Sports

Kylie Minogue - Showgirl - The Homecoming Tour

For some reason I had expected Kylie to have a support act. She did the last time I saw her. Who doesn't have a support act? Well as it turned out, this time around, Kylie. Oops. Lucky for me she was running late. After making us wait eighteen months, what's another half an hour. Thank God! I entered the arena just after the lights had dimmed and the familiar Showgirl prelude began to play. By the time she was half way through the first verse I had found my seat, which I didn't need anyway because we were all standing and cheering. Wow, it felt so special, to be there for Kylie's return from illness. I don't think she's ever sounded better live and, with a few extra curves post-illness, she looked hot.

Highlights:
- Especially For You. What was originally a clever way to address the lack of a Jason, this was the one where, for an encore, she does karaoke style with the audience performing Jason's lines. Normally this isn't one of my favourite Kylie songs, it's just a little too inane, but up until this point Kylie had held it together to deliver a pretty good performance only to see her being overwhelmed by her emotions. It didn't matter, the audience sang the song for her. And strangely the song had taken another level of significance, Kylie had been in our hearts for all that time and our love never changed. It sounds overly sentimental, yes, but rarely has it ever been as real as this.
- Dreams. And this is what she did for the last eighteen months. Kept believing in dreams. Spine-tingling and haunting.

Not to mention the spinning birthday cake of I Believe In You, the fabulously golden Shocked megamix, and the Princess referencing the Queen of Pop during Burning Up.

Fantastic show. I want to go again!!!

Technorati Tags: Kylie Minogue, Showgirl, The Homecoming Tour, Pop, Concert

powered by performancing firefox

Well well... it's the end and guess who won!

...

ME!

And, no, I still don't see anything wrong with that! Someone has to organise the competition, and why should anyone else outside of the competition be lumped with that job when they're not going to get anything out of it? And why should I deny myself a chance at the prize just because I take on the job?

Anyway, it was an interesting situation tipping for the grand final. With both underdogs upsetting the favourites, denying me of tipping points for an entire round, second place RP was in striking distance and was still able to win. Even before the game was set to start, it became apparent that RP and I tipping the same team to win the grand final would ensure that I would win the tipping competition regardless of the match outcome. Being from the far North Queensland and so far being totally loyal to the Cowboys, it was easy to predict what team RP was going to tip and had I could have just tipped Cowboys and taken the shortcut to the finish line. RP could have taken a risk that I would do this and gone for the Tigers and, had she picked the margin, would have sneakily taken the top spot from me (of course I could have just waited for RP to tip then copy her to ensure my victory either way but that would be cheating and I DON'T CHEAT!). The problem with this strategy is that, if Cowboys won she ran the risk of losing her top three spot had NL and JG both tipped Cowboys (JG with the added condition that she get the right margin as well), with no prizemoney and the added agony of knowing that she was disloyal (which, knowing RP, she would never do). That being said it was just as unlikely for NL, a proud westie, to tip agains the Wests as it was for RP to tip the Cowboys and that brings up the other situation where RP tips the Tigers to play for second spot knowing that NL would most likely pick her home team.

In the end, everyone pretty much tipped as expected and as we now know the Wests Tigers finally won. When Benji set up that try just before half time it started to become apparent that I would win the tipping competition and that westie girl NL would get second spot. But what else was starting to happen was that the tipping margin was beginning to be important as the Wests Tigers extended their lead just after half time. JG tipped a close match with the Wests Tigers winning and she needed those bonus points to overtake RP and take third spot. In effect JG needed to pray that the Cowboys could contain the Tigers and not allow them to extend their lead. Had Scott Prince managed to kick that field goal near the end of the match and that was that then RP would have taken the cash winning third spot. Prince, as it turned out, missed and it wasn't until Hodgson converted at full time that RP's prize was assured.

It was tense for a moment there, JPB was hoping for RP's sake that the Wests Tigers would extend the margin (she had won him over in Melbourne when she said he was handsome) and was relieved when Hodgson booted the ball between the poles. Hooray!

My prize has already been spent, by the way...

Tags: NRL.

(apologies to all homosexuals involved in organising this parade...)

What went wrong:
1. Not enough colours. There are six colours in the rainbow and they only used one. Even the audience was pretty much homogenous, which is the wrong kind of homo.
1a. Not enough sequins. Though the tape flickering overhead on this gloriously fine day was quite pretty.

2. Not enough flesh shown. A team of beautiful bodies, all covered up in red and white. Boo.

3. No disco. There were bands, there were people singing something about how the Swans will go in and win over all. All very good but not very danceable

4. Not enough floats. And they were all pretty much the same: a ute and two guys. The last guy had a big shiny cup and some streamers but, overall, pretty disappointing. Maybe the club can sponsor other floats with sequined half-naked guys dancing to disco.

5. No drag queens. Just Sandra Sully.

Please take note of the 2006 Mardi Gras parade and try to do a better job for next year.

What went right:
1. We won. Yay.

Cheer, Cheer, the Red and the White,
Honour the name, by day and by night;
Lift that noble banner high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky.
What though the odds be great, or small,
Swans will go in and win over all;
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to Victory.

Go the Wests Tigers (don't forget about them Westies!)

Tags: AFL, Sydney Swans, parade

Seven o'clock in the morning, just pulled up at Central on the XPT from Melbourne via Wagga and a sea of red spilled out onto the platform. Earlier on that morning, bleary eyed because even in first class those seats are far less comfortable than economy class across the Pacific, I awoke to a rendition of the red and white club song. The aisle of the carriage was lined with red and white flags.

On Saturday in Wagga we had decided to shift the schedule forward so that we could watch the match. It was bloody amazing to see the MCG awash with red, amazing because in Rugby League Central I didn't really think that there would be that many dedicated AFL fans. The extended break also meant an opportunity take a decent nap and, when the Swans were 39-19 up at about half time I decided to rest up, that the Swannies had it in the bag. By the middle of the fourth quarter I woke up to find that it was anything but, and fifteen minutes later I was wide awake and jumping around. We were all so excited that Bangarra decided to do a special dedication to the Swans. Had I had been more organised instead of stressing about my hair I would have done a special commemorative Goanna paint-up but instead had to make do with some random red and white stripes on my arms and legs. The dancers also gave them a bit of a cheer a post curtain call cheer but we got a bit confused because we weren't sure if we were going to cheer "Swans" or "Swannies" or "Sydney" or... Oh well.

Now if only that OTHER red and white team replicated the Swannies' victory. Then I wouldn't find myself at risk of being knocked off the top of the NRL tipping competition. Serves me right, I live in Wests Tigers' territory. Never again...

Tags: Sydney Swans, AFL.

Previous: Major Dilemma - NRL 2005 Tipping Round 21

Everyone seems to be comfortable with the tipping co-ordinator heading the tipping leaderboard. However, now I feel the pressure of maintaining my lead, especially considering the ignominious fall-from-grace of the previous leader. This week's match-ups are particularly difficult, I've never thought more about NRL than this week and, with matches like Cowboys vs Dragons, I don't think it's ever been harder. I also feel obligated to tip the Knights now that I've declared them to be *MY* team (or, more accurately, *MY* halfback) even though I would feel more comfortable tipping the Bulldogs. Here's my PRELIMINARY tips, which may change by tomorrow.

COWBOYS to beat Dragons - it's the fact that the Cowboy's home ground is so far away from the Gong.
KNIGHTS to beat Bulldogs - this isn't necessarily the crazy thing to do, in this late stage of the season.
PANTHERS to beat Roosters - another close one. Foxsport prefer the Panthers but Centrebet favours the Roosters.
STORM to beat Sharks - I'm pretty confident about this one.
WESTS TIGERS to beat Raiders - though how long can their run last?
EELS to beat Warriors - I'm not sure about this one. The Warriors apparently sucked last week but they're home this week...
BRONCOS to beat Sea Eagles - what's happened to Manly?

Tags: NRL.

Previous: Dilemma - NRL 2005 Tipping Round 20

BRONCOS to beat Raiders
DRAGONS to beat Roosters
KNIGHTS to beat Storm
WARRIORS to beat Panthers
BULLDOGS to beat Rabbitohs
COWBOYS to beat Sea Eagles
WESTS TIGERS to beat Sharks

This is a big big problem. Saturday has gone, though I got the Warriors vs Panthers match wrong, I've hit the lead and it will take the defeat of both the Cowboys and the Tigers to knock me off. I'm not looking forward to going back to work on Tuesday. Already SP pulled me up about me being hot on the heels of the lead tipper, accusing me of outright cheating (incidentally, at round 20, SP was way back in tenth spot which explains his bitterness) which is crap. You'd think that, if I was cheating, I'd take a dive now then work my way back up to the top later on... I've even thought that maybe I should take a dive now just to avoid the cynics but then that just isn't fair on me now is it? Especially when I volunteered to take on this role, why should I deny myself the chance of winning? And, with all the extra work involved in organising this, why should I do EVEN MORE work to prove that I'm not cheating?

UPDATE Sunday: The Rabbits upset the Dogs but, with second-place tipper getting EVERY match wrong, I find myself way out ahead of the pack. I am so not looking forward to Tuesday...

Tags: NRL.

Previous : NRL 2005 Tipping Round 17

Okay. I had an excellent round of tipping, albeit taking a rather low-risk approach this week and picked all home teams. Though I'm kicking myself for not tipping the Knights, now that I have a new crush in Andrew Johns. My dilemma is that I'm starting to close in on the top spot and, being the tipping co-ordinator, it seems slightly dodgy. I don't look at anyone's tips until I've done mine so that I don't have an unfair advantage over everyone else (though I also tend to think that too much information could be harmful!) but, still... What makes me anxious about it is that, at $2 a pop, there is now ALOT of money in the tipping jar. And I am most likely going to take some of that money.

Oh and BTW if I did take into consideration how everyone else tips I would be ten points behind and in equal third. Also interestingly is that if I had tipped home teams the whole way through I would be equal first. It's that kind of a season.

Tags: NRL.