tear Us Apart.

Overall, INXS are the third highest selling Australian band worldwide behind AC/DC and the Bee Gees, but to many they are by far the best. Their catchy funk-inspired beats mixed with their pub rock roots gave INXS appeal to a wide audience and enabled them to find success in an era dominated by the punk scene. Michael Hutchence was a big factor in the success of INXS. At an early demo in the late 70′s, a prospective producer once famously said “I can see Mick Jagger, but where are the Rolling Stones?” Bono, lead singer of U2 and a friend of Michael’s said that Hutchence was his idea of what a rock star is. He was, in his words, “the real thing.”

Michael Hutchence left an impression on many other artists, including Bono and Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran. Both U2 and Duran Duran recorded songs in tribute to Hutchence. Le Bon actually penned “Michael, You’ve Got A Lot To Answer For” in 1996 and released it only a month before Hutchence’s death. In 2000 U2 recorded “Stuck In A Moment That You Can’t Get Out Of” in tribute to Hutchence, featuring lyrics such as: I am still enchanted/By the light you brought to me/I listen through your ears/Through your eyes I can see.

Despite still recording and touring, INXS will never be the same. In their days with Michael they created a legacy that will long be remembered. Individually, Michael Hutchence will be remembered as a devoted friend,  singer and father. I’ll leave you with lyrics from INXS’s Afterglow, their own tribute song to Michael Hutchence. May he rest in peace.

Touch me and I will follow in your afterglow
Heal me from all this sorrow
As I let you go I will find my way, I will sacrifice
Now I’m living in your afterglow

 

40 Over 0

No, it’s not some kind of fraction. I haven’t taken up maths or anything like that. I wouldn’t know where to start. What it is however, is the temperature. 40°C here in Sydney today. Now, that’s not really a record or anything, there have been days in the past that have been closer to 50 than they were to 40. But they are usually one off occasions in the middle of summer. It’s still November. It’s still spring for Christ’s sake! And nor has this been a one off occasion. It got almost this high a couple of days ago. Now, I’m not really strong believer in global warming or any of that, but if days like this become the norm then I may have to rethink my beliefs!

You see, what prompted the post in the first place was that 15 mins ago, I walked out to collect the mail and by the time I got back, all of about 40 metres later, I had started to sweat. That is not nice weather! English people always complain about their weather but I can’t for the life of me see why. I think that you are just trying to continue that long held British tradition of complaining about anything. I mean, you can always tell when British Airways have landed. It’s when the whining continues even after the engines have stopped. Everyone knows that. You can’t hide from it.

Anyway, I think I’ve gotten a bit off topic. What I’m trying to say is that if this keeps up then we are in for one hell of a summer.

WEATHER UPDATE: 3pm: It’s gone all dark, it’s about to storm like a bitch.

UPDATE THE SECOND: Nightime: Well, the storm never came, it just stayed hot and humid with very dark and ominous looking clouds. May storm through the night.

Thursday Thoughts – New Presidents

Despite the fact that almost 100% of my readership comes from Sidepodcast (well, at least 100% of my comments do) I’m going to explain the concept anyway. Every Thursday a topic is published for bloggers to share their thoughts on. This week the topic is who should be the next president of FOTA in the wake of Luca di Montezemolo’s announcement that he doesn’t want to do it anymore. Additionally, with the withdrawal of Toyota from F1, John Howett, the current vice-President ain’t going to be getting the top job. In my mind there are two people who stand out as potential replacements. Ross Brawn and Frank Williams.

Firstly, to Ross Brawn. Brawn is currently the Head of the Technical Regulations FOTA working group and for good reason. Brawn is one of the best engineers in F1, and also one of the most respected team principals. Ross Brawn would act in a manner that was beneficial to the sport would have the backing from the FIA. With technical regulation being a major issue in F1, he also has invaluable expertise in this field.

Sir Frank Williams needs no introduction. He is the longest serving team principal in F1 and any action he takes would undoubtedly be in the best interests of the individual teams and of F1 as a whole. Despite the fact that Williams F1 were kicked out of FOTA for four months during the 2009 season, Frank Williams still remains a solid choice as President of FOTA. Additionally, with Williams F1 siding with the FIA and CVC, having Frank Williams as FOTA President may see the FIA take more of FOTA’s wishes and requests on board.

I would have no qualms seeing either Ross Brawn or Sir Frank Williams becoming the next FOTA Chairman.

Play It Again, Ref

In the wake of this mornings (last night for most of you) World Cup Qualifying Play-Off between France and Ireland I feel that I need to mention something I have felt strongly about for a while now, probably since the last World Cup (no, I swear I’m not bitter. Really, I’m not! Damn Italy…). The time has come to implement video replays in football. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a clip. Skip to the second half of it to see what I mean.

The replays show that there is a clear handball by Thierry Henry to keep the ball in play before he kicks it to Gallas to score. And thats assuming there was no offside. A video replay would give the referee two options. Either a free kick to Ireland for the offside (Henry was onside, but the offside player could be adjudged to have blocked the defender from getting to the ball) or a yellow card for Henry and a free kick/goal kick to Ireland. Play continues.

This game was the most important side for these two countries for the last four years. Probably even longer, especially for Ireland. If play continued and Ireland lost legitimately, fair play to France. As it stands, the Irish team have been cheated and many of them will never get another chance to qualify for a World Cup.

Football purists will argue that it takes too long and will interrupt the flow of the game. And perhaps it will. But it’s not like situations such as this happen each and every game. But every ten to twenty games you get situations such as this, an offside goal or a ball cleared after it has already crossed the line. The system has already been implemented in rugby, and they have shown that it doesn’t take very long at all to make a decision. And in rugby, the decisions aren’t always as clear cut as this.

Other people will argue that this is football and shit happens. Yeah? Try telling that to the Irish players. The time has come for football to mature as a game and implement video replays.

Yeah, I’ll Do It Later…

Did you know that the Deadly Serious Party was an Australian political party that once proposed to train killer penguins to protect us from an Argentine invasion? Or that Valencia’s stadium Mestalla was once used as a concentration camp? Or that a whoopie pie is an American chocolate cake? No? It’s amazing what Wikipedia knows that we don’t. I find that Wikipedia is quite often the cause of a condition that afflicts me and many others. I call it Chronic Procrastination. See, I’ve always envied people who can set their mind to do doing something and then go out and do it. Studying for exams, finding a job, writing an essay. The list goes on. But I can’t do that. I tell myself that I am going to write my essay yet I find myself watching a DVD, joining the real-time chat on a certain F1 site or, as I mentioned before, trawling through Wikipedia adding to already overflowing stockpile of useless crap that takes up most of my brain. I tell myself I am going to study for my exams that are in less than a week yet I find myself blogging about procrastinating. See what I mean?

And I know I’m not the only one. Why do you think Twitter was invented? So that people can talk about whatever meaningless activity they are doing rather than going out and doing something important. To waste time. Facebook is the same. They exist only to serve our desire to put off that which is most important.

But yes, instead of telling you about cakes and camps and killer penguins, I should be telling you something about Virgil’s Roman epic, the Aeneid. I have to tell an examiner about it on Tuesday. But because my own trail of discovery, albeit a virtual one on Wikipedia didn’t take me there, I can’t.

Anyway, that’s enough procrastinating, I’m off to watch to a film…

Kimi Räikkönen: A Tribute

Kimi Räikkönen has long been one of my favourite sportsmen. His tell it like is attitude along with his considerable racing talent meant that he was good to have both on and off the race-track. But not everybody saw Räikkönen in this same light. Many commentators (both professional and ‘couch-commentators’ like you and I) have criticised him for his lack of commitment and enthusiasm for the sport, most notably his former boss in Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo. The news broken today that Kimi “Iceman” Räikkönen will not be racing in F1 in 2010 was not completely unexpected, but it was still nevertheless a shock to many. And despite his critics, the one-time World Champion and two-time runner-up will be sorely missed in the world of Formula 1. With that, I have decided to compile a collection of videos that will make up Kimi Räikkönen: A Tribute.

To start, a clip from a couple of years ago. Kimi telling it exactly like it is, but also some very quick thinking from Mr Brundle.

Apologies that I could not find English commentary for this next clip, but we all remember it. From this years Malaysian GP, when everyone else was out on the grid getting soaked, Kimi was…

…eating an ice cream!

And Kimi winning the 2007 World Driver Championship.

The Press Conference after winning the Championship. Just look at the joy on his face, the overflowing emotion in his voice!

And to cap off, his laugh.

The Off Season, Transfers and Jenson Button

So, the season is over, everyone can go home, relax, have a nice quiet drink and forget about sport for a while. Right? I think not. There are times when I find the off-season to be more interesting than the regular season itself, especially when it comes to football. I mean, the season goes for 7-9 months in most cases, and its very easy to lose track of it and miss a couple of matches, particularly when you are trying to follow the European leagues from here in Australia and the matches are on in the middle of the night. But come the off-season, I’m checking the news websites every morning to see who has said what, who has gone where and whether Ronaldo has finally signed for Real Madrid yet. I know that I was not the only one that was getting very bored of all that over the last two summers. And that’s the beauty of the internet. That we can access all that information so easily from anywhere in the world. But why am I talking about this? We are only halfway through the current season and the talk is not about who is moving where (well, mostly) but of whether Arsenal can win the Premier League, if Valencia can clear their debt without losing their best players, of whether Sydney will be able to continue their good form after the international break and of whether England have any strength in depth at all.

No, what I’m really here to talk about is a different off-season. One that is generally much quieter than that of the World Game. But not this year. With only 20-something sportsmen competing in Formula One each season, less than in each single football team, the potential for transfers and speculation is infinitely less than the football world. But this year they have managed to create stories that rival the Ronaldo transfer saga for size and the main one today was the news that world-champion Jenson Button left Brawn Mercedes GP to join fellow Brit and fellow world-champion Lewis Hamilton at F1 giants McLaren. Now there have been some big moves this year already with Fernando Alonso moving to Ferrari and veteran Rubens Barrichello moving to veteran team Williams but Button’s move to McLaren is undoubtedly going to be the most talked about.

But has Jenson Button made the right move? I don’t think so. Firstly there are the comparisons between Button’s move to McLaren and Alonso’s after he won his second World Championship with Renault a couple of years ago. Alonso found Hamilton hard to work with and now, with Hamilton a clear number one driver at McLaren, Button may find himself playing second fiddle to Hamilton, something he may not be so keen on doing after his season at Brawn. But I think most importantly Button has thrown away a chance to win back-to-back World Championships. There is no reason to suggest that Mercedes and Ross Brawn won’t make a car capable of winning the Championship and whilst McLaren are almost certain to be competitive next year, there is no reason to suggest that Button is a better driver than Hamilton or will be able to get the better of Hamilton over the course of the season. So, whilst next season may see four teams competing for the Championship in Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, I don’t think Button will be one of the drivers competing for the title. Massa? Yes. Hamilton? Yes. Alonso? Yes. Vettel? Yes. Rosberg? Potentially. Webber? Potentially. Button? No.

Not Another Damn Blog

Yeah, yeah, I know. It seems that everyone who’s anyone these days has their own blog. Well, I’ve never been one to stand out from the crowd so here’s mine. But what is my blog going to be about? Surely a blog must have a purpose, a reason, a meaning behind its existence? Well, if that’s the case then I guess I’ll have to stand out from the crowd a little bit. I’m creating this blog to give me an outlet to ramble about my various and varied interests, as well a place to vent my frustrations at life, the universe and pretty much everything in between.

And I suppose that brings us the question of what are those interests and frustrations? Perhaps more importantly (or perhaps less so, I’ll let you decide), who am I? My name’s Sean Golding, a university student from Sydney, Australia and I work part time in a department store to fund all those things that uni students need to sustain themselves. No, I’m not talking food, rent and textbooks; the reason I still live at home if so that I don’t have to deal with all of that. Well, that and the fact that I can’t afford it either. No, I’m talking about the real things that us students need to keep on going, you know, public transport, alcohol, replacing my computer and phone when they both decide to break in the same week, going out and all that sort of stuff. And my interests? well, my DVD collection is well into the hundreds, I’m a keen football fan following Aston Villa, Valencia and my local team Sydney FC, who’s matches have been the location for many a piss up in the past. I’m also a big follower of the ins and outs of Formula 1 which is the topic of most of the blogs I subscribe to and I’m sure that this one will have a few posts dedicated to it in the future.

Oh, and I guess I should mention the title of the blog as well. I am prone to letting out the more than occasional profanity, but don’t worry, I’ll try to keep this blog at least a little bit family friendly.

So, yeah, that’s about it for an introduction, please feel free to subscribe by clicking on the little RSS logo on your right, I promise I’ll try to update this as regularly as possible.