Monday, January 17, 2011 12:44:55 PM
In yesterday's Sunday Times magazine was the following photo taken by Eve Arnold and it shows the great Sammy Davis jnr and film star Peter lawry in a topless casino back in the 1960's.
What came to my mind looking at this was the fact that these were 2 guys doing nothing wrong having a night out and not caring that one of the worlds great photo journalists was taking shots of them.
Skip forward 50 years imagine that its say Matt Le Blanc and Johnny Depp in a similar establishment firstly nobody with a camera would be allowed within a 100 miles of them but if the shot did get out the moral majority would be up in arms about perversions and pornography etc etc.
What a sad little world we really have become
Sunday, January 16, 2011 2:13:57 PM
http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/most-wanted/premier-league-football-players-saving-millions-in-legal-tax-dodge-4820.htmlAs if they are not paid enough already it appears that many of our Premiership "Heroes" have got their accountants to find loopholes to avoid paying tax unlike the thousands who flock to the grounds to cheer them on.
Now I know that all the super rich do this so its not a bash at footballers per se but when did you last see anyone walking around in a Richard Branson shirt or singing Philip Green ,Philip Green,Philip Green we all love Philip Green.Never of course but the Rooney's Lampards etc of this world have their names chanted their ever move applauded and yet want to get out of paying their wack that their supporters have to.
I think last week brought it home when it was announced that David Beckham would take a pay cut to play for Spurs,this is a guy worth what £50 million plus well I am sure he could take a pay cut in the same way that they could all, especially in these recessionary times, pay their taxes in full
Sunday, January 9, 2011 7:07:33 PM
Football, Soligor, Soccer, Canon 400D
In the depths of winter the kit I use to photograph my local football (Thats Association Football or Soccer for anyone living on the other side of the Atlantic) team rather runs out of steam early in the second half as the sun sinks and our rather feeble floodlights take over.So as regular readers will know I have some old manual focus lenses that I use on my DSLR and decided to take my Soligor 135mm f 2.8 (Cost £10 or about $17) with me and see what happened.
Well firstly my admiration for the shots that Sports Photographers got back in the Manual Focus days has shot up as I had loads of failures but I was really pleased with the following 3 shots
Friday, December 31, 2010 10:20:37 AM
Footvball, Soccer, Preston, Manchester Utd
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As far as managers go whist I have always admired the success Alex Ferguson has had a at Manchester Utd I have never included him in my list of greats because of his attitude,his slagging off of oponents and refereees his failure to condem the disgraceful actions of some of his players and his throwing his toys out of the pram because the BBC were less than complimentary about one of his sons.
But his action yesterday in recalling his loan players from Preston after they dared to sack his other son Darren as manager really does take the biscuit,he is stopping young players from developing their careers with regular football and punishing a fellow manager who will take over at Preston with a depleted squad.
Sorry Alex but the truly greats like Clough,Paisley,Stein,Nicholson and Busby must be turning in their graves at such a pathetic show of pique
Saturday, December 18, 2010 11:23:18 AM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/sports_personality_of_the_year/9283138.stmSo as per the above link golden balls will get an award for his services to English football,now the guy has had some decent games and his performance against Greece in 2002 was inspiring but I am convinced much of Brand Beckham is hype,I mean how jany other game changing performances like that against Greece have there been.
And lets remember his major championship record
WC 1998 Sent off v Argentina therby blowing our chances
Euoro's 2000 third in a very average group and I remember one Beckham free kick other than that nothing
WC 2002 went carrying an injury that would have resulted in any other player being dropped and did sod all other than duck out of the tackle that lead to a Brazilian goal in the match we went out in.
Euro's 2004 Again nothing spectacular and a missed penalty in the shoot out against Portugal
WC 2006 A repeat of 2002 an injured Beckham goes and does sod all as we fail yet again
So others may fall for the hype but this is not the record of a Moore Charlton or Linekar and I will not be leading the applause as yet again the Beckham hype machine makes him out to be more than a decent footballer who got more adulatiion than he ever deserved
Tuesday, December 14, 2010 10:28:45 AM
As if it was not mad enough for FIFA (And for FIFA read Sepp Blatter) to award the 2022 World Cup to a country where the summer temperatures are 50 degrees and bans alcohol and wants the state of Israel destroyed the fool has now made totally crass comments about the medieval Quatari attidude toeards gays.
Basically he is saying that this will be a straight world cup and if you are Gay either stay away or behave,what planet is he living on to say that the World Cup is effectively out of bounds if you happen to be Homosexual,so I can go but my mate Grant cant just because of his sexual orientation.
I hope the bribes that FIFA took to make this decision were worth it
Sunday, December 5, 2010 8:12:44 PM
I am not sure if its a UK problem or if the disease has spread across the world but every time you turn on the television now you're ears are assaulted by an avalanche of Amazing,Brilliant,Fantastic relating to just about anything,
Sports commentators and reality show judges are the worst raising very average performances to the level of Pele or Zeppelin at their very best but I have seen it come more and more into every day life,it used to be that such superlatives were reserved for performances such as Botham's ashes,Queen at Live Aid or the 1970 Brazilians but now any any second rate warbling or tap in gets a Fantastic Amazing etc.
Can we no longer use words like Good,Excellent,Average or even Poor do we have to sensationalise even the most mundane or does the likes of Sky Sports and Simon Cowell mean that many of the great descriptive terms of the English language are to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
Rooney strings sentance together without saying "you know" FANTASTIC Shakespeare eat your heart out
My Opera
