redfiona99

Glorious Austrian victory in the men's downhill

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/winter-olympics/26056243

Is he not just the most beautiful and lovely person right now :) (I am hideously biased. Ridiculously biased.)

I admit I'm more tickled pink because I'd totally written the Downhill off. I didn't even expect a medal, especially after I saw Graham Bell's ski-through yesterday. Because it looked very technical, especially the top section, and the snow looked like the hard ice you get on the Italian hills, which doesn't really suit the Austrians. Or so I thought, because I was thinking of Klaus Kröll and Romed Baumann who both belong to the Herman Maier school of "point skis down the hill, attack the mountin, win or bust" skiing*.

Because of this I was expecting Svindal and the Italians to do well. I think guessing 2nd and 4th place shows I wasn't too wrong, I was just working on out of date info about the Austrian skiing team.

Obviously this will be over-shadowed in the UK by Jenny Jones getting a bronze in one of the new events I refuse to acknowledge but I will spend lots of time on the Die Presse and Der Standard websites instead. The plus points of knowing other languages ;)

So far this weekend is going well sports-wise. Austrian victory in the men's downhill, Bjoerndalen victory in the biathlon (with an Austrian in second place :) ), Ireland beating Wales. All I want now is a Russian win in the team skating event and either a Kasai or A.N. Austrian victory in the men's 90 m ski-jumping. Scotland losing miserably to England has been the only thing that hasn't gone in a way that I could at least be happy with.

*Bodie Miller is also a member of this school. That was why he didn't like the look of the course. He was just getting his excuses in early.

So yeah, yesterday was not so good on the sports front, what with Ireland losing and Saints losing in the Grand Final. I wasn't as upset about the Grand Final loss as I expected to be, despite Jamie Graham now going. But then again I knew we were going to lose the minute the words 'it's raining in Manchester' were said. For a team that play in the North-West of England, you'd think Saints would have learned to cope with inclement weather, but no, we have no plan B for these occasions. Also, if Gaskell and Wilkin let off one more loose, pointless kick on the 4th tackle ... You'll notice I said less upset not not upset. Anyway, even according to the Leeds fans, the only reason they won was Rob Burrow who deservedly won the man of the match award. I'm having to rely on other people's views because the pub I was in switched over to Scotland v Liechtenstein, which was every bit as bad a football match as you are imagining.

I set my alarm to go off in time to watch the start of the Japanese GP. I had enough wits about me to turn it on, but I fell back asleep, by the time I was fully concious I saw Button crossing the line in first and then Vettel in third, which I knew was enough for him to win the championship. When I saw the race properly later I was very happy indeed. Sorry, I just like him. Also when he's only the 9th back to back world champion ever, and he's got stars in his eyes because Schumacher told him 'well done'. I <3 Sebastian Vettel. I also loved Jenson Button's comments after the race.

Other than that, didn't Argentina do well against New Zealand. I have no idea whose foot that was but well done for keeping it there.

This was supposed to be a happy, happy, joy, joy post, but then I heard about Pavel Karelin - http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/09102011/58/russia-top-ski-jumper-karelin-dies-car-accident.html

I am very happy that Thomas Morgenstern won the Four Hills. (http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/06012011/58/morgenstern-comes-second-win-title.html)

I was almost as happy that he stopped pratting about and took his qualifying jump (long story, top ten in the world don't have to take their qualifying jump, then it descends into the usual mind games and bravado). This was calming to the nerves.

I've always understood the Andi Goldberger comparisons (that would be the Andi Goldberger who, at the age of 5-ish, I threatened to name my children after) but now I totally get that. I don't think he quite manage the same number of spectators but the volume and the fear I had certain seemed similar.

The skiing was pretty awesome too, with a fantastic push from 30th by Mattias Hargin, even if I would have loved Ivica Kostelic to win on his home piste. I do love that Ivica says he likes the Croatian coaches but the one he listens to is his sister.

I loved that the commentators were saying how terrible the Austrian performance was, given that there were two Austrians in the top 6. At our worst Alpine event. Idiot commentators.

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I managed to catch Match of the Day yesterday. My thoughts can mostly be summed up by:

Oh Alan Hansen, I <3 you. When asked what he thinks of the Roy Hodgson situation, he says, "I've never said anyone should be sacked, and I never will, because I didn't have the bottle to do the job." And then he says, "but any idiot will tell you he's under a lot of pressure." I have seen Liverpool play worse, but we do not speak of the Souness era.

Him playing for the wrong team notwithstanding, Florent Malouda is beautiful - http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/redfiona99/malouda.jpg

Stephen Hunt, bless his evil little socks, isn't.

Man Utd are doing that thing again, the one where they don't play that well but they keep on winning.

Remind me again why Darren Bent can't get a game for England.

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Film Meme:

Day 14 - A film that you used to love but now hate

My taste in films hasn't changed much, if at all over the years. I'm not sure whether to put that down to me having good taste as a child or me being more than slightly change averse ;)

( The Other Days )

Did actually go okay, which I'm pinning on your well wishes.

Admittedly I'm going to have to rewatch the Who Christmas special because the boy cousin decided to talk over it but since he half saved Christmas dinner (it's a long story, that starts with my Mum deciding that the chicken looked like lamb) he's sort of forgiven.

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Before I carry on with meme answers, I would like to ask life to stop picking on the Finnish ski jumping team. Really.

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Film Meme - Day 11 - Favourite Black and White Film

First, a declaration. You know Shepherd Book's special Hell. I consign the people who colourise black and white films to the same place. It's not just that they choose terrible colours, not known to nature (seriously, why do all the people look like they have carbon monoxide poisioning?) but they drown out the real colours in black and white films. And they are there, in the shadows and the shading and the acting. It's like in Jezebel, there's a scene where Bette Davis's character goes to a ball in a bright red dress. You don't need colour to see that it's the most shocking shade of scarlet red you ever did see.

As to my favourite black and white film, it's probably a toss up between:

Metropolis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%28film%29), which is very strange if you watch it nowadays, because it fits so tightly to the conventions of when it was made (epigrams etc) but the visuals are so modern.

Nosferatu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosferatu), because I have no idea how they did it but it still makes my flesh creep, and the bit with the sun at the end is magnificent.

The Prisoner of Zenda, Ronald Coleman version (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_of_Zenda_%281937_film%29). Because it's awesome, and contains one of the best swordfight scenes in film history. And Douglas Fairbanks jr, playing Rupert of Hentzau. Everyone should see it just for him.

The Scarlet Pimpernel, Leslie Howard version (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scarlet_Pimpernel_%281934_film%29). Because of Leslie Howard's Pimpernel, and more importantly, his Percy Blakeney (seriously, there's a scene where he's talking to Ffoulkes about how much he loves Marguerite, and it's just swoon-worthy). There's Merle Oberon looking magnificent. And Raymond Massey's Chauvelin. If ever there were an under-rated actor, it is he (he's also in the Prisoner of Zenda).

The Maltese Falcon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_%281941_film%29), if only for Brigid O'Shaunnessey. Then you watch it a second time for everyone else.

Casablanca (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casablanca_%28film%29).

Casablanca features in a family anecdote. So my Mum's sitting down to watch it with my Dad, and they reach the Marseilles bit. And he complains that it's blatant propaganda.

And it is. And yes, you've seen all the famous bits already. But it's so wonderful, and fun, and glorious.

The Spy In Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spy_in_Black) - not only so that you get to see Conrad Veidt playing a good guy. This is the first Powell and Pressburger film. It features a German spy in WWI, who comes to a little Scottish village to spy on the local shipyard. It was made between the wars and had a German spy as the hero. That takes guts to make. It's also good and effective, and, oh the ending.

( The Other Days )

Well, the BBC's four-yearly attempt to convince me that Moguls is a sport is once again not working. It's not that I don't think it involves skill, and knees of steel, it's just not a sport.

Before anyone looks at me funny, I am willing to accept aerials and half-pipe as a sport so it's not like I'm totally biased against new winter sports.

Back to more traditional sports, I am sorry for ever complaining about the Eurosport commentators. The BBC ones are even worse. For the ski-jumping we had Michael Airman (Uhrmann) and Adam Malysz's little known brother Thomas. For the luge, in between the usual severe naming problems, it was great fun that every time either of the commentators pontificated, the lugers then did the exact opposite or received the exact opposite time. What makes it worse is that one of the commentators, Colin Bryce, is an ex-bobsleigher.

One of the Canadian lugers, Ian Cockerline, had a pretty spectacular way of delivering a Valentine. It was written on the inside of his gloves that he got to show off when he finished. Well played that man.

I also liked the fan in the stadium with the sign that said '[luger's name that I didn't catch] ride faster than Santa'.

My mother, meanwhile, is of the belief that there is a Franco-Canadian plot in the biathlon, but I think that's just because her beloved Norwegian's got the worst of the weather on the biathlon course.

Either way, age does seem to be catching up with Bjorndaelen and Hannevold, but I think the 15 km races could get very interesting.

Other crowds I am in love with include the ice hockey crowd who were loudly cheering for China rather than against the US, which is a small, but important, difference.

Ski-jumping:

The retirement of Janne Ahonen (the man in my ski-jumping icon) lasted even for an even shorter time than we expected, and he's back. Not doing as well as he used to, but that's being put down to a lack of practise.

Andi Widhoelzl is now commentating for Eurosport and being charming despite the dubbing. Mother and I are having an interesting debate as to who out of Gregor Schlierenzauer and Simon Amman is less intelligible in German.

Other than that, Eurosport are doing a 'let's humanise the winter-sportspersons', I think mostly for those silly markets where they aren't already huge and yesterday's was Martin Schmitt (http://martin-schmitt.smaitec.de/index2.html). For all that I may have only cheered him on to wind my Mother up (in a display of determined awkwardness, she cheers for various Finns and Scandanavians in winter sports), I now find him adorable beyond all belief.

I also love how friendly they all are - for those that don't watch it, Schmitt was awesome then went through a rough patch that he's only just now getting out of, and one of the questions he got was 'was Wolfgang Loitzl's (http://www.wolfgang-loitzl.de/) success after many years of trying an inspiration for you to keep going?' and he said yes, and how nice it was to see Loitzl, who was such a hard worker etc, finally get the success he deserved. That came after Schlierenzauer (http://www.gregorschlierenzauer.at/) had been interviewed about last year's 4 Hills and he went how awesome it was for 'Wolfie', always the backbone of the Austrian team, to finally get some individual glory.

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I think the friendliness is also why I like Strongman quite so much. I must once again declare my love for Travis Ortmayer, he's just so lovely.

The Russian whose name I couldn't remember, and who is great fun and can be whimsically witty in what is at least his second language is Michael Koklayaev. Richard Skog was his usual amusing self, and I'm hoping that Darren Sadler will one day get the success he deserves for trying his best despite only being 5 foot 10.

Because, as usual, I have been doing nothing but watching sport. There were winter sports and they were on my TV. How could I resist?

At this point I would like to state my undying love for the following: the French biathlon coaches, Ole Einar Bjordahlen, Lars Berger, who kept smiling after a cursed weekend), the Oberhof organising committee, who managed to keep things flowing smoothly despite having not enough snow and far too much rain, and the Oberhof crowd who, in said pouring rain, never had any umbrellas up for fear of spoiling the view of spectators behind them.

The Russians are back though, and how. They're the only ones who seem to have everything together.

Ski-jumping goes less well, but, I've accepted that the Austrians can't win everything, and at least Schlierensauer won in Bischofhofen, and the Swiss didn't win the overall title.

Formula 1 - Dear Heikki Koivannen, please step outside, without your helmet on because you're paler than Mika and Kimi ever managed. Evidence here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/6175945.stm

I feel kind of sorry for Fisi, he's about to get beaten by yet another beginner. I would love for him to do well, but I don't see it happening.

World's Strongest Man - ( Final )

Here be big spoilers

Best film I don't get why people are complaining - film about race relations beats film about how life will fuck you over repeatedly. That's one of the things that annoyed me about the hype for Brokeback Mountain - "see how sad it is, and they just have to put up with it" - well that's true of the life of every single person I know, that they're gay cowboys does not make their suffering unique.

Best Animated Film - Cracking cheese Gromit. Sorry, this is official the Oscar that made me happiest because it's Wallace and Gromit.

Hee!

Most of the others are cool and groovy, kind of unhappy about Rachel Weisz winning because I hate the concept of The Constant Gardner - okay big pharma aren't exactly nice, but they're not evil.

But Morgan Freeman gains even more brownie points for saying her name right however not as many as the Eurosport ski-jumping commentators get for calling Kaernten Kaernten and not Carinthia like most Britons do.

Apparently Eurosport was mistaken in it's orignal conclusion since Janda and Ahonnen tied for the 4 Hills Tournament, which is the first time that's happened ever (in 52 years of competition anyway). Which is wow!

Other than that I will write a longer thing up about The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe but basically I felt underwhelmed. I don't know why. I do wish that whoever did the score had shown more restraint. There is a time for big epic music, that time is not at random points through the film. Either that or tell the horn section to pipe down.

Since it will see the first use of the disco alarm clock. Be worried, be very worried.

I'm using the ski-jumping icon since I watched some of that today. The prime match-up tomorrow will be Jacuba Janda v Janne Ahonen (the guy in my icon). Should be good except I won't be able to watch it since I'm finally going to see Goblet of Fire. Expect long post on that tomorrow. Expect a long rant if they've got Diggory wrong - sorry I fell for Diggory in Prisoner of Azkaban when he wanted the result of Hufflepuff v Gryffindor wiped because it wasn't Harry's fault that he got spooked by the Dementors.

On a Harry Potter tip, I've done some work on my Remnants ficathon fic, and some reading up in the HP lexicon so the background of what I write should work. Well a lawyer could find fault in it, but that's about it.

Watched some of the Strongman event shown on Eurosport today, loved it as usual. Most of them were their usual adorable selves and there was this one American competitor who was just so deeply cool - has an idea for my next icon.

Also watched some of the Nordic Combined. Way to go Felix Gottwald - seriously, he made up 45 seconds in the cross-country skiing part. I feel sorry for Hannu Manninnen though, he really didn't look well at the end, even if none of them ever do.

Anyway, at the end one of the Norwegians was getting changed and you saw his underwear (grey boxers for those interested), and then later on Mariuz Pudzianowski got stripped down to his underwear (black speedo-type cut) and I got to thinking, in relation to something usually said about wrestle-fic, which is the distinct lack of foreplay and is it because people are used to seeing the wrestlers in little more than their underwear so it's felt that there's not as much need to write a convincing way of getting them down to them and then out of them?

That shall be my random thought of the day.