I’m not a huge fan of international football. I think I documented this here.
But needs must when there’s no other football on, and so I have dabbled a little over the past few nights (when I haven’t been at actual live sport). And because I am still English at heart (and at other bits of my body), I was delighted to watch Cristiano Ronaldo score in the 88th minute yesterday and win the game for Portugal against Scotland.
We were lucky enough to get box tickets to see the Boks play the All Blacks. And we had a really great afternoon out. And what a view the box had. This was during the warmups.
The atmosphere, the gees, the actual match second half of the actual match, the winning try scored right underneath us. The excellent service and free-flowing drinks. A very cool day, all in all.
And with that winning try, South Africa won the Freedom Cup, and all but sealed the The Rugby Championship 2024.
And a lovely touch as we left the well-planned, well-executed event at the Stadium – nice work, City of Cape Town – the biggest national flag I’ve ever seen. (It’s generally not something that I keep a record of, but I can’t think of a time I’ve seen a bigger one.)
It’s certainly reignited my appetite for live sport, and for going along to the stadium again. I was there for the first and second ever events they held there, and several – or more – since, but it’s been a while.
Wow. I miss Sean Lock. I just wish there could be more to enjoy.
If you’re in South Africa (I am) and you watch the football (I do), then you can’t not have noticed the range of adverts that pervade the pre-game, post-game and half time viewing experience.
Second rate alcohol (Royal Flush gin, Billiato, Honor Cognac) and ALL of the internet gambling*.
Internet gambling. Not the gambling itself, just the level of advertising. It’s ridiculous. The bombardment. I worked out that I haven’t been encouraged to do something as much since potty training. Both parents standing over me going “Go on, Sean. Do a wee-wee on the potty. Go on then. There’s a good boy. Do a wee-wee.” And I’m sitting there going, “Oh, I really want to impress them. I’ll do a wee-wee on the potty.”
And now it’s like: “Go on, Sean, put a bet on. Mansfield are bound to beat Derby 3-1. You’d be crazy not to put a bet on that.”
OK. Alright. It’s not the best punchline. But it’s a good point.
* I totally recognise that 6000 miles… is occasionally complicit in this. (But I need the money.) (To fuel my internet gambling habit.) (Brought about by the advertising.)
I understand that the posts I do about music don’t often hit everyone’s spot. That’s ok. I get it.
But this one might be different if you’re willing to do a bit of looking through this Youtube or Spotify catalogue.
I spotted this on Instagram, of all places. And the caption was:
I listened to this, and so now you have to.
And I get that different people have different opinions on things (see above), and that’s (mostly) ok, but wow.
For me, this is really, really beautiful.
The ending. Goosebumps.
I thought that I’d shared something from PMJ on here before, but if I did, I can’t find it.
Maybe I thought I should, and then something important happened.
Sorry.
Postmodern Jukebox, also known as Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, is a rotating musical collective founded by New York based pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011. Postmodern Jukebox is known for reworking popular modern music into different vintage genres, especially early 20th century forms such as swing and jazz.
It’s important to understand that not everything makes sense when converted to 20’s and 30’s jazz. But when it does… it really does. Habits works. Black Hole Sun works. The Smiths in country style – amazingly – works. Creep is – of course – hypnotisingly beautiful.
The huge range of artists they cover, the varying sets and costumes, the occasional monochrome, the special guest artists on each track, the different genres employed. It all adds to a pretty cool listening and viewing experience.
Woken up to a power outage. A big one, apparently: everywhere south of Worcester is out. That means I’d have to drive at least two hours to find anywhere with electricity.
And there’s no ETA for a fix yet.
It seems likely that the internet here will fail at some point soon, given that it works on batteries when there’s no mains supply, so I thought I’d get this up while I can and maybe add to it later.
In the meantime, I’m going to fire up the emergency camping stove and make some coffee.
