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A compilation of 15 of the Mac vs PC ads. Werd.

Celebrate Sialkot!

In amongst the excitement that awaits us this weekend, let's not forget the reason that we can get excited this weekend: the city of Sialkot.

Sialkot (Urdu/Punjabi: سیالکوٹ ) is a city situated in the north-east of the Punjab province in Pakistan at the feet of the snow-covered peaks of Kashmir near the Chenab river. Formerly, Sialkot has been the winter-capital of the State of Kashmir. The city is about 125 km north-west of Lahore and only a few kilometres from Jammu. Its diverse population of 3,000,000 mainly consists of Punjabis with a significant number of migrant Kashmiris and Pashtuns.

But what is significant about this unheralded city, especially leading up to this weekend, is that it's major industry is making footballs. Yes folks, footballs. About 60% of footballs produced world wide are made in Sialkot.

Really, it's the first week of the English Premier League that I'm excited about, but for a while I did wonder where all those footballs were made.

Predictions
Manchester United to win the title again, through sheer intimidation if not skill.

Darren Bent to be the leading scorer.

Derby, Sunderland and Wigan to drop straight down to the Championship (it's a shame Lee McCulloch has left for Rangers. Absolute talent).

Thoughts
Tottenham's new signing Darren Bent joins Dimitri Berbatov and Jermaine Defoe, making Tottenham's strike force significant.

A host of players (Marlon Harewood, Carlos Tevez and the freaky looking Paul Konchesky) have left West Ham, but a host of new players (Freddie Ljungberg, Scott Parker, Craig Bellamy) have arrived. Lucas Neill is captain so that will get a few Aussies on the bandwagon.

Newcastle is another team with a much improved forward line - an injury free Michael Owen, Mark Viduka and Obafemi Martins will cause some havok, with each complementing each other. Quality midfielder Joey Barton has also arrived from Manchester City.

Aston Villa's season goal will be to "win more games than we draw".

Liverpool have their best chance at catching Manchester United and Chelsea this season. A few quality arrivals, most notably Spaniard Fernando Torres.

Little to say about Blackburn except one of my favourite players, Benni McCarthy, is set for another massive season. Kiwi captain Ryan Nelson a solid centre back.

Mark Bresciano will make an impact when his transfer to Manchester City finally goes through. It will be good to see him on TV a bit more too.

The tiny Robbie Earnshaw returns to the Premier League, this time with Derby. Can destroy teams, but can suffer a lot from his size.

Bolton should never have let go of a defender I highly rate, Radhi Jaidi. Here's hoping Birmingham smash Bolton this season, however I do like Kevin Nolan as a tough nut leader.

So, cheers to a season of late nights, frustration at an under-performing Liverpool, misery at not having cable TV, joy at seeing my fantasy team dominate their league, and 89th minute goals meaning my tips score highly, and for 38 weeks of the best goals, saves and punch ons! *Cracks open a Carlsberg...gotta stay loyal to the brand pumping millions into my club!*

Young and Restless - Self Titled album review

This is something that should be up on the Syn website by now, in a limited form, but alas. I'm sure it'll show it's face soon...

Young and Restless - "Young and Restless"
Self-Titled debut album

Over the past 12 months “noise” has well and truly established itself as a derivative of indie. A tag to separate the likes of Wolf and Cub, Kiosk and Bit By Bats from The Shins, The Grates and everything nice.

And while you could lump anything distorted, experimental or that contains undecipherable lyrics under the noise banner, the fact is some bands are successful at it while others, to use a friend’s delightful description, sound like “cats to the slaughter”.

Thankfully for my ears, and your budgets should you choose to spend the money, Melbourne-formerly-of-Canberra five piece Young And Restless fit the bill of the former.

What separates Young And Restless is their ability to make each song take on a distinct feel while existing within a genre that at times can sound very similar from band to band.

Having relentlessly toured after being Unearthed last year, Young And Restless have finally released their debut full length release. The 12 track album was recorded by Tom Larkin of Shihad at his Melbourne studios in early 2007 and features guest vocals from Peter Saladino (Brisk) and Tom Lyngcoln (The Nation Blue).

And there is much to like about it, despite it being a watered down version of their powerful live set.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the album is lead singer Karina Utomo. While thunder might come close to rattling windows, she certainly shatters them, and it is her vocals that form the basis for Young and Restless’ unique sound. She effortlessly sings and screams with an unmatched energy, saying “fuck you” to anyone who dares judge her.

The album’s opener, “Need A Hit”, showcases exactly what Young and Restless are about and gives you a sense of what is to come. A crunching bass drum leads into a driving guitar and deep bass lines, slowing down before tearing the room apart.

There is a certain beauty in distortion.

And you feel you are only just getting into it as it speeds up with the second track “I Pointed At You And You Burst Into Flames”.

The album weaves through elements of catchy, indie disco drum beats (Kapow!) to insane, window shattering vocals (I Pointed At You…). Heavy bass drums and relentless guitars (Need A Hit) back to carefully plucked guitar strings (Black).

At times all of 30 seconds can showcase all four elements at once. The tracks “Police, Police”, my favourite “Here It Comes (Lungs)” and the song that defines Young And Restless, first single “Satan” epitomise this exact sentiment.

It remains a shame that you must wait until track nine to hear “Satan”. It’s a song Utomo has described as being about peer pressure (“step right up and shake hands with the devil / listen to Satan, listen to him”).

Similarities can be drawn between the opening of “Black” and Refused’s “Deadly Rhythm” while “Police Police” displays unintentional hints of The Bravery.

And “Dirty Kicks” remains the low point of the ground breaking debut. Dominated by a dirty guitar feel, it’s a little repetitive and reverts to aspects of “noise” music that can be found in so many lesser artists in the genre – aimless thrashing and a relative (to other tracks) simplicity that doesn’t characterise Young And Restless.

But for the most part it’s an album that will leave you a mess but you’ll feel good about being this way. It’s delicate at times, brutal at others while being amazingly complex, incredibly diverse and full of raw energy. While Karina Utomo destroys any stereotypes in her path, this album destroys every idea of what music is supposed to be like.

a broken record spins in circles, she just can't listen anymore

They're lyrics by Finch. While they're a band I don't hugely like, I did like that song for a while.

The point of that is that the song is called "New Beginnings". And its relevence is that I've had my hand forced regarding this piece of citizen journalism and so I'm getting this blog up and running again. Yeah, cheers Jonty...I...uhhh...owe you one.

To coincide with this monumentous occasion, I'll write and tell you that one of my most anticipated albums was released today - Liam Finn's solo debut "I'll Be Lightning". And thanks to a certain uncle and aunty (not the ABC, unfortunately) and their Sanity voucher from last Christmas dug up during a spontaneous and infrequent tidy of my room, I bought myself this album while keeping my hard earnt in my pocket. (That hard earnt went towards a sub of the day barely 20 metres from the Sanity store).

Two-and-a-half years ago Kiwi band Betchadupa, that Finn fronts, played a free lunchtime gig at RMIT's Bowen St. All of 50 people watched it, most only for five minutes while walking to insignificant classes, particularly in week one. Especially when they could've seen an amazing band.

I doubt I could call it a life changing experience - Liamm Finn never has actually done anything that's changed the course of my life - however it did make me go out and investigate further. and off to JB Hifi I went.

I scored myself the cheaper of their two albums, The Alphabetchadupa, and it took a while to get into. But after several listens and 30 months later it easily sits in the top five albums that I own now, with the track "Lucy's Song" recognised in a similar fashion.

Liam Finn, for the ignorant few out there the son of Crowded House and Split Enz legend Neil, has the ability to say so much in so few words. It's self reflective, emotive music sung with a gentleness that evokes ideas of a guy being honest to himeslf, if not anything else. It's beautiful song writing, but ever so simple. It's about the most basic things in life that we often overlook or take for granted. It's about many things, but you wouldn't think so.

I guess the best way to sum it up is by saying it's exactly like the (environmentally friendly) booklet that it comes with. There is no words in the booklet. Just photos. Of nothing special either: a green paddock that looks like somewhere in England (where he now calls home); a destroyed computer screen on a footpath; a street of terrace houses with leafless trees in the middle of Winter; the front of a hotel dimly lit by a fading street light.

Perhaps two of the most nothing photos of them all show a rusting clothes line in a suburban backyard with an overgrown weed spiralling up the side of a brick house, and an image of Finn behind a table with a blank expression and a similarly blank black t-shirt.

They are images of nothing, but yet you feel like you've completed a journey.

the big guns come to syn

well, "big" and "gun" are subjective questions, and really i doubt he has reached such status yet. Apparantly he's a nice enough guy too, and he's only a year behind me at uni, doing the same course. Shit, I should get off my arse and do something huh...

Costello the younger takes a crack at public life

If you're up early enough, why not tune in?

what it really was like

Archie vs Adelaide

ALG GF Melb-Adel CorScr (NT) Correct Score - WINNER

16328

W. Scores Not Quoted

21.00

Paying

Right there, my friends, is the payout one would receive had they placed a single dollar on the Melbourne Victory to win 6-0 this evening. The actual odds for a 6-0 victory would've been much higher, as $21 is for "score not quoted" encompassing many scores. 5-0 would've been up around $101.

Very few would have done so. The only people who could claim such a profit are the folk who, while getting out of the car to go to the TAB, found a gold coin that had slipped down the side of the seat. The thought process would then move to the brainwave: "Hey, what the hell. If Archie can score 5 and someone else, maybe Sarkies, chips in with a goal of their own, it might actually happen".

Their own serious bet, maybe a close 1-0 Victory win or a few quid on form striker Allsopp to open the game, would have certainly seemed more likely, a safer option, and the bet they would have pondered over all week.

After all the previews, expert tips and arguments with mates over the match, it would've been the single dollar shining amongst the material that lines their car that ultimately would have brought a $20 profit, enough for celebratory drinks for a double Victory.

Tonights game was unbelievable. No one would have predicted a 6-0 whitewash, especially given Adelaide's defensive mentality. Let me recap from the beginning.

Andy and I hopped on a 3pm train to the city, hoping to enjoy a few drinks at the Great Western Hotel before walking down to the Dome. Minutes from Southern Cross Station we get a call from our pal Maz, who has just arrived at the Great Western: "Looks packed. 100 or so people outside". Two minutes later, a message: "LOL 100, more like 500".



The place was packed. Little Bourke St had people everywhere, a sea of blue and white shirts. Streamers thrown were all over the road, catching on people as they made their way through the crowd. Chanting from three different places, out of time but it didn't matter. Flares were being let off in the middle of small crowds and surprisingly there were few Police at the scene. Soon the crowd moved on to King Street and quickly the traffic built up. Finally a cop turned up, and had no option but to instruct motorists to do a u-turn over the embankment and back up King Street.

Working a Sunday night shift for work has only allowed me to go to one game this season and so I'm largely ignorant to the words of the chants sung so passionately by the Blue and White Brigade. However it was impossible not to comprehend their most blunt one, certainly fitting for the occasion: FUCK OFF UNITED

The crowd then moved down Bourke St, taking ownership of the footpaths, road and tram tracks. We followed some folk with banner featuring Muscat and the most comedic character in the A-League, Adelaide coach John Kosmina, and reading "One knows how to choke, the other knows how to win".



The crowd then stopped at the bottom of the Southern Cross Station steps at the intersection of Bourke St and Spencer St. There I saw one of the most amazing scenes in the history of sporting fans. The image can only describe the atmosphere:



It was phenomenal. Endless chanting, a wall of blue and white, abuse being hurled at anyone - anything - wearing red. Flags flying above the crowd's heads. A tram had to be escorted through the intersection by Police. No other sport in Australia would get this kind of street partying before the grand final. It was seriously incredible.

We then met Andy's brother Leigh a few blocks from the crowd and proceeded to our seats - unfortunately threerows from the back of tier three, at the other end of the stadium to the BWB. Alas, it was all set up for a massive game.

The game started with aggression, both sides trying to impose themselves. Adelaide captain Aloisi the instigator, but he was booked early. The battle of aggression between him and Victory skip Muscat would be pivotal to the result of the match.

Adelaide settled better and had the first real chance, forcing a top save from Theo with his legs. But the Victory were soon one up, and then two up and soon enough facing 10 men after Aloisi needlessly decked Brebner after the ball had gone.

For the Victory, Pantelidis had settled well in defence, Leijer was winning the air battles and the Victory were operating with 4 attacking options. After the early Adelaide shot, Melbourne dominated. Caceres (what a gun!) went on several daring runs forcing Adelaide's defence to retreat. Fred was putting balls through holes and Brebner and Muscat were forever the first pass out of defence.

30 minutes in, Archie was on a hattrick. The first a deft chip over the rushing Beltrame hitting the post and just rolling over the line, the second a clinical display of football with Allsopp feeding Fred on the overlap who delivered a perfect low cross for Archie at the goal mouth.

3-0 after 39 minutes and Archie had his "predicted" hattrick, shaping to shoot on his right, dragging it to his left and slotting it home after a brilliant where-did-that-come-from pass by Muscat.

3-0 against 10 men at half time. Surely we couldn't lose from here.

The second half started slowly but soon all three strikers found the ball, and unfortunately the woodwork. It wasn't long until Thompson broke through for his fourth. Despite being offside he received the ball deep and was able to round the keeper and fire from a tight angle.

5-0 13 minutes later. Fred once again the assistant crossing a ball to the centre for an unmarked Archie to casually stick out his foot to score from close range, as he has done so many times for the Victory in the past two seasons. It was becoming a procession.

3 substitutions later and Sarkies rounded off the game with a brilliant solo goal from the edge of the box. He is quickly becoming a star and soon will be playing full games, hopefully in Australia but more likely in Europe.

It was a thrashing. In every sense of the word. And it was deserved. Adelaide's outspoken and hated-by-the-rest-of-the-league coach John Kosmina would've been turning in the coaching box at the ease in which his defence was torn apart. The coffee sipping character has become Victory nemesis number 1 after a stoush at Telstra Dome that saw him smacked with a 5 game touchline ban (see above). He is serving another touchline ban currently for an outburst at referee Matthew Breeze last weekend. The colourful character deserves every bit of misfortune that comes his way, and was boo-ed louder than John Howard on the stage post-game.

For the Victory, it was satisfying. To destroy an arch rival in a grand final in front of a record 55,436 crowd, it honestly can not get much better than this. The Victory are now crowned champions and premiers in the same year, the first time (albeit in two seasons) that that has been achieved.

FUCK OFF UNITED

oh what a night

So here we are, the four of us: Andy, Stefan, John and yours truly, at Glenferrie station waiting for the train to take us to our next destination for the night. Had we been there 5 minutes early we would've made a train and wouldn't be forced to wait 25 minutes for the next one. But alas.

All of a sudden it gets loud. Real loud, and a Police helicopter is hovering above the station, just circling, circling. At one stage we had the impression there was two of these flying machines, just because of the sheer noise that filled the air.

A bit of curiosity later, Stefan pipes up.

Stefan: Yeah, they're hovering the station because there were brawls and shit here last night
Aidan: Yeah? How'd you hear?
Stefan: I watch the news. It was all over the news tonight.
Andy: Well, they've got their priorities straight. Wasting our tax paying dollars after the brawls are over. Like who's gonna think "hey, that brawl was pretty sweet last night, let's go back and do it again".

Silence.

Stefan: Let's start a fake brawl

Andy then proceeded to push Stefan, lay a few punches. Aidan then felled Stefan to the ground, one arm over the chest, the other laying into his face. John then came in with a trademark late crash.

The noise of the chopper became closer and a lot more concentrated. And it was then that we realised that in fact the cops were looking out for brawlers and they in fact had just spotted a few.

We resigned to our seats, laughing hysterically at the fact that the cops were on to us, and started waving to them, hugging each other and showing love to our "enemies".

And so we were spotted by the cops of the air who had a real interest in us for 5 minutes or so. Can you imagine the pilot radioing down to the station.

Pilot: We might have something...yes, down the east end of the station. Four of them, quick, get some men down here.....hang on, hang on, they're walking away from each other...they're sitting down...they're hugging...ahhhhh, they were having me on guys, my bad, my bad, retreat, retreat.

events here and there

So it's been a pretty busy week here in Forest Hill land.

My parents moved house on Monday. They moved to a little place north of Mansfield called Lima East. The house is pretty cool - 6 acres worth - and doesn't need much maintenance. They have been back and forth between the house since then, and are here for the weekend. But by the weekend of Australia Day they should be up in the country for good. Which means Leigh and I scored big time!

Anyway, I will update this blog a little further with details and photos of the move, the day I found gold (and a few other things) behind my bed in the clean up process, as well as our day of trawling the eastern suburbs op shops in hope of a decent lounge suite and some furniture. We did find something actually - $130 for a half decent lounge suite and some couches...Croydon Salvos all the way. Many photos and stories to come...

But in the meantime, Liverpool look like they will unfortunately be going without Lucas Neill now after West Ham offered him a $125,000 AU a week deal with an "escape" clause where he is free to leave should they be relegated. It's an enticing offer, and makes the situation more intriguing.

Given Neill is under contract, Rovers still hold all the cards and are free to deal with anyone.

This West Ham offer appears to be Neill's number 1 preference, however Blackburn look like they will push for a replacement defender to cover Neill. And this is where West Ham may fail, and where Liverpool hold their chance to sign him - The Reds have already have offered bench defender Stephen Warnock for Neill, and if West Ham can't produce a player for the Rovers, the deal will fall through and he'll end up at Anfield.

For my team's sake (and Australian football in general), I'd love to see him at Liverpool. However the Reds have played hard ball with Blackburn and their offer is realistically a joke. For Blackburn's sake I hope West Ham come up with a decent offer.

In other football news, one of my favourite EPL players Lee McCulloch has asked to move on from Wigan. It's a similar situation to Neill in that the player wants out and the deals coming forward are ridiculous and insulting. It is good to see a club like Wigan and a young manager like Paul Jewell standing up to powers like Rangers. £700,000 is way too small a price for a man who is regularly on the scoresheet and a Wigan stalwart since they promoted two seasons ago.

Liverpool v Chelsea tonight...looking like it'll be a cracker!

...!

Jose tipped to leave Blues
From Russie with love

Reports that current Chelsea coach, Jose "blank expression" Mourinho will be leaving the club, and his replacement could potentially be Guus Hiddink. Would be a massive blow to any other club around the world, not the least Australia and Russia.

Here's hoping Guus doesn't move to Chelsea. If anyone could put Guus' grand plans into action, it's the technically sound Chelsea, but the rest of the world need his help to break even.