song comments and woman in sport
4) The way I love you
Another song from the turn of last century. It?s a simple love song that explores pragmatic reality as opposed to romantic silliness. From a male perspective we settle down with whomever will put up with us.
5) Wanting
The heart of Corporate Moronic in many respects. I wrote this lyric with a little input from my daughters in response to a song by another band. It pillories the betrayal of genuine humanistic inquiry for money and the vapid music and lyrics spawned as a result. I work hard and I encourage my students to do the same. Why? It?s not a nice feeling to wake up being 40 and ashamed of your own work.
6) In Limbo
A final song from last century. Illicit longing. Light relief (sonically at least).
As these three songs didn?t take up much space here?s an additional blog.
Woman in sport
This has been getting my goat for ages. We have a sports review programme called ?The Crowd Goes Wild? hosted by a couple of blokes (Mark Richardson, self-made opening batsman whose subtext and general stance is to worship his maker) and some other guy whose name I?ve never bothered to memorise. For their trailer they show a tearful female under-17 New Zealand footballer shot after a narrow defeat ended their hopes of qualifying for the next round of the under-17 World Cup. The voice over suggests of her tears that ?its as if someone wrote something bad about her on Bebo.? Self-satisfied, patronising bastards.
I enjoyed that tournament. The skill, guts and determination all the teams demonstrated was entertaining as was the spirit of amateur sport, clearly playing for glory, love of the game and each other. OK, woman?s muscles don?t twitch as fast as men?you need to take that up with God or evolution, but either way it is not their fault. They do mighty well with what they have and within their gender operate on a level playing field. And in the process they gave all that a spectator could want from the theatre of sport?passion, commitment, joy at triumph and despair in defeat in spite of having given every last drop of energy and perspiration. To belittle them in this way is utterly shameful (is the subtext not that they should leave physical sports such as football (soccer) to the real men?). Would they dare a voiceover like that accompanying a picture of Christiano Ronaldo in tears after being dumped out of the European cup final by Greece a few years back? No. A 17-year-old woman reacting in the same way to an analogous disappointment is fair game apparently.
These snide, belittling comments have a clear subtext that woman should know their place, or at the very least that their contribution to sport is inconsequential. Level playing fields are the precondition for the drama that unfolds, the fairness of the contest, upon which all the glory and disappointment depends. Whether it be based on gender, grading systems, age group restrictions etc. the principle is inviolable (or would the hosts of TCGW enjoy the spectacle of the All Blacks beating up on a schoolboy side ala the match in Monty Python?s The Meaning of Life or do they watch re-runs of the America?s Cup Yachting where a New Zealand monohull is routinely trounced by a giant catamaran). And as for Richardson?s former sport, cricket, the New Zealand woman were (at the time of writing) in the 20-twenty world cup final, whilst the men had long since seen the back of Heathrow Airport. So in conclusion, take your misogynist hi-rotate trailer down and in the process stop embarrassing yourselves.
Another song from the turn of last century. It?s a simple love song that explores pragmatic reality as opposed to romantic silliness. From a male perspective we settle down with whomever will put up with us.
5) Wanting
The heart of Corporate Moronic in many respects. I wrote this lyric with a little input from my daughters in response to a song by another band. It pillories the betrayal of genuine humanistic inquiry for money and the vapid music and lyrics spawned as a result. I work hard and I encourage my students to do the same. Why? It?s not a nice feeling to wake up being 40 and ashamed of your own work.
6) In Limbo
A final song from last century. Illicit longing. Light relief (sonically at least).
As these three songs didn?t take up much space here?s an additional blog.
Woman in sport
This has been getting my goat for ages. We have a sports review programme called ?The Crowd Goes Wild? hosted by a couple of blokes (Mark Richardson, self-made opening batsman whose subtext and general stance is to worship his maker) and some other guy whose name I?ve never bothered to memorise. For their trailer they show a tearful female under-17 New Zealand footballer shot after a narrow defeat ended their hopes of qualifying for the next round of the under-17 World Cup. The voice over suggests of her tears that ?its as if someone wrote something bad about her on Bebo.? Self-satisfied, patronising bastards.
I enjoyed that tournament. The skill, guts and determination all the teams demonstrated was entertaining as was the spirit of amateur sport, clearly playing for glory, love of the game and each other. OK, woman?s muscles don?t twitch as fast as men?you need to take that up with God or evolution, but either way it is not their fault. They do mighty well with what they have and within their gender operate on a level playing field. And in the process they gave all that a spectator could want from the theatre of sport?passion, commitment, joy at triumph and despair in defeat in spite of having given every last drop of energy and perspiration. To belittle them in this way is utterly shameful (is the subtext not that they should leave physical sports such as football (soccer) to the real men?). Would they dare a voiceover like that accompanying a picture of Christiano Ronaldo in tears after being dumped out of the European cup final by Greece a few years back? No. A 17-year-old woman reacting in the same way to an analogous disappointment is fair game apparently.
These snide, belittling comments have a clear subtext that woman should know their place, or at the very least that their contribution to sport is inconsequential. Level playing fields are the precondition for the drama that unfolds, the fairness of the contest, upon which all the glory and disappointment depends. Whether it be based on gender, grading systems, age group restrictions etc. the principle is inviolable (or would the hosts of TCGW enjoy the spectacle of the All Blacks beating up on a schoolboy side ala the match in Monty Python?s The Meaning of Life or do they watch re-runs of the America?s Cup Yachting where a New Zealand monohull is routinely trounced by a giant catamaran). And as for Richardson?s former sport, cricket, the New Zealand woman were (at the time of writing) in the 20-twenty world cup final, whilst the men had long since seen the back of Heathrow Airport. So in conclusion, take your misogynist hi-rotate trailer down and in the process stop embarrassing yourselves.
