The Beetrooter Affair

It's no secret that I dislike Barnaby Rubble (aka: Joyce). Like most of his compatriots in the modern National Party, he's a professional bullshit artist who's spent his career selling himself as some sort of dinky-die champion of the bush, when in actual fact, he's a Liberal Party sock-puppet whose only purpose is to keep the country folk deluded into thinking The Coalition has their best interests at heart.

I feel like I should have something to say about the hole he currently finds himself in … but strangely, I don't. So instead, I'm going to open this up and see if anyone else has anything to say on the matter.

The floor's all yours.

I might have just seen the best short film ever made.

In case you don't remember my cousin Tanya, she's the one with the internet boyfriend in Thailand. She's just flown out to see him again, after having spent the last few days at my joint. This is her second trip, and so far, everything seeeeeeeeems to be going okay. As far as I know, he hasn't gotten her to take out any loans. Yet.

Anyway, while she was here, we worked our way through season three of Black Mirror. I've had it for about a year, but like so many things, hadn't gotten around to actually watching it. In case you don't know, Black Mirror is a sci-fi anthology show, that's ~kinda~ like The Twilight Zone … sorta … in a way. Anyway, as far as I know, there's this one Pommy cunt who writes all the stories, and then farms them out to different directors, who then make them into episodes. So it's sorta like a collection of unrelated short-films, made in all kinds of different styles, but all with a similar sort of underlying voice, that you can hear coming through. Some of the stories are set in "more or less" modern day, and some are set in the unrecognisably distant future, but in some way, shape, or form, they all try to explore the challenges of rapidly advancing technology. Needles to say, some of them are pretty fuckin' bleak.

If you've heard of the show, you're probably aware that the first episode of the first season is incredibly polarising. Some people love it, some hate it. I'm firmly in the former category. To this day, I think it's one of the best short films I've ever seen in my entire life. And now I can say the same thing about episode three of season three as well. While I thought episode six (Hated In The Nation) was also very, very good, episode three is the only one that I would implore you to go out of your way to watch. No matter what. Whether you like sci-fi or not. In fact, I think it's so amazing, that if you can't get it any other way, let me know and I will fuckin' send you copy.

That's Black Mirror, season 3, episode 3 ("Shut Up And Dance").

And while you're at it, hunt up episode 1 of the first season too ("The National Anthem". aka: the one with the pig).

You won't regret it.

Semi Finals Time

I didn't get to watch the first semi-final of this year's WomBBL live, but I did manage to tape it, which means I've also been able to take a few screenshots. Highlights of the match include:

The captains of the two teams just happened to be the only two openly gay top-level cricketers in Australia (that I know of, anyway)

It doesn't really add anything to the game, but I thought it was a little bit of trivia that somebody might be interested in.

There was one thing in particular that jumped out at me when I saw this sideline interview with Nicole Bolton …

… and I don't think I was the only person who noticed it, given how they set up the post-match interview, when she was presented with man-of-the-match.

We got to see the playful side of Katherine Brunt, which was pretty cool, considering how fuckin' intense she is out on the field.

Cricket isn't a sport that's known for producing players with dynamite physiques, but Kath is definitely an exception. I couldn't find a shot that really shows it off, but suffice to say, she's the one female cricketer that I'd love to see without her shirt on. I'll bet she's absolutely ripped under there.

That, and she's an amazing fast bowler. Pity she's also a Pom. :~>(

Lastly, the Sydney Thunder had their Kiwi wicket keeper mic'd up so that she could do in-game commentary. Did you know that the pitch is sometimes referred to as "the deck"?

Q: "So, what are conditions like out there Rachel?"

A: "Yeah, gud. Et's nice ta be able ta pley un a gud hard dick where you cun git a lot of bounce."

… and so on and so forth.

As far as the match itself went, it wasn't overly close, but at least it wasn't an utter walk-over like the men's game. Second semi-final is tomorrow, and then I believe the final is Sunday. Looking forward to it. Might even do some live-posting if I'm feeling up to it.