Fradam

… is the game of cricket. Or at least, that could be the future of it here in Australia.

Only those away from mass media would have missed what is one of the biggest rows in the history of the sport. Allusions have been made to the racial scandals of years gone by, or even to the controversial bodyline series. I’m not going to draw comparisons to events gone by; let’s not sully their relative purity by linking. Nor does the fate of the tour, or Singh’s ban really measure largely in the scale of the bigger picture.

Cricket, one of the true “gentleman’s game”, is now on the brink of disaster. When a man’s word on the field is questioned, when their integrity must be examined and analysed; that is when the innocence of the game has truly been lost. The 2nd test in Sydney, may well have witnessed that passing.

Symonds’ decision to simply stand his ground, with full knowledge that he was out, is a blatant slur against the code of honour in the game. If you know you’re out, you should walk. Sure, if there’s doubt or uncertainty, it is a good idea to wait for the finger to go up, but in this case, there was no thought of that. The nick was audible in the grandstands and in the commentary box - but just not to the umpire. The bad umpiring here was the difference between India winning, and a tie. Spilt milk it may be, the gall of the Australian team leadership to stand behind Symonds’ decision to stay at the crease was disappointing. Where is our oft-hailed sportsmanship, if not here? Is this not the moment where it is meant to shine? What kind of example do these cricketers set for the youth of today by their actions?

“That ain’t cricket”? - that ain’t the half of it! Young Sharma, the 19 year old Indian who went on to witness Symonds save the innings for a collapsed Australian lineup, went and shook Andrew Symonds’ hand. At the end of an innings which should never have been, he still had the right spirit about him and congratulated his opponent. How Roy could look him in the eye with any semblance of honesty was beyond me.

As for the final day… Dravid being dismissed as out; an example of the Australian team’s over-eagerness to appeal absolutely everything. Even when the bat is on the other side of the pad, quite clearly nowhere near the ball… the Aussies felt the right thing to do was pressure the umpire into making another bad decision. Full credit to the team once more, really great showmanship there. I’m left almost flabbergasted, considering Cricket Australia, the players, and the team are quite happy to sit there and say “we played in the right spirit”, when quite clearly, they were not.

The sheer irony of the Australian team to be the one complaining of copping abuse on the field is almost too much. The long tradition of sledging, very often using words and ideas deemed to be offfensive to the given competitor, is part of the mantra when one joins the slip cordon. If there’s something that bothers me more than sheer outright dishonesty, it is hypocrisy. Being a hypocrite, especially on the public stage, is just asking for trouble. Look to see Australia get bitten back hard for this.

The question is now, what to do to fix things? 31000 SMH readers (60% of all respondents) felt Ricky Pointing should be given the boot. Brendan Nelson thinks we should get off his back. I’m not sure where change need to start from, but I feel a united front from the top going down, recognising that whilst umpiring can be poor, it was not helped by the approach the team took to the game.

Perhaps starting with that, both teams will be in a position where they can sit and discuss what honour means to them.

Recently, Kellie and I visited the latest venue to be graced by Guy Sebastian’s musical talents, one of the places where all performers can be humbled: the Sydney Opera House. It was very much a case of ‘returning to the scene of the crime’, as this was where it all started, where Guy was crowned the first Australian Idol. Being at the Opera House demanded a bit of fancyness, and upon arrival, it was clear that the audience at this concert was far older than the usual Guy fanfare, almost on par with the Elton crowd!

The seats we had were awesome (hats off to Kellie! ). Dead set centre and one level up; it afforded a view of the entire stage, and the choir behind. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. To top it off, it was quite a way through the concert that people even sat in front of us, so the view was mostly uninterrupted. Looking around, there really wasn’t a position in the entire hall that I’d have preferred… except maybe right on stage

The first half of the concert was Guy’s music, ‘remixed orchestral style’… I mean, the tunes were largely untouched, but hearing these tunes created by about 15 violins was pretty amazing! Song selection basically consisted of most of his singles, and a few of his personal favourites that were suited towards his backing. Hearing “Climb Every Mountain” was always going to be a powerful one to experience, this time with a full orchestra behind him… whilst he’s never been able to hit that final note the way he did in Idol, it was still intense and elicited a standing ovation.

What really impressed me during this entire section was the control of the conductor. I’ve honestly never seen much orchestral music, save for school bands, but keeping a tight rein on 30 or so people spread across that area can never be easy. Keeping in mind that Guy’s usual band is a group of like-minded individuals who are very flexible and can work around his constant adlibbing of lyrics and trills, and therein lies the potential for chaos; or at least, a restriction on how much leeway Guy really had. Or so I thought. It didn’t stop Guy from being his usual self with his music, and the power the conductor wielded as he kept the entire orchestra in time with Guy with his song changes was amazing! It was almost like improv classical as all the music paused with an instant’s notice, and then quickly rejoining the fray as Guy returned back to song. Just amazing.

Following the intermission, Guy took up a few of the Beatles’ classics - throwing the gauntlet across time and space at Shannon, he performed a wonderful rendition of Hey Jude that garnered much praise from the audience. He moved onto Elvis and whilst I don’t know Elvis’ music that well, he definitely had some good choices there that suited both his voice and the orchestra behind him. Guy then made a tribute to his dad, and belted out some genuine classics - old blue eyes with ‘The way you look tonight’ (possibly my favourite Sinatra song ever!), and Nat King Cole too!

In a strong move, he also chose to perform a few gospel songs — all quite strong ones, and even a few that I knew! :p So quickly however, it seemed to come to an end, an exhilirating ride that brought an amazing evening to a close. All in all, an awesome concert To witness such talent, in such an inspiring locale… well, you kinda wonder if you can ever get there too!

I discovered that the experience had renewed the vigor for my Australian Idol campaign (remember, vote 1 Fradam!)… somewhat sadly, it appears I’m not the only one.

Idol 2007 has already seen 30,000 singers try out for the show, the same as last year, and thousands tried their luck at Sydney’s Australian Technology Park over the weekend.

Australian Idol began in 2003 and sifted through 20,000 hopefuls in capital cities to find its first winner, Guy Sebastian.

Doh… not as much chance, but we can always hope!

Across the last few days, there has been a sick story developing, and becoming more localised with more detail each day — the incident taking place in our very own Warringah Mall. It was somewhat disconcerting considering that such a perverse act was taking place in a shopping mall that I’ve known for so long; that there were people like that in my area. Honestly, it shocks me that there are guys out there that are believing that its okay to do things like this; I pray that more news about people being caught stops those who still practice it.

Learning that the man was from Harbord hit even closer to home, having spent a better part of my teenage years in neighbouring Manly High School. However, the latest update (thanks Will), names and shames the perpetrator as a Mr Robert Drummond, a teacher at Cromer High. Those who attended Manly High and read this no doubt were met with immediate shock, as many of us went to school with a science teacher by the name of Mr Drummond! Could this be true… could the originator of this sick crime be someone we had known for 6 years…?

After the initial shock settled passed, the question of “Is that our Drummond?!” began to rise more fervently. After all, how many guys with a surname like ‘Drummond’, would be living in Harbord and teaching?

An investigation to determine this was launched… and resulted in a few reasons to suggest that it was in fact a different Drummond who just happened to live in the area and be a teacher:
- being 41 now, would mean he was 31-37 during the time we knew him at school, and between his balding scalp, and the remaining whispers of hair being reasonably grey, there was a strong claim for him being far older than these news articles would imply
- the teacher referenced in the article taught English, whereas our Drummond was a Science teacher and seemed quite content with staying within that discipline
- Cromer High students have confirmed the presence of a Mr Drummond teaching English there during the same time as a Mr Drummond was teaching Science at Manly High school.

Yep, that about seals it. Different Drummond…

During the investigation however, certain other interesting facts surfaced:
- there was more than one member of the Cromer High staff whom could share some resemblance to Manly Drummond
- there is no Drummond listed in the Manly staff anymore, but there is still one at Cromer.
- Manly Drummond was a teacher who chose not to undertake any other co-curricular activities within the school
- the name Robert Drummond as the teacher of a NSW school has risen before - a different age, a different school and different scandal.

It’s interesting in a way; news and current affairs often seem a little detached; everything happens everywhere else, and even when its local, e.g. the Manly Daily, there is still a certain sense of disenchantment. However, upon seeing a name that was immediately recognisable, and fitting together with so many other local details, it suddenly brought the news right close to home, and for a brief moment, everything seems to be in your own world.

This doesn’t in any way lessen the fact that someone still committed this crime; but it is of some relief to me at least that it was not a teacher that I went to school with, and who taught classes that I sat in. Hopefully whatever punishment is doled out scares off other people who behave like that.

You have to wonder what the world is coming to when it seems anyone or anything, can get its paws on a credit card.

I wonder what the credit rating would be like on one of those giant trees…

After much poking, prodding, bugging and otherwise incessant badgering from numerous people to go see Casino Royale, I finally did it, and saw it without thinking about all the things the media have been saying about it for ages.

Overall, I have to say I am impressed.

I am one of the many who was getting a little tired of the over-slicked and over-gadgetised Bond of recent years, which had become an exercise in sheer technological indulgence for the people behind it. We’ve seen everything from disappearing cars and X-ray glass to the most unrealistic of them all, a jetpack! It was honestly getting a bit much. I don’t think Bond was ever meant to get suave — a trend which I guess began with Roger Moore. The classics with Sean Connery were smooth at times, but also a bit brutish in some respects.

Daniel Craig’s portrayal of Bond is indeed a throwback to those times, with his character being placed in his novitiate as far as ‘00′ status is concerned, and thus, is fully qualified with being ‘rough around the edges’:

James Bond: Vodka-martini.
Bartender: Shaken or stirred?
James Bond: Does it look like I give a damn?

Watching this younger, brash Bond, was reminiscent of watching Sean Connery on old Friday night Channel 10 Bond reruns. A British gentleman who knew what he wanted and how to get it.

I found most of the commentary on Craig to be quite interesting — reviewers “were forced to eat their words over doubts about Daniel Craig’s ability to play agent 007“. Many fans however, yelled loudly against him — and why? He is blonde and blue eyes… yes, I am dead serious. Of course, that didn’t stop him somehow being voted World’s Sexiest Man, which I heartily disagree with.. it definitely should have Johnny on top!

The part of the film I find the most curious surrounds the concept of time. This is apparently the first Bond film (in terms of his career), since it deals with his promotion to ‘00′ status, yet, they are quite happy to note that it is indeed the year 2006, and things like SMS are freely available. If we consider there to be no timeline of Bond outside of a start and then a middle, then this makes sense — except that M is still a woman (no longer grey though), as she is in the last few movies, but not in any prior. A bit of a muddled mess!

All in all though, it has done well at the box office, becoming the highest ever earning Bond film of all time, and I would recommend those unsure about the movie to go ahead and check it out!

2006 has been a year marked with many big name celebrities visiting Sydney, touting their audio wares in large celebrations of light and sound. U2, delayed by a number of months, Kylie, delayed by a bit longer. Billy Joel and Elton John rounded out the oldies group, and Robbie Williams represented for today’s pop. That’s not even mentioning Coldplay and Live either. For an area that is often musically entrenched in a drought, we’ve done rather well… but have we enjoyed it?

One friend remarked to me that one concert they went to a few months ago had the lead singer high, and lasted a brief 40 minutes. The Sydney Morning Herald recently ran an article on Robbie Williams’ recent sojurn, describing it as “indulgent and selfish”. That seems a pretty harsh criticism, but it does raise a question — what does it take for an artist to be satisfied with their performance? Is it the money? Is it the splendour of the concert? Is it the adoration of the fans?

If my friends are considered a microcosm of society, it seems fans are beginning to respond when their favourite artists aren’t performing for them, and that difference of happiness is resulting in some unhappy people.

I think myself quite lucky. Kellie took me to the Elton John concert a few weeks back for my birthday (thankyou!), and I was amazed by the performance…. sometimes you forget just how many hits someone has. Some of his more poignant ballads were ever more powerful when listening to just him and his piano, watching his aged fingers stroll across a plateau they knew all too well. He finished with ‘Your Song’, dedicating it to Sydney, to a throng of joyous fans. Whilst I know you can’t please everyone, I think he would have come as close as he possibly could have to it. He truly demonstrated what a showman he is, with all the style and flair we expected, and none of the uglyness that the media often portrays him in.

At one point, in the middle of the concert, he stopped to sign every single thing that anyone brought to him. It was clear that some people were disappointed as they were at the stage with nothing to sign — until one clever individual handed his ticket to Elton to sign. And sign it he did. Suddenly, the mass surged forward, tickets extended out to him. He signed them all; every single one of them. This is the same person who has had much publicised scuffles with the media, often reacting quite rudely and harshly to those who take up his time. But for his fans, he had all the time in the world.

Perhaps that is the difference between the old school artists; those who made a melody with a voice and a piano, and today’s pop-driven frenzy: people who made time for their fans, and people who sell to their fans.

Out of curiousity, what have your concert experiences been like? Have they changed over the years?