Electrifying

Cricinfo's All Of Today's Yesteryears marks July 26th as an important date - the birth of Jonty Rhodes.

Jonty caught the imagination of a generation of cricket-lovers with that spectacular run-out in the '92 World Cup to dismiss Inzamam-ul-Haq. An interesting and little-known fact about him is that he had a chance to represent South Africa in hockey in the Olympics, which would have given him the rare distinction of representing his nation in two sports (he declined the selection to play cricket) . Also, he is epileptic, a fact that caused him to stop playing soccer as a kid (a hit to the head would have induced a fit). The present generation of cricket players definitely have been inspired by his antics at backward point since he was probably worth 20 runs before he even walked out to bat.

A request to hardcore cricket aficionados reading this: *Any* chance of obtaining an image of his extraordinary dismissal of Inzy? I remember a Sportstar centerfold poster from back then. Searching online so far has been futile.

The heat hits

Temperatures soar, tempers fray, sweat pours.
Has the Seattle summer ever been this bad before?
I shudder to think of what horrors await us.
Is this just an abberation, or is this development's curse?

José- A Casa!

José + 10 is, simply put, beautiful.

As a friend remarked, all of us have played fantasy sports as kids in the neighborhood, where you take on the name of a famous player, while your opponent kid does the same. I remember avatars of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Viv Richards, Ravi Shastri (when he was still champion of champions and not the notorious slowpoke he became) and even Jansher and Jahangir Khan used as we duked it out. ( we had this variant of squash that we played with table-tennis gear and the porch wall).

To translate that into this ad is simply the coolest thing I've seen on TV advertising in a while. It manages to capture the effervescent spirit of futbol the world over. The clever juxtaposition of players from different eras, the music tracks used in the background and the impish José all add up to that rare ad - one meant for goosebumps and rushing blood.

Check here for a full look at the ad and translation.

Impossible is Nothing.

Hat Tip: Amit Varma

The Brits do it better

Pretty much the only TV I can tolerate is sitcoms. The best ones in India were on DD before the invasion from the skies - Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Dekh Bhai Dekh...). Then of course there was STAR, and Dharma and Greg was a personal favorite (though people preferred F.R.I.E.N.D.S.).

Now, of course, Seinfeld rules. The "serial about nothing" never ceases to amaze me with its nuanced observations on the things that make us tick (and tick us off). My limited TV viewing has been restricted to these, along with my slacker animation favorites, The Simpsons and South Park.

The Beeb they say has a rich treasure trove of particularly good comedy serials. Ramanand keeps mentioning them, and I'm a bit envious of the Pune crowd for easy access to the British Library. (I could go on Netflix, I guess, but why I haven't yet is a long story for a different day). A chance viewing of Coupling at a friend's place this week only piqued the curiosity more.

I haven't laughed this much in a while. "Laughing till my insides hurt" took on a whole new meaning with this slightly off-color take on the love lives (or lack thereof) of a bunch of single friends. There were flashes of insight that made me cringe, and universal truths that had me nodding my head in agreement ( if only I could stop laughing...).

Highly recommended.

Note: For those of you with a high-end Comcast cable package, Coupling is available "On Demand" in the TV-> BBC America section.

a + bi

Electronica is a genre of music most often heard in either nightclubs or in lounges. It's never really made the mainstream like rock-n-roll and hip-hop/rap eventually did. Even as it operates in the fringes, it is now increasingly mainstream - on movie soundtracks, advertisements, as background themes on TV shows, pretty much everywhere.

In an excellent review of the genre and some seminal albums, this writer says:

"Electronic music gets attacked as somehow less "real" than everything else — as if (1) the electricity that powers a guitar differs from the electricity pumped into a synthesizer, (2) hands holding drumsticks are unlike the hands used to trigger a drum-machine and, most crucially, (3) the sounds we hear as listeners owe their allure to the process by which they're made. "

Clarity

"The idea is to be someone, to rise and rise in every way possible. To be among people but to soar. I suppose there's always weed for that but it isn't really my scene."

A lovely piece by Rahul Bhatia (it's an old piece, and I wanted to link to it for a while). It's about the choices we face and the decisions we make.