SBS Blogs

Schleck deserves his own moment

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +1100

Now that the dust has settled regarding the immediate cycling future of Alberto Contador, perhaps it's time to reflect on where Andy Schleck stands in all of this.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) has, by default, promoted the Luxembourger from runner-up to 2010 Tour de France champion status as a result of El Pistolero's fall from grace.

Schleck has conceded it's not the way he wants to remember a race in which he was beaten by his Spanish rival, who was subsequently rewarded by accepting the yellow jersey high above the cobbled sectors of the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Having your name etched in the history books as a Tour de France winner is one thing but standing on the podium in front of the glare of millions of worldwide viewers is another.

Unfortunately, Andy has never had the chance to savour the experience . . . not yet anyway.

So, if the UCI, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) can change the course of history (as in Bertie's case) why can't the same be done for Andy?

Andy is one of the World Tour's most likeable characters who has all the qualities of an elite racer and is an exceptional human being.

He's never been questioned or come under suspicion for doping and it goes without saying he has thrilled us all with his fighting determination on two wheels.

When finishing second behind Contador in 2010, many suggested then that "his time will come”.

Well, I'm not so sure.

Despite linking up with Johann Bruyneel and the newly-formed Radioshack-Nissan Trek team, I'm yet to be convinced Andy is capable of winning the Tour.

He has been poor in the time-trials and given the 100km of TT laid down for this year's event, I fear he may miss out again.

But that's beside the point.

If Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme cherishes the rich history the his institution has to offer, which he does, then perhaps he can add to it by awarding Andy the yellow jersey for his 2010 victory when the race winds down in Paris this July - win or lose.

How cool would that be?

A back-dated winner of the Tour finally rewarded in a fitting ceremony on one of the world's most famous boulevard.

While we're at it what about Oscar Pereiro, crowned 2006 Tour winner after the shame Floyd Landis brought to the sport back then?

Actions speak louder than words and it’s up to these sporting bodies to make the move.

Chook season

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:58:55 +1100

Chickens. Hanging from the wall. Well, from the fence. Ten chooks, mostly sussex, destined for the pot. I was lucky this time, as Ross was over and took charge of the killing, Sadie the plucking, though I had the job of cleaning up. I’m not sure which job is worse. Though now the freezer is brimming with chicken meat, for only the second time in Puggle Farm’s existence. The chicken meat season has begun; all those eggs that hatched in spring and summer are now close to harvest. By all those eggs, I mean those who hatched eggs more successfully than us. We got our cooking chooks from another grower this time.

Life marches on scarily in summer. We still have long days, though, as I type, it’s still before dawn and just before six. It’s a race to get things done. Water the vegies. Tick. Fill the wallows. Tick. Pick as many blackberries as possible, use the good weather to get lots of outside chores done. Go for a swim. Tick, tick, tick.

Plant the new, large, possibly improved vegie garden with winter crops? No tick yet. Part of it’s a former pig paddock, and one pig is acting a little too free-range for any garden’s good, and won’t leave the area. The ground has to be disked, mulched, sown. Water installed. Beds laid. But this girl refused to follow her 13 companions to their new home, and now watches warily from the hillside. Food, that great motivator, has yet to get her to pass through a gate. Patience runs thin with one difficult porker, but patience is paramount. In an hour I will try again.

The new pig paddocks are dotted with a range of homes, but the latest version of a shelter is one we saw for the first time on the internet, at the wonderful blog of www.milkwoodpermaculture.com.au. It’s made of bent concrete reinforcing wire fashioned to hold hay bales as walls. We have a LOT of hay, so this looked like the design for us. Our method is slightly different, but the idea is to use hay to create an insulated home, one that is too heavy for the pigs to push over, and be able to reuse the wire and discard the hay every few months. A mobile shelter with some indestructible parts.

For us, it’s pig shelter mark five, so we’re hoping it works. Others did, but all have their flaws and benefits. The reality is that it costs a lot to build a rock-solid shelter, and we need them mobile as well as affordable and bomb proof. We also need them bigger than the one I built for my first two porkers, Cassoulet and Prosciutto. The Milkwood idea seems to have worked a treat, though instead of a tarp roof, we’ve put a corrugated iron lid on top, strapping it to the metal using tie wire. With our high rainfall, a tarp would just mean a swampy bed.

I’m not sure how the new design will withstand the hardcore antics of Peter Pan the boar, but, for growing pigs, the shelters seem just the ticket. That’s assuming I can get them all contained in the one paddock again.

UK Supreme Court #guilty of trendsetting

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:44:00 +1100

In a fitting follow-on from last month's Margaret Court blog, a new court has entered the Twitter fray and it's the most serious court of them all.

@UKSupremeCourt has just been launched - and it's so far nailed the tone of the microblogging Mecca.

Tweeting FROM court is no longer new - it's been around since December last year in the UK.

In the US, a Massachusetts court encourages it, and a tweet about bad coffee has already got an inmate off death row.

In Australia, there've been misgivings about reporters' tweets causing mistrials.

However, @UKSupremeCourt is the first official court feed, and a human rights group is anxiously urging the country's other courts to launch their own too.

That sounds progressive and forward-thinking, but speaking as a journalist who has to be super-careful when tweeting even from a personal account, I'm concerned for the sanity of the appointed court tweeter.

Maybe the powers that created the account were apprehensive too, because it remained silent for a couple of days before issuing its first missive - a perfectly lovely 'thanks for the warm welcome', with a link to 'the way we'll be using Twitter'. Big tick!

Then the excitement began, as some users asked the court whether it would be accepting Freedom of Information requests via the microblogging site.

Demonstrating that it has understood the medium brilliantly, @UKSupremeCourt' answered:

So far so good, but there are two points that may cause friction in the future.

For starters, there's the problem of the prolixity, the garrulity, the logorrhea typical of most forms of legal expression. How many lawyer- or magistrate-words even fit into 140 characters? My guess is three or four.

Apart from that, there's the much more serious issue of what kind of things a court might be tweeting, and whom they may prejudice. It's doubtful this court will be taking any risks with that - but how exactly will the line be trodden?

Journalists inhabit a world of expression that's as wild and free as 1950s Havana compared to that of the courts, but we struggle with what can and can't be tweeted for legal, ethical and professional reasons.

When using reports filed by news agency reporters on court proceedings, we often need to make the call on whether we absolutely trust the account of said reporter.

If the court so desired, it could provide UK journos with accounts of proceedings 'from the horse's mouth', sparing them the risk of taking a potentially-mistaken colleague's word for it.

The court made an initial foray into real-time updates with this:

(Yes, my eye substituted a certain singer's name for the Lord in question's too, and it was entertaining).

... But since that tweet it's stuck to straight-out verdicts. I don't think it'll re-visit real-time tweeting during trials, though, due to the ubiquitous and almost-indelible nature of the beast.

If an appeal is launched later about a case that was live-tweeted, those earlier tweets may prejudice it with information that either the defence or the prosecution are seeking to debunk. They may also prejudice sentencing.

Then there's the thorny question of editorialising, and the fine line between an impartial tweet and an interesting one. How might Britain's highest legal institution do that?

I don't think it will. Obviously, official tweets will be bound by the same Contempt of Court rules as online news articles - and who better to adhere to them than the court itself? In the most unlikely case of a breach, could the court find itself in contempt of itself?

That will be especially important in cases spanning multiple jurisdictions like Gabe Watson's. He was found guilty of his wfie's manslaughter while on a scuba dive in Queensland, but then tried for premeditated murder in Alabama.

Perhaps Twitter could play along with that the way YouTube does - by geo-blocking tweets - but in any case it's probably best the court itself retains total control over what ends up where.

Does the advent of a tweeting court signal the beginning of a change in the nature of the beast (or bird)? Is Twitter slowly changing to more accurately reflect all organisms of society - including those who categorically cannot allow themselves a little personal opinion every now and then?

Or will @UKSupremeCourt stay in its own little corner of the Twitterverse, largely marginalised for having not much personality due to all the rules it needs to follow?

In the meantime - hats off to whomever the court tweeter is at the moment. He/she/they're doing a great job of adopting Twitter's unmitigatedly social tone - even entering into actual conversations like the one with the FoI people - with names like 'Pigs on a Wing', no less!

For early online journalists, getting a grip on the sensitivities around tweeting and publishing legal news reminded me of my years spent laboriously studying Spanish - in a university on the other side of the planet.

If every court around the globe eventually gets its tweet on, newbies to the craft of online legal journalism may find themselves learning straight from the pros, benefitting from a sort of (cyber)-immersion in a very different world - a little like moving to Spain.

Not so tranquilo

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +1100

Like many in the cycling world Philip Gomes remains puzzled by the entire Alberto Contador debacle.

Anyone who is found by a tribunal in a matter in which he was found to be a cheat, is a cheat. So goes the statement by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) supremo John Fahey in response to the finding by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that Alberto Contador did indeed have a banned substance in his system in late July 2010.

But of course the word "cheat", used by Fahey, flies in the face of the actual judgement issued by the CAS, which determined that Contador did not cheat but was the victim of an accidental ingestion of a banned substance.

In the Panel’s opinion, on the basis of the evidence adduced, the presence of Clenbuterol was more likely caused by the ingestion of a contaminated food supplement.

There it is in black and white. True, the panel ruled out Contador's bovine source but it also ruled out a transfusion, an idea much loved by tin foil hat wearing plasticiser conspiracy theorists out there on the internets.

Clearly the WADA boss and former Premier of New South Wales didn't read the judgement.

So digest this for a second (pun intended). The final arbiter, the highest court in sport with all the information available to it, supplied by all sides - the International Cycling Union (UCI), Contador and WADA - found that Contador's positive was an accident.

Yes it is true that Contador had clenbuterol in his system, something not even he denies, but how that eventuated became the important question.

So, like many interested observers out there, I spent the darkened hours of Tuesday morning wading through the documentation supplied by the CAS (all 7.4MB and 98 pages of it) looking for proof Alberto Contador was a cheat. I found none.

I was searching to see if El Pistolero's trademark smoking gun had been turned against him, but what was presented was essentially summed up in the synopsis. This generation's best Grand Tour rider was guilty of nothing except taking an unfortunate bite out of something that ended up giving everyone in the sport 18 months of extreme indigestion.

And no one seemed to be happy with the outcome, not the UCI, not the 2010 Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck and certainly not Contador.

Yet in fan comments all across the globe (with the exception of Spain) and here on Cycling Central, Alberto Contador was as Fahey described, a cheat.

This is a disconnect I'm trying to pull apart as I sit here writing this. Why? Don't cycling fans read? Or are they only interested in seeing what they want to see?

Like Lance Armstrong before him there is no clear proof that Contador is a cheat (if you indignant readers have any actual proof send it to me, I'll pass it on to the relevant authorities), so why the hate out there for Contador? Why the gloating? Why the "hang him high" rhetoric?

I reckon it goes back to another fateful moment in July 2010, one where the gentle Andy Schleck had his pony taken away from him so cynically by Contador in the infamous "Chaingate" incident during Stage 15 of the Tour de France.

But even there most reasonable observers reckoned Contador did nothing wrong, yet the fans persisted. "He cheated," they howled on Twitter, Facebook, forums and websites across the globe.

That Contador is the best Grand Tour rider of his generation is obvious. Like Armstrong, Contador beats everyone like a drum, smashes them, chews them up and spits them out then points his finger into the camera as he crosses the finish line and goes, "BANG".

So it seems the price someone that good must pay in the post-Armstrong era is that he can only be a cheat if he comes close to replicating what Armstrong did.

I await August and the Vuelta a Espana with interest.

Why the banks may still lift rates

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:53:30 +1100

The Reserve Bank’s decision to keep interest rates on hold might give the impression that the big banks have been let off the hook.

Many of them cried poor as higher wholesale funding costs squeezed their margins.

Just a few months ago ANZ went one step better, explaining the composition of its funding base, detailing how funding costs are rising. It almost seemed like it was preparing us for future out of cycle interest rate moves.

And despite NAB yesterday morning promising to keep its standard variable rate lower than its three major competitors for the rest of this year, experts were warning the banks wouldn’t pass on all of the RBA’s rate cut, if it went that way.

But it didn’t. The Reserve left the official cash rate at 4.25 per cent, so the bank bashing has abated for now.

Or has it?

There seems to be some suggestion that this non-move by the RBA may in fact provoke some of the banks to lift interest rates.

Chris Kimber, Managing Director of Wealth Managements at FatProphets, said that it is possible for the banks to lift interest rates. He says, “If it is true they are not making any profits on recent mortgages they have issued then it has to rise at some stage.”

He adds that the “RBA is playing a game with the banks, not cutting rates as they knew they would not pass it on anyway.”

Stephen Koukoulas, the Managing Director at Market Economics says that its true funding costs have risen and that “there’s an even chance we see one of the banks lifting rates 10bps or so.”

Fitch recently placed Australia’s big four banks on credit watch negative, citing their reliance of overseas funding, and rising funding costs.

Given these costs are rising, despite the official cash rate being steady, simple math would seem to suggest the banks would need to lift their standard variable rates to protect their margins.

But at what cost?

CommSec’s Craig James says that “you can’t rule it out and is a risky thing to do.”

If anyone does move first, it would likely be ANZ. It now announces its interest rate intentions on the second Friday of every month, independent of the RBA.

Shane Oliver, Chief Economist at AMP Capital says there’s only a low risk of the banks lifting interest rates. He told me that risk is “around 15 per cent”. He adds that the RBA still appears to be retaining an easing bias, and that there would be huge negative publicity if they did move, so it would be better to wait and hope the RBA does cut again.

While Peter Esho from City Index thinks it would be very difficult for anybody to move, if one does, “you’d have a lender lifting because they don’t want volume, to reduce risk.”

White Crane Group’s Clifford Bennett reckons the banks will “stay incredibly quiet and don’t think they’ll move at all.”

It’s now up to the banks to see if they make any comments at all about rates.

The Reserve Bank will release more details on Friday with its Statement on Monetary Policy, but even if it doesn’t mention interest rates, we’ll definitely hear from ANZ at the very least, with its new policy to comment on its interest rate direction independent of the central bank.

Kobeba (beef and cracked wheat slice)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:32:07 +1100

I’m mad for Northern African and Middle Eastern flavours at the moment. Well, not really at the moment, for quite a while now. Ever since I was lucky enough to attend a five-day cooking school in Morocco. Well, even before that – I would hardly have travelled all the way to Morocco if I wasn’t pretty sure I liked the food. But that certainly sealed the deal. I loved the communal way of cooking (everybody’s dinner cooked in the basement fire of the local hammam (bath house)) and the delicate spices that became robust dishes and flavours.

So when we featured Egyptian cuisine for our At the Table feature this month, I knew I’d be cooking it for the blog. Call me daggy, but I’m a big fan of mince and always have a kilo or two in the freezer. Just in case. So I was pretty much set for the kobeba – beef and cracked wheat slice. I was intrigued by the fact that this dish is beef, with a beef stuffing – a case of “too much is never enough”?

It’s a simple dish and as I was cooking, I got into the mood by listening to Natacha Atlas – my favourite Arabian-fusion songstress (she was born in Belgium to parents of Moroccan, Egyptian, Palestinian and British background, speaks at least four languages, and has used all of them in the course of her career. Basically, awesome). Her version of Screamin' Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You is fabulous and as the kobeba went into the oven, I was shimmying with the best of them.

I served the kobeba with the fattoush and some pita bread for a simple dinner, and it was perfect – the beef-beef combo was delicious and the two layers had slightly different textures and tastes. I think I’ve just added another easy mince dish to my repertoire!

Editor, Feast

The complicated US indignation over Syria

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:47:18 +1100

Ambassador Susan Rice was unhappy when she walked out of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Saturday.

The veto imposed by Russia and China to condemn the Syrian government’s crackdown on protests had irked her.

Ambassador Susan Rice was unhappy when she walked out of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Saturday. The veto imposed by Russia and China to condemn the Syrian government’s crackdown on protests had irked her.

“Let me begin by speaking directly to the Syrian people,” she told media after the vote. “The United States stands with you, the Syrian people, and we will not rest until you and your bravery achieve your basic, universal human rights, to which all human beings are entitled.

“Today, we saw clearly which countries are prepared to support the people of Syria – and, indeed, the people of the entire region – as they struggle to attain a future of peace and democracy. And we saw which countries, for their narrow interests, do not.”

For a diplomat, strong words. So, too, were those from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty," said Clinton on Sunday.

The BBC reported that Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov claimed the resolution was not a sufficient compromise for all parties while China defended its opposition.

Another alternative view came from a China Daily editorial that suggested the UN resolution was presented too quickly and that Russian diplomatic efforts should be allowed time to succeed.

“We've seen what happened in Libya,” read the editorial. “With the armed intervention by some major Western powers, the Libyan regime was overthrown. But instead of the democracy and freedom they were promised, Libyan people cannot even live in peace as the country is in the danger of falling into a sectarian civil war.”

Too late for that in Syria. Almost as soon as the UN resolution was tossed aside, government forces were reported to have unleashed hell on parts of the city of Homs. Unconfirmed reports claimed at least 200 people dead. Syria’s government said the attacks were the work of “terrorists”.

Of course, these things are never simple. Russia has a naval base in Syria and so the Russians aren’t about to upset Assad’s host government over an issue that they feel is driven by, among other things, feigned Western indignation and genuine hypocrisy.

Russia can rightly claim the US has a naval base in Bahrain and there was no rush from the Americans to condemn a government crackdown on protests there last year. Assad’s hand is clearly heavier than that of the Bahrainis but so too is the Assad opposition. It may all be relative but on the other hand, both sides could argue that a point of principle remains a point of principle.

The Middle East has historically long been a game for outside powers one that played a role in determining Syria’s borders. It looks like that game continues into the 21st Century.

Go bush young man

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1100

There is a way to avoid the incessant news and gossip surrounding federal investigations and high-profile doping cases. Simply go bush, writes Anthony Tan.

While the cycling world waited with bated breath over the decision to acquit or convict Alberto Contador, I realised, rather belatedly, there was a subset of us who simply didn’t care.

The weekend before last, I was immersed in the Apple Isle for the Pure Tasmania Wildside, a four-day mountain bike race held on the island’s rugged though beguilingly beautiful west coast.

Thanks to my now infamous profile (courtesy Mike Tomalaris) and my equally notorious Prussian Blue jacket (courtesy Paul Smith), I get asked a lot of questions. At Wildside it was no different – but with one exception: not a single competitor (and there were 469 of ‘em) asked me about Contador.

Mountain bikers, in general, are quite different from road cyclists.

For a start, they completely embrace nature and its elements, even when, as it did on the final two days of Wildside, the heavens opened and soft-as-pie journalists like me went looking for food and shelter, or, depending on my priorities, shelter and then food.

In fact, as the weather turned for the worse, it brought a smile to most of their faces; this is what they had come here for, so many of them told me.

The elite riders were also dissimilar to a number of elite road cyclists. They did not berate their mechanics about their bikes, scold their soigneurs about their food or bad legs, or squabble with their sport directors about their choice of tactics.

Why? Because more often than not, the cyclists were also their own mechanics, their own soigneurs, their own directeurs-sportifs. This is a world that operates in a largely self-sufficient way.

Self-sufficient, I said, not selfish.

Because therein lies another unique element to elite mountain biking: the riders may ride for different teams, but altruistically, adopt a set of principles where no one is above another, and off the bike, real friendships are established and maintained.

When I asked Paul van der Ploeg, one of MTB’s next big things and a man who finished second overall to Sid Taberlay at Wildside, was he ever enticed by the attractions of the road – fame, fortune, what have you – he replied: “No – it’s more of a lifestyle choice, mountain biking.

“It’s very fun, very enjoyable, and a really good atmosphere to be a part of,” the 21-year-old told me, whose two elder brothers, Daniel and Adrian, also race mountain bikes.

“It’s so supportive… I’m good friends with all the competitors, and we all have a laugh.”

The notion of egalitarianism was fostered at Wildside by having what organisers defined as ‘cruising stages’, in between what was usually two competitive stages per day (save for the last). These were essentially short, untimed, transitional stages that took competitors from the end of one stage to the start of another.

Importantly, it provided an opportunity for riders of all abilities to mingle with each other. Given 66 out of the 489 were of the female persuasion, one could surmise it provided opportunities for other things, too…

This is not some clarion call for you to burn your road bikes, go bush-bashing in the wilderness every weekend and camp underneath the stars while heating up a can of baked beans, singing crickets included, while staring longingly into the eyes of your other half, wondering if she’s thinking what you’re thinking. (Though it doesn’t sound bad, does it?)

I’m more asking you to consider breaking your regimented road routines every now and then, escape the traffic and blaring horns, and lose yourself in nature.

Because maybe then, you, like the people I met recently in Tasmania, won’t give a crap about ‘caso Contador’ either, or continue to lament what’s become of professional road cycling.

For those of you who have already done so, I’d love to hear about your bush experiences, love-making aside, of course.

Twitter: @anthony_tan

Mel’s Get the Gringo could set a trend

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:50:45 +1100

Mel Gibson’s new movie is getting an innovative release in the US, a model that will probably be replicated in Australia. 

A few years ago the notion of a Mel Gibson movie bypassing cinemas in the US, instead premiering on a satellite broadcaster, would have seemed far-fetched, another sign that the superstar’s career had hit rock bottom.

Yet his latest film, Get the Gringo (formerly How I Spent My Summer Vacation) is launching in the US on DirecTV on May 1, potentially reaching nearly 20 million homes.

Rather than being regarded as another setback in the actor’s chequered career, the initiative is being hailed by some commentators as a bold move which could help create a new paradigm for releasing films in the US and, eventually, in markets including Australia.

Produced by Icon Productions, jointly owned by Gibson and his long-time business partner Bruce Davey, the action-comedy directed by Adrian Grunberg stars Mel as a career criminal named Driver.

Pursued by the US Border Patrol, Driver crashes his car carrying a load of cash and a dying accomplice and ends up in a hellish Mexican prison where he finds an unlikely ally: a 10-year-old boy.

“It might be easy to conjecture that Gibson’s recent personal issues were a reason to bypass theatres, especially after The Beaver grossed less than $1 million domestic,” observed Deadline.com’s Mike Fleming.

“I think this is different — a ballsy move by a maverick entrepreneur whose willingness to break rules led him to self-finance the $30 million R-rated The Passion Of The Christ and watch it gross $371 million domestic and $612 million worldwide (still the biggest indie film of all time), and spend $40 million to fund Apocalypto, a film that grossed $51 million domestic and $121 million worldwide.”

In a promotional campaign, Gibson will take part in a question-and-answer session at a screening of the film in Austin, Texas, hosted by Ain’t It Cool News founder Harry Knowles, an event that will be beamed to cinemas in about 10 other cities.

That’ll be far cheaper than the $US20 million that distributors typically spend to support a nationwide theatrical release, and Icon will probably pocket about 50 per cent of the $10.99 fee forked out by each DirecTV subscriber.

Focus World, a unit of Universal’s Focus Features, is releasing 12-15 titles direct to consumers via video-on-demand in the US this year, including James Franco's biopic of poet Hart Crane, Broken Tower, Iceland director Gaukur Úlfarsson’s documentary Gnarr and Liza Johnson’s drama Return starring Michael Shannon and John Slattery.

But Get the Gringo is the highest-profile movie to go straight to VOD. Unlike the US, the film will get a significant cinema release in Australia via Gibson’s Icon Films later this year. Icon’s Greg Denning is looking forward to seeing the film in the next week or so and tells SBS Film, “We hear it’s very commercial. If so, I expect it will get a wide release.

“Now that the US release plans are in place we can start looking at release date. We usually go out at the same time or after the US due to piracy concerns.”

If Gibson’s trail-blazing distribution initiative works in the US, it will almost certainly be copied by Australian distributors at some point, probably when the nascent VOD market reaches a critical mass spurred by the roll out of the National Broadband Network.

“I’m sure that a lot of people are watching this to see if it represents a viable alternative in other markets,” said Mike Selwyn, managing director of Paramount Pictures Australia.

However, not everyone is rooting for Mel’s movie, judging by some of the comments posted on Ain’t it Cool.

“Let’s be honest… if the movie was good enough to come out in theatres, it would be. The trailer looks unfunny and dated. It belongs on VOD,” said one cynical non-fan.

“Even in divorce, he’s got a little less money than God and his bank account falls somewhere between Oprah and George Lucas. He never needs to come inside L.A. proper again if he has VOD distribution,” carped another.

Gibson will be hoping a sizable number of people agree with one poster who said, “I forgave Gibson long ago and I think he deserves a chance. I’ll be watching this first day.”

Casting Aspersions: McQueen, Ejiofor & Crowe

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:55:45 +1100

Director Steve McQueen and actor Chiwetel Ejiofor take on the true story of Solomon Northup, and Russell Crowe has his pick of new projects.

There’s something irresistible about a cinematic partnership between a director and their favoured actor. The connection between the person behind the camera and the one in front of it can be electric, and the body of work that eventuates can be evocative and lasting. Think of Robert De Niro as the explicit side of Martin Scorsese’s psyche in the 1970s and 1980s (Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy), or Anna Karina bringing new life to the screen as the muse for Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s (The Little Soldier, A Woman is a Woman, Alphaville); these are exchanges between artists where every close-up is freighted with significance.

[ Watch interview with Anna Karina ]

It’s too soon to attribute the same worth to a current collaboration, that of English filmmaker Steve McQueen and the Irish actor Michael Fassbender, but their two films together – 2008’s Hunger (screening Wed, Feb 8 at 9:35pm on SBS TWO) and this month’s Shame – have both been major works with outstanding performances by the latter, firstly as the I.R.A. hunger striker Bobby Sands and then as a tormented New York sex addict. Now McQueen is preparing to shoot his third feature, and Fassbender will appear as one of the leads.

Adapted from the book of the same title, Twelve Years a Slave is the true story of Solomon Northup, an African-American who was born free in the United States’ north but was kidnapped and taken to the southern slave states in 1841. With outside help, and a legal challenge by his wife, Northup was eventually able to win his freedom after 12 years witnessing what he subsequently chronicled in the book as terrible deprivations.

Fassbender won’t be following the comical exploits of Robert Downey Jr’s Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus and donning blackface, with the role of Northup going to Chiwetel Ejiofor (Salt). Fassbender may play Samuel Bass, the Canadian carpenter who helped rescue Northup, or one of his owners or kidnappers. Another starring role will be played by Brad Pitt, who is helping to produce the movie and obviously intends to continue his productive trend of working with leading directors.

WWRCD? That stands for What Would Russell Crowe Do? and it reflects a stark choice of projects the Australian actor (pictured) may have to make. Having already played the patriarch Jor-El in the forthcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel, and with the role of Inspector Javert opposite Hugh Jackman’s Jean Valjean about to shoot in the Les Miserables remake to be helmed by The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper, Crowe is reportedly up for the lead role in a Robocop remake to be overseen by Elite Squad filmmaker, Brazilian Jose Padilha or the part of the Old Testament boat builder in Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky’s Biblical epic Noah. A cyborg law enforcer or the prophet who parted the Red Sea? If only there was a way to combine the two.

Armstrong reactions

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +1100

While I have an opinion of my own regarding the continuing story of Lance Armstrong it's sometimes best to put that aside and listen to what other media commentators are saying.

But for all that surety, we’ve never really known. And so the debate turned into a long war, with each side convinced of its own superiority but unable to prove it. And as with all things Armstrong, your beliefs about him came to dominate your beliefs about more than just one man and how he became such an incredible bike racer. It was a suspicion that all bike racers dope, or it applied not just to the man but his foundation, which surely was either a paragon of philanthropic rectitude or a slush fund devoted mostly to burnishing the image of Lance Inc. As Bill Gifford discovered recently, the truth is somewhere in between.As with all things Lance there is a mixture of hate and hagiography written into every piece as we assess his legacy within the sport. Among fans there are those who look past any alleged transgressions and to his work on the cancer front. Then there are those who see a separation of the two as impossible. Within the mainstream media, bound by a certain set of standards, the story largely rests on a single concept, proof.

Anyway, here is some of the best commentary from around the cycling world. Enjoy, or not.

Charles Pelkey: Red Kite Prayer

Sources close to the investigation say that the decision came as a surprise to many of them, too. The case was being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Doug Miller and Mark Williams, with the help of FDA Criminal Division investigator Jeff Novitzky. The U.S. Attorney’s office did not indicate who decided to end the investigation, whether it was based on a lack of evidence, whether there were strategic problems with pursuing an indictment or whether pressure came to bear from outside the Central District. Indeed, the Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Novitzky and other investigators were informed of the decision only about 30 minutes before the press release was issued. Somehow, I think we’re going to hear a bit more about what went into this decision. I remain curious.

Neil Browne: Browne Eye Media

I also find it interesting that Armstrong has been deafeningly silent about the conclusion of the case on Twitter – his social media platform of choice when he wants to gloat about something. Did his team of lawyers get a hold of him and confiscate his iPhone to prevent him from saying something damaging?

A.J. Perez: Fox Sports USA

Still, Armstrong might want to send a thank-you card to Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens after the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles announced Friday it had dropped its investigation of the seven-time Tour de France winner — ending a nearly two-year effort to determine if Armstrong and his teammates participated in doping. For all the millions spent investigating Bonds and Clemens, all the Feds have to show for it is a one-month house arrest sentence against Bonds for obstruction, a mistrial for Clemens and a nation that has become blasé on the topic of drugs in sports.

Anthony Tan: VeloNews

Note the reasons for their decision to shelve the investigation – read the statement: “The United States Attorney determined that a public announcement concerning the closing of the investigation was warranted by numerous reports about the investigation in media outlets around the world.” In other words, the federal probe was ostensibly closed, not because there was no evidence, or too much taxpayers’ money had been wasted, or Novitzky, as Armstrong’s defense team repeatedly claimed, had an axe to grind, but due to the number of leaks to the press.

Bonnie D. Ford: ESPN

Critics of all three investigations focused on the government's financial outlay in tough economic times and questioned law enforcement priorities. There is little doubt that if Armstrong had been indicted and gone to trial, federal authorities would have faced a years-long, extremely costly battle against a stacked legal team and a defendant who retains a devoted constituency despite years of persistent questions about his character. Is it possible that this prospect affected Birotte's decision, or was it made for purely evidentiary reasons? There is also sure to be widespread speculation about whether political pressure came to bear, either because of the dynamics of an election year or Armstrong's many acquaintances on both sides of the aisle.

Wade Wallace: Cycling Tips

I suppose for me it’s a bit like when I was a kid and the slow realisation that Santa Claus wasn’t true. My parents didn’t need to pull me aside and tell me. Over the years I put 2+2 together, figured it out something wasn’t right, kept my mouth shut to my younger sister, and know that the truth doesn’t hurt anyone. If you’ve been a cyclist and a fan for a long time you’ll be able to put 2+2 together as well. I have a lot to thank Lance Armstrong for. He inspired my obsession in road racing which has given me a tremendous amount of joy. He helped bring road racing to the level of popularity we enjoy to this day. He has done a lot for cancer, even though it’s debatable if the money is put to good use. I don’t lose any sleep over what I think the truth is. It is what it is, and we’re not going to turn back time if anything is revealed.

Panache for him and her

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +1100

Panache is one of those elusive things in cycling. A bit like calves the size of footballs and the ability to Dance On The Pedals™ or dip into one's Suitcase of Courage™ (both ©Phil 'n Paul) you either have it or you don't.

Matthew Lloyd clearly has it, as do his Lampre teammates Alessandro Petacchi and Michele Scarponi. Davide Vigano has an umbrella, because panache is okay but it is good to be prepared.

In the GreenEDGE-AIS women's team, panache is everywhere. Judith Arndt, Alex Rhodes and Loes Gunnewijk all featured in the decisive break in the opening stage of the Tour of Qatar (the first hour, according to Twitter's Bridie O'Donnell, was raced at an average speed of 53kph). Teammate Tiffany Cromwell packed panache for her trip to the desert, along with sunscreen. Many, many varieties of sunscreen.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport, the Broom Wagon is beginning to suspect, is an organisation flushed with panache.

At 11.49am on Monday a tweet fluttered into the Broom Wagon's account from Cyclingnews.com: "Contador verdict expected today: CAS ruling announcement imminent".

As if watching and waiting, CAS published a statement, and 11 minutes later, before many observers even had the chance to brew the Tea Kettle of Justice, a second tweet arrived from CN editor Daniel Benson: "CAS announce another delay #notjoking."

Whereas last time around CAS blamed rumour mongers for the latest postponement, this time the court stylishly gave no reason for the delay, merely winking and twirling its silver-topped cane as it pushed back the announcement by another week.

"(CAS) intends to publish its decision in the arbitration procedure involving the International Cycling Union, the World Anti-Doping Agency, Alberto Contador and the Spanish Cycling Federation on Monday 6 February 2012," the court said in a statement.

The Broom Wagon's advice here – and doubtless the advice of Davide Vigano – is to pay close attention to the word 'intends'. Panache is fine, but it is good to be prepared.

The week in ...

... beachgoing

Niels Albert, not to be confused with King Albert II of Belgium, who was also in Koksijde* last weekend, has won the men's cyclocross world championships. He has had a sand dune named after him. Albert (the cross racer, not the king) credited the win to his determination to master the ins, outs and unpredictable sideways swooshes of sand riding. He trained for the event in Spain, and his sessions included weaving in and out of plastic chairs set up on local beaches, possibly in conjunction with the campaign mentioned last week to attract European holidaymakers to Kyrgyzstan. Sporza has a video of Albert (the man, not the sand dune) striking fear into Spanish sunlovers here.

*The venue for this year's cyclocross world championship is in no way childishly amusing. Please stop sniggering at the back.

... Warne

The cyclist who says Shane Warne rammed him with his Mercedes and who Warne claims whacked his bonnet wants Warne to pay for damages. Mathew Hollingsworth, 28, threatens civil action unless Warne pays $1500 to cover the cost of repairs to Hollingsworth's bike. No, no police charge has been laid. Yes, Warnie continues to make a tit of himself on Twitter. In further related news, here's a rare example of a politician providing the voice of reason. Victorian premier Ted Baillieu on whether cyclists should have to pay registration: "I would have thought if people showed respect and common courtesy it would not be necessary."

... heroes

Israel's Yad Vashem holocaust centre could bestow another honour on one of the sport's greats, Gino Bartali. Bartali, who won the Giro d'Italia three times alongside two Tours de France, also helped save the lives of up to 800 Jews during World War Two, according to new research. After a forced stint in the traffic police under Italy's fascist regime, Bartali went underground and began smuggling identity photos to a convent producing counterfeit papers. Soldiers guarding the roads between Florence and San Quirico assumed the champ was merely on a 380km training run, as you do. In fact, he was carrying valuable documents hidden in his saddle and frame. Bartali rarely spoke of his acts, saying: "Good is something you do, not something you talk about. Some medals are pinned to your soul, not to your jacket."

... contract extensions

Ivan Basso and wife Micaela have renewed their marriage vows. Said Basso: "Eleven years ago in the registry office, today in the church. The same emotions, the same love. A circle closes, two hands holding even tighter. And three kids who live with us now." He did not add: "And a mortgage." Here's a lovely pic.

Dispatches from the Twitterverse

Drunk people should NOT be allowed to enter an aircraft - @janibrajkovic

Why people put [white] sock's on when they [wear] black sandals...modern trend....!!?? - @f_cancellara

Classic YouTube

Having exhausted all that New York has to offer, the people at Red Peak Branding chained a fully-equipped bike (lights, basket, the works) to a post in a busy Soho street. Then they photographed it every day for a year to see what would happen. If you think it's something surprising, you may wish to re-evaluate your faith in human nature. (Spoiler: days 270 onwards are not the video's most exciting).

Optus win looks good from the cheap seats

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:58:42 +1100

Modern sport means big business.

Long gone are the days when a few cents got you in the stadium to cheer on your team of part-time amateurs, who did it for love, in their spare time. Well, I'm not sure when it only cost a few cents. But just take a look at England's bloated Premier League to see where money gets you.

Here in Australia, our sports are not as affected by the big bucks. For starters, noone else is really that interested in our multiple codes of football; even we can't seem to agree on one.

But selling the rights to NRL and AFL matches is certainly big money in local terms. And for the last few decades, it's been all about TV rights.

With the latest landmark case, however, mobile technologies are the new battleground.

Telstra's deal with the AFL is worth $153 million. Well, strictly speaking it cost them $153m; what it's worth is another matter entirely.

Nonetheless, the fact that Optus customers are able to watch the big matches just a few minutes behind their screening on terrestrial TV is obviously a concern for Telstra, and thus came the court case.

And it was Optus that won this landmark proceeding against the AFL, NRL and Telstra in relation to its TV Now service. The app enables Optus user to watch TV shows just a few minutes after they've gone to air (whether it should be called 'TV just after' is up for debate), and obviously, there's value in this for sports fans.

But value is what drives sports broadcasting rights. Why pay big money for mobile rights to a game if it's not exclusive?

The judge in the case said it was not Optus making the 'recording', it was the individual who was 'shifting' their viewing, so 2006 amendments to the 1968 copyright act held.

"Even though Optus provided all the significant technology for making, keeping and playing the recording, I considered that in substance this was no different to a person using equipment or technology in his or her own home or elsewhere to copy or record a broadcast", he said.

So, even though the recording was done in the cloud, it's the same as using your VCR to tape your favourite show; no copyright breaching here.

Naturally, there are big implications for sports. How can sports bodies establish a value for internet rights with rulings like this?

The football codes say they are likely to appeal, but, of course, victory is not guaranteed.

"If it ultimately is held, what will the major sporting codes do in response given sales of mobile rights is becoming an important revenue stream?" asked Ian Robertson, a Managing Partner at Holding Redlich lawyers.

"Running these sports is an expensive operation."

And he's right. You only have to look at the AFL's recruitment of former NRL star Israel Folau. $4.3m was coughed up for a three-year deal. The average AFL player is set to earn over $300,000 a year by 2016, according to The Herald Sun.

Sport is becoming more, and more of a business. They'll always be looking for new revenue streams.

It's a vicious circle. A more entertaining match requires more money to fund it. But ultimately, that money comes from sports fans, with higher ground fees and ever bigger broadcasting deals, via whatever medium. Tack on to that more charges to watch and more Burger King advertising in your life ('the Whopper has also celebrated being the Official Burger of the AFL '). Fantastic. Give me the leagues of 50 years ago.

In the strange universe of English football, television revenue has gone hand in hand with the fortunes of Russian oligarchs and Gulf Sheikhs to transform the league beyond recognition, catapulting average teams to the top of the league. Manchester City? Are you joking? A generation of millionaires created while working fans cough up small fortunes to watch games in the stadium or at home.

Money has brought the world's stars together to create beautiful football - but how much more beautiful, and bloated - can it get?

While we're not there yet in Australia, for Ian Robertson, should the AFL and NRL not be victorious against Telstra in protecting their new cashflow portal - your mobile handset - there's likely to be a knock at the government's door.

"Sponsorship and sales is a very important part of their revenue stream...the question is what are they going to do about it? I'd say they're likely to lobby the government", he told SBS.

In the unlikely event that this new revenue stream is not protected for the money machine that is professional sport, revenue will be hit.

But you know what? I'm pretty sure those players aren't going to go hungry any time soon.

They're up to their necks in official burgers, for starters.

Follow @billcode

Roger Coleman on Rinehart’s Fairfax raid

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:24:19 +1100

Gina Rinehart’s raid on the Fairfax share registry has raised many eyebrows.

The mining magnate is paying a premium at an attempt to become the company’s biggest shareholder.

Roger Coleman, a media analyst at CCZ Equities told me that it’s a political play.

Why the Fitch bank ratings review means no mortgage rate cut

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:50:42 +1100

Australia’s major banks have been given a helping hand in their case to distance their interest rate decision from that of the Reserve Bank.

Fitch placed the credit ratings of Australia’s big 4 banks on watch negative yesterday, noting their reliance of wholesale funds, a point Australia’s banks have been trying to make for some time.

While it’s nothing new, it reinforces their stance at a time when interest rates are bounced as a political football.

To explain, I spoke with banking analyst, Brian Johnson from CLSA.

Hungarian poster for Shame causes stir

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:31:19 +1100

The US distributor of Steve McQueen’s sexual drama have shot down the Hungarian poster.

It’s the rejected film poster that everyone is suddenly seeing: recently a censored one sheet (see below) for the Hungarian release of Steve McQueen’s uncompromising sexual addiction drama, Shame, has been bouncing around the internet. Reportedly prepared for the Hungarian distributor, Fox Searchlight, the poster starkly features the film’s title written on bare female skin with what is meant to resemble semen. It is, depending on your viewpoint, either powerful or pornographic, with the only thing for certain being the potential for puns.

With Shame, which stars Michael Fassbender (pictured) and Carey Mulligan, opening in Australia on Thursday 9 February, we asked Andrew Mackie, joint managing director of the movie’s Australian distributor, Transmission Films, about the process of local distributors creating their own promotional materials such as posters.

“As an indie distributor you can come up with any poster you want,” he explains. “Normal procedure is that you get it approved by the producers before you print it, and most contracts insist on that and we’d do it as a matter of course.”

While Transmission have not been able to trailer Shame in Australian cinemas – R-rated pictures can only have their trailers attached to other R-rated releases, and there’s none in the market currently – they could feasibly issue a similar one sheet here as posters are not subject to official classification. That said, Mackie adds, there would not only be resistance from cinemas, “it’s also a question of whether it’s in good taste and fits the campaign we’re building.”

Mackie says that Australian distributors, especially those handling independent releases or titles that have not yet released in the United States or United Kingdom, often generate their own posters and trailers. Images that work in Europe, for example, often aren’t that effective in Australia.

“It’s a shame we don’t have a specific award for move posters in Australia, because the independents here generate some amazing campaigns,” he says. “Our Sleeping Beauty poster and trailer went worldwide.”

The distribution executive – who is a confirmed fan of the remarkable Polish film posters from the 1980s that are now also collected online – has commissioned local poster designs for everything from Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries to John Michael McDonagh’s recent black crime comedy, The Guard, but the only outcome that’s certain is that not everyone will agree.

“We did a distinctive poster for Antichrist in this market, from Jeremy Saunders, and I heard that [star] Willem Dafoe hated our poster, but [director] Lars von Trier loved it,” Mackie recalls. “You really can’t please everyone all the time.”

In the land of the free, money talks

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:18:56 +1100

The United States likes to proudly boast it is the land of the free. This is an honourable claim except that, when it comes to a presidential campaign, it is far from free and all about money.

If the US economy is in decline maybe the 2012 candidates should run for office every year. The money flowing through their campaigns could rejuvenate the economies of many states and create thousands of jobs across America. The big winners? Media companies rolling in advertising money during 2012 as candidates spend, spend, and spend again to denounce their rivals.

Some analysts expect television stations will take in as much as $US5 billion from campaign advertising this year – up almost 80 per cent from the $2.8 billion spent in 2008. A lot of this money is the result of a highly contentious 2010 Supreme Court decision sparked by a right wing group called Citizens United that demanded the right to broadcast a film critical of Hilary Clinton. The result, a victory for Citizens United, effectively granted a corporation the same political donor rights as an individual.

The tight ruling (voted 5-4 by the nine judges) was applauded by many (but not all) on the right and denounced by President Obama and others. In simple terms, the ruling eased restrictions on corporate campaign spending and contributor identities, effectively opening up a great big grey area for how a campaign can be managed and funded. In brief, a corporation can donate as much as it wants to a campaign, for whatever reason, and do so anonymously. The result is billions for politicians and lobbyists. Oh, and TV companies.

A great example and irony in this, however, can be seen in the recent experience of Newt Gingrich. The former Speaker was a strong supporter of the Supreme Court decision and a regular partner with Citizens United, with which he has “produced” a number of political “films”. But so it was that Gingrich felt the full press down weight of attack ads from Mitt Romney funded by organisations in turn funded by corporate powers just as soon as he started to exercise some kind of success.

The law states that these so-called Super PACs (“PAC” as in Political Action Committee) cannot coordinate campaigns with a candidate. But as Timothy Egan has pointed out in the New York Times, a Super PAC supporting Mitt Romney by the name of “Restore Our Future” is run by former associates of Romney’s at Bain Capital, business friends of his in Utah and some of the same donors who Swift-boated John Kerry in 2004.

“If we coordinated in any way whatsoever we’d go to the big house,” defended Romney.

But don’t expect the jailer to come calling any time soon.

Of course, it’s not solely money that will see a candidate get over the line. In Iowa, Rick Santorum effectively spent 74 cents per vote against Rick Perry’s $358. Santorum is still in the race. Just. Perry, though, is distant history back in Texas.

Aside of money, of course, there’s also the issues that are the key to victory. Issues that included, according to a televised debate on CNN last week, establishing a colony on the moon, squeezing the life out of Cuba, and arguing over whether Gingrich said Spanish was “the language of the ghetto in 2008”. Oh, and don’t forget the candidates unabashed love of Israel.

No mention of the economy, though.

Sundance: Hello, I Must Be Going

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:48:30 +1100

Despite projections, female-driven films didn’t end up dominating festival discussion after all.

I have come to think of the 10 days of Sundance as a kind of controlled haemorrhage: The festival begins at maximum capacity as everyone rushes into Park City at the same time, and then as each day passes film news and film people leak out at a roughly proportional rate. My favourite part of this process comes around day six, when all the opening weekend warriors have left, there is time to catch up on the things you’ve missed, and room to turn around in the press tent without swatting someone with your badge.

By the time the awards ceremony takes place, Park City has been mostly emptied of its industry invaders and the important decisions have been made. Still, news continues to trickle out of Sundance, and although it doesn’t look like this year is going to come close to topping last year in sales, a few buyers seemed to find what they were looking for—most notably Magnolia and Fox Searchlight. The former picked up The Queen of Versailles, a reality TV-styled doc about a couple who were in the midst of building the biggest home in the United States when the economic crisis hit, Compliance, Craig Zobel’s feature based on the true case of a prank phone call to a fast food outlet that ended very, very badly, 2 Days in New York, Julie Delpy’s winsome culture clash sequel to 2 Days in Paris, V/H/S, a compilation of short horror films of the “found footage” variety, and Nobody Walks, a drama directed by Ry Russo Young and co-written by Lena Dunham.

Fox Searchlight landed the festival’s two unlikely big fish: The Surrogate and Beasts of the Southern Wild. The former won the Sundance audience award for best U.S. feature, and the latter took the Grand Jury Prize for best feature. Both are by first-time directors, and both tell stories of characters on what I guess you could call the fringe—a man confined to an iron lung by polio and a little girl who imagines her Louisiana town is perched on the edge of the world. Though films with marquee names attached like The Words (Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper), Arbitrage (Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon), and Lay the Favorite (Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall) are quietly signing deals for VOD and/or theatrical distribution, it seems safe to declare Sundance 2012 The Year of the Ringer.

One of the trend stories that seemed poised to happen but didn’t quite get there involved the preponderance of young women in writing and directing roles. Along with Young and Dunham’s Nobody Walks there was Bachelorette (pictured), which director Leslye Headland adapted from her play, Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister (picked up locally by Hopscotch), For a Good Time Call…, a sex comedy by writers, co-directors, and three name sharers Lauren Anne Miller and Katie Anne Naylon, Black Rock, a thriller directed by Katie Aselton and starring Kate Bosworth, and For Ellen, a character study of a young father in the midst of a custody battle starring Paul Dano and directed by So Yong Kim. The strident bad girl raunch of Bachelorette seemed to eat up most of the available oxygen for the subject of women at Sundance, which is both good and bad. On the plus side, the sooner that Bridesmaids dress train-riding tactic plays out the better, but in the meantime it’s a shame that Bachelorette’s relative fizzle dominated the discussion when the diversity across these films should have been the real story.

But then it’s easy to talk about what the real story should have been on day 10. It’s probably also a little imprudent. The exciting thing about Sundance is watching how the films that debut here develop a life and personality throughout the year to come. Last year I couldn’t wait for the rest of the world to see The Interrupters, the Steve James documentary about how cycles of violence form in a Chicago community. This year it’s Detropia, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s numinous look at a city in ruins, The Invisible War, a vital recovery of stories of rape in the military, and The Surrogate, which contains some of the most awkward and life-affirming sex scenes I’ve ever watched on screen. At the heart of it Sundance is all about making people care, after all—about your film, about your favorite. And though caring is not always enough, it’s a nice place to start.

Casting Aspersions: Murphy, Roberts & Inarritu

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:26:20 +1100

Ryan Murphy looks back at the AIDS epidemic, Julia Roberts plays around with Meryl Streep, and Alejando Gonzalez Inarritu plots some revenge.

Two of the most important and resonant responses to the spread of HIV and the subsequent rise of deaths in the gay community from AIDS have never made it to the movies. Randy Shilts’ damning non-fiction study of the disease’s early spread amid official apathy, And the Band Played On, was made into a HBO mini-series in 1993, while Larry Kramer’s incendiary 1985 play, The Normal Heart, has stayed on the stage. The latter was prominently revived on Broadway last year, and that appears to have secured the work a screen adaptation.

Ryan Murphy, the television impresario (Glee, American Horror Story) whose filmmaking efforts have been somewhat patchy (Running With Scissors, Eat Pray Love), will direct a script written by Kramer. For the central role of Ned, a New York City writer and gay activist whose anger grows in the absence of organised research and health warnings, Murphy has cast Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right), while there are parts for Alec Baldwin (Ned’s homophobic brother), Matt Bomer (Ned’s boyfriend) and Julie Roberts (as the wheelchair-bound doctor who’s one of the first to understand the looming crisis).

It will be the latter’s second collaboration with Murphy, and Roberts continues to run an eclectic schedule. She plays a comically camp Evil Queen in Mirror Mirror, one of the forthcoming Snow White films, is still due to co-star with Meryl Streep in the adaptation of another key American play, Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County, and will also produce and star in Second Act, a comedy about a woman who is forced to take a job after a lifetime of not working. She appears to be leaving the romantic comedies that made her the most commercially popular actress in Hollywood to the younger hopefuls hoping to succeed her.

Mexican filmmaker Alejando Gonzalez Inarritu has a short but compelling list of movies to his name: Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, and Biutiful. His fifth film is now underway, with Inarritu directing a Mark L. Smith adaptation of Michael Punke’s novel, The Revenent, an 1820s American frontier drama about a man on a hunting expedition mauled by a bear and then robbed and left for dead by the two men detailed to look after him. When the injured man survives revenge becomes his obsession. Inarritu, who draws outstanding performances from his actors, is talking to Leonardo DiCaprio for the part of the central protagonist, with Sean Penn, who featured in 21 Grams, as one of the pair that abandon him.

And, finally, more from The Casting Director’s Best Friend (a.k.a. Steven Soderbergh): the prolific, possibly soon to retire, filmmaker is now populating the pharmaceutical thriller Side Effects. Blake Lively (The Town) plays the young wife who develops a prescription addiction on the eve of her husband, Channing Tatum (Stop-Loss), being released from jail and begins an affair with a lawyer to be portrayed by Jude Law (Contagion). The latest addition, as a doctor, is Catherine Zeta-Jones, who got some of her best reviews working for Soderbergh a decade ago as a drug baron’s wife in Traffic.

Joke posters plaster Oscar nominees

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:50:10 +1100

Mock posters put a clever new spin on the hype for Academy Awards candidates.

Amid all the earnest commentary, debate and prognostications over the Academy Awards, it’s refreshing to see someone taking the Mickey out of the nominees.

The UK website TheShiznit.co.uk cheekily has poked fun at the best film contenders by redesigning the movie posters “so they're a little more honest about their content.”

[Related: See the full list of 2012 Oscar nominees]
[Oscar watch 2012: SBS Coverage]

The Shiznit creative team’s wicked sense of humour is often politically incorrect but some of the new titles and taglines are very funny.

Hence The Iron Lady is rechristened Total Bitch with a strap that proclaims, “Crippled our Nation. Stole our Milk.”

The Help is dubbed White People Save Racism with the slogan, “You’re welcome, black people.”

Hugo’s 11 nominations haven’t spared the film from being mocked for its mediocre box office performance, affixed with the new title Marketing Nightmare and the slogan, “Martin Scorsese’s Loving Homage to the Early Era of Cinema and Filmmaking…for Children.”

Stephen Daldry’s 9/11 drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is pilloried as Extremely Lame & Incredible Cloying.

David Fincher’s lurid remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is retitled All the Rape, No Subtitles with the strap, “The movie you already saw…Now in English.”

The Descendants is given a clumsy new moniker which makes fun of its star:
Look! George Clooney is Good at Acting!

Perhaps the most devastating critique is the poster for Terrence Malick’s apparently pretentious, abstruse The Tree of Life: a montage of stills with one word in the middle: “WUH?”

Among the least clever or inventive is the re-tweaking of Oscar frontrunner The Artist, which becomes Pure Art…Guaranteed Winner.

Christopher Plummer’s nod for best supporting actor in Beginners inspired the site to re-name the film Old gay man wins Oscar, which is misleading because Plummer isn’t gay.

The satirists at TheShiznit also took aim at several films that were overlooked in the nominations, including J. Edgar, whose poster shows Leonardo DiCaprio pleading, “Please nominate me. I’ll take anything. Even if it’s, just, like Best Make-Up.”

And Lynne Ramsay’s confronting We Need To Talk About Kevin is re-billed as Hardcore Sequel to Problem Child.

The Shiznit’s piss-take does seem to have touched a nerve with many people who aren’t enthused with the current crop of Oscar nominees.

“From a pure spectator perspective this looked like a very boring year for movies. I don’t really hit the theater anymore unless something really compels me, and only Drive was able to do that this year,” said one comment posted on Collider.com.

“The Artist hasn’t even won an Oscar, yet it feels like it already has. This sux,” moaned another.

Speaking of The Artist, an amusing tape of blooper outtakes from the silent movie has surfaced on the Internet. Enjoy.

Water for novices

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:22:54 +1100

Water. Take a look around every paddock, every time you’re in the country, and you might not even see the water. But each paddock, each field, usually has a source of water, if not for livestock, then for crops. Under the earth and along fence lines are countless kilometres of pipe, feeding into baths and troughs, some gravity fed, some using a siphon, some connected to pumps and most work on a float valve, the kind of thing that sits in your cistern above your dunny and allows the water to run and stop before overflowing.

Our new place, 70 acres of valley floor near Cygnet (the neighbours call it "the gully"), has plenty of water compared to many farms. Seven dams. At least three seem to be spring fed, and there’s also a winter creek. But allowing livestock down to the creek or dam isn’t the most efficient use of a resource, so we have to hook up clean, fresh sources of water in every paddock. A simple task, until you realise that pipes cost a bucket, the fat ones are a nightmare to unroll, and to bury one you need a tractor or a backhoe or some other machinery. Add in time, the expense of float valves; hole saws to drill through baths salvaged from the tip; the fact that water, by definition, is to be found at the bottom of the valley, but we need to get it out of the creek bed and dams and up to the cows, the sheep, the pigs. Without power. Without risk of it failing. And in a way that we can rotational graze our livestock to get the most from the grass, the land, the animals.

(Rotational grazing involves moving the herd quite regularly to new grass, a process that mimics the migration of grazing animals, and is believed to help improve soil depth and structure.)

Add in rotational grazing, which means you ideally want water in the middle of a paddock, not one corner, and you end up with a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, and me with neither the skills nor the knowledge to put it all together. Water, like fencing, is one of the things non-farmers take for granted when we look at the landscape. We don’t see the time, money and effort that’s gone into creating a place where plants or animals can thrive. The lattice-like system of pipes that wrap around each property like the structure of a lung. Water, that giver of life, isn’t something to be taken lightly.

I’ve set up two siphons already. But the big picture of the farm needs big water storage and a more fail-safe system. Water pumped up to large tanks so it can be dripped onto the new orchard. Or gravity fed into a trough. Or soaked into a wallow for the pigs in summer. There are about 35 of them at the moment, and supplying clean water is a constant issue for an animal that soils its own drinking water with its muddy snout.

In the meantime, I look at my back-of-the-envelope calculations and begin to wonder how much else I don’t know about farming. What other unknowns are waiting out there for the novice. And rejoice in all the challenges of this life that we never thought we’d lead.

Men's final, strap yourselves in

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:05:58 +1100

Tonight’s Australian Open men’s final is a clash of the titans – and one from which I expect Rafael Nadal to emerge victorious. Just.

Nadal will go into the final an underdog, something he’s not had to worry about for most of his career, even though he’s shared 26 Grand Slam titles with Roger Federer, probably the greatest player of all time.

But Djokovic has just enjoyed the most dominant single year of tennis in decades, which culminated in three Grand Slam wins and an extraordinary 41 straight wins until the French Open semi-finals.

The Serb is also the reigning champion, having thrashed Andy Murray on this stage 12 months ago.

He’s got form against Nadal as well, having defeated him in the finals of the US Open and Wimbledon in 2011.

In all, he’s won the last six encounters.

But he’s also not quite at 100 per cent, and that’s why I’m going with Nadal tonight.

Djokovic seemed to strain a hamstring in the win over David Ferrer in the quarter-finals, and looked like he had trouble breathing at times in his win over Andy Murray in the semis.

Djokovic says he’s fine, but if there’s anyone who can exploit any physical weakness in the Joker’s game, it’s Nadal.

“There is no secret it is going to be physical again,” Djokovic says.

“I will do my best to recover. I have a day and a half. I will try to get as much sleep and get my recovery program underway and hope for the best. I think that's going to be crucial for me to recover and to be able to perform my best, because Rafa is fit. He's been playing well. He had an extra day.”

Even Nadal though isn’t buying into the theory of Djokovic being under par.

"It's funny, no? I saw the match on TV, and in the fifth set he was moving fantastically well, and they show images from two hours fifty before and seems like he was destroyed. Two hours fifty later he was in perfect condition. So is difficult to imagine that he has these problems. I don't know."

I think it’ll be a factor.

Nadal has only dropped two sets in the entire tournament so far, and with that crucial extra day’s break, he’s ready to go the distance on Rod Laver Arena.

"I am trying to play a little bit more aggressive and hit more winners.

The improvements that I want to make are not complete. But I am happy how I am doing, no? I don't know if it’s going to be enough for him."

I’m tipping Nadal in five, but either way, strap yourselves in for a classic.

Shrieks of nature

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:14:28 +1100

Already everyone’s billing the Australian Open women’s final as the "shrieker vs the screamer", as Maria Sharapova prepares to take on Victoria Azarenka.

The issue of grunting, screeching, or otherwise making a rather offensive sound during a rally isn’t a new one – remember the stick Monica Seles used to cop in the 1990s?

But it seems to have reached a new high – or low – this week, with the antics of both Sharapova and Azarenka. Jim Courier is on record as saying it’s unfair, as players rely on the sound of the ball hitting the racquet to determine how fast the ball’s coming over the net.

Several players mustered the courage to speak up about the distraction, including Agnieszka Radwanska, who lost to Azarenka in a quarter-final on Tuesday.

Ridiculously, Channel Seven had a decibel meter on centre court to measure Sharapova’s shrieks, as if it’s a competition.

Add that to the undercurrent of sexual objectification of women on the WTA Tour – still! - the Australian Open website even had a poll about which woman was the most ‘glamourous’ - and the tennis itself seems to be a sideshow.

However, screaming on court is not a matter confined to the women’s game. Those who watched Rafael Nadal’s superb victory over Roger Federer last night will have noticed the Spaniard grunting throughout, but no-one seems to mind. Why?

Whether it’s a matter of bad sportsmanship or simply that it’s annoying, why aren’t the men subject to the same criticism and ridicule?

The WTA issued a statement last night, saying it would like to clamp down on grunting in women’s tennis – but would the ATP, the men’s tour governing body, ever do the same?

Not likely.

Click here to have your say.

On court I’m backing Maria Sharapova to win her second Australian Open to add to her 2008 title. The Russian has been there, done that, and I fancy her experience and composure to get her over the line in three sets.

Azarenka is a great story – ranked number ten 12 months ago, if she wins tomorrow night she’ll be the new world number one. But she’s never even played in a Grand Slam final, let alone won one.

And I suspect she played her final one game too early, in knocking out the reigning champion Kim Clijsters.

Afterwards, she said it was such a relief she wanted to cry. I believe it’ll be Sharapova with the tears of joy tomorrow night.

Down and out in Paris and Aigle

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +1100

You may wish to sit down for this, but this year's Paris-Roubaix could be marginally less cobbly.

Organisers have warned that the race's most famous stretch, the Forest of Arenberg, is under threat after utterly unforeseeable weather left bits of the road covered in soil.

"Nature has reasserted itself, and mud is covering the ground," sighed Jean-Francois Pescheux, a representative of the Amaury Sports Organisation (ASO), as if Arenberg was a sandbank in the path of the Amazon and not a forest in France.

The ASO runs Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France, so it may come as a surprise that the organisation is wringing its hands about the failure by French authorities to maintain a road that is used precisely once per year, rather than offering to, say, chip in for a couple of spades to initiate the clean-up.

But perhaps like elsewhere in cycling, money is a problem. This week the ASO knocked back the chance to toss wadded-up banknotes into a pot the International Cycling Union dug out of its shed and labelled 'Global Cycling Promotion'.

The UCI, having squirreled away just 114,000 Swiss Francs (US$124,000) in 2010, are approaching "people of means" (although presumably not this guy) to invest in their new entity, which they hope will boost coffers by tapping new markets.

As the UCI is non-profit, president Pat McQuaid has promised that any doubloons which Global Cycling Promotion funnels back to Aigle will be invested into the sport.

Interestingly, he specified this money would be distributed among teams* – something that may or may not relate to the recent proposal for a breakaway series which promised teams 64 per cent ownership.

*Possibly not women's teams, admittedly.

The week in ...

... biking pure

French teenager Alexandre Dougnier is not someone who does things by halves. Dougnier, 19, has been banned for three years by the French Cycling Federation after testing positive for 12 separate performance-enhancing substances. He was riding with local club AC Boulogne-Billancourt when dope testers caught up with him at a Kermesse race in May last year – perhaps having been tipped off after noticing his urine burning holes in the pavement. The complete Dougnier cocktail is as follows: 3'HydroxyStanozolol, 16B-HydroxyStanozolol, 4B-HydroxyStanozolol, 4-Meyhylhexaneamine, Prednisone, Prednisolone, Oxandrolone, Epioxandrolone, Tuaminoheptane, Triamcinolone Acetonide, 6B-HydroxyMethandienone and 17-Epimethandienone.

... letdowns

The Tour Down Under was not everything it was cracked up to be for Vacansoleil's Dutch sprinter Kenny van Hummel. "I still haven't seen a kangaroo in the wild yet," van Hummel told Yahoo Sports. "We've ridden past kangaroo signs but seen nothing so far. Yesterday we saw a wild koala in a tree when we were on a training run, but that's it."

... global cycling promotion

Kyrgyzstan, besides being a nightmarish Scrabble hand, is best known for being a landlocked Central Asian country not closely connected with Borat or Alexandre Vinokourov. But if one man has his way cyclists will soon be flocking to the mountainous nation like snow leopards to a wounded goat. Almaz Aiylchiev wants to build a 300-mile bike path around local beauty spot Lake Issyk-Kul.

"Cycling is very popular in Europe, the United States, Russia and China and this project will be good for tourists," Aiylchiev hurrahed, placing a bulk order for bar tape and chamois cream. Kyrgyzstan's recent achievements include two revolutions and violent ethnic clashes, so it's possible that a bike path may not be enough on its own to kick-start a tourist boom.

Luckily Aiylchiev has other tricks up his sleeve, including the project’s name, Bai Issyk-Kul – chosen with foreigners in mind.
"In the Kyrgyz language it means 'rich Issyk-Kul' but in English it sounds like bicycle," Aiylchiev said. Tourism officials in Koksijde, home of this weekend's cyclocross world championships, were unavailable for comment.

Dispatches from the Twitterverse
Air Europa the worst flight company ever. To anybody out there never ever book a flight with aireuropa - @schleckfrank

I decree there shall be more grunting in women's cycling. More frocks, names on our shoes & matching sweatbands. I have kit envy #sharapova - @Bridie_OD

Anybody else perplexed by the fact that every 2nd AD on TV is selling funeral insurance? Surely it can't be that popular to invest in death? - @badencooke

Classic YouTube

The hit series 'Shit girls (skiers/yoga teachers) say' has finally inspired a spin-off covering cyclists. Man, shaved legs DO make such a difference.

Tent Embassy Protest: What People Are Saying

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +1100

Cadet journalist Hannah Hollis takes a look at media coverage of the Tent Embassy protest.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda said he was “appalled” at the level of disrespect and aggression shown towards the two leaders: “Aggressive, divisive and frightening”.

He also said the actions yesterday went “too far” and questioned the timing of the protests “when we’re so close to moving towards cementing respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution”.

Similarly, former ALP President Warren Mundine said the protesters overreacted to Tony Abbott’s comments: “The words were pretty timid”.

Comedian & broadcaster Meshel Laurie took to popular blog Mamamia, urging people not to let the dramatic images harden hearts against the Indigenous community.

Meanwhile controversial Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt said the movement yesterday was “shameful” and “the reconciliation movement move must end”, stirring heated debate on the Herald Sun website.

Protester and tent embassy co-founder Michael Anderson said “police overreacted” but also told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell the protesters “misinterpreted Mr Abbott's comments” .

ABC Radio’s Michael Edwards took a different angle, saying the incident raises questions about how effective the PM’s security is.

Amy McGuire reports in Crikey that media reports of an ‘angry mob’ or protesters were inaccurate - echoing commentary in online magazine New Matilda: ‘The Mob Violence That Wasn’t’.

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has refused to retract his comments, maintaining they were “pretty timid” remarks. He condemned the protests and labelled the actions of protesters “un-Australian”.

Protester Pat Eatock told The Australian PM Julia Gillard had one week to collect the shoe she lost in the protest: “If she doesn’t meet with us I will be putting it on eBay”.

Comments made on Living Black’s Facebook page remained divided, with many in support of the protest action. Others questioned the protesters’ tactics, while some expressed distrust of media accounts on the event.

Where is the buzz?

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +1100

Still on a high from the success of the national road titles and phenomenal Tour Down Under Mike Tomalaris wonders where the buzz is for the Cycling Australia Track National Championships.

Cycling Australia's track national championships begin this week.

Trust me they do!

But sadly if you live, or have been staying anywhere in the vicinity of Adelaide (as I have since the end of the Santos Tour Down Under), you'd be excused for thinking the titles are being held in another land far, far away.

Just four days after one of the most gripping editions of the TDU, watched by an estimated crowd in excess of 750,000 across seven days, you'd expect cycling's national governing body would seize the opportunity to remind South Australians there's another huge event being held in their city.

But after scanning the local newspapers and surfing the various commercial TV networks, I can genuinely report this is not the case.

Since Simon Gerrans and GreenEDGE crossed the finish line triumphant last Sunday, the stream of visitors to the TDU immediately returned home to all points around the country.

The network of roads that grace this wonderful cycling haven between the city's nearby hills and coastline have also been returned to Adelaide's rightful owners. Cyclists here may be fewer in numbers now but they just as passionate about pushing pedals.

Yet, having spoken to many cycling supporters and recreational riders in the days since the final stage of the TDU few, if any, outside of the sport's local fraternity realised that a four-day track carnival featuring a host of stars is being held in their own back yard.

I can't understand why, this is a market yearning for more after experiencing all that the TDU had to offer.

Whether it be on the road, in the velodrome or on the MTB and BMX dirt, Australia is curently blessed with world championship cycling talent and the track nationals is no exception.

Look at the names - Kaarle McCulloch, Anna Meares, Shane Perkins, Jack Bobridge, Michael Freiberg, Michael Hepburn, Luke Durbridge and Rohan Dennis.

Each have each been awarded UCI rainbow jerseys at one-time-or-another during their respective careers and all will grace the boards at the world-acclaimed Adelaide Superdrome this week.

Multiple world and Olympic champion Meares is a national treasure, while the likes of Perkins, Bobridge, Durbridge and Hepburn are likely gold medal contendors at the UCI Track World Championships and the London Olympic Games.

Look at Rohan Dennis. Here is a youngster who not only cleaned up in the under 23 time trial and road events at Ballarat, but also rode with distinction at the TDU.

If anyone is going to "make it" it's this wonderful prodigy from the suburbs of Adelaide.

Cycling Australia rightly scored many bouquets for its handling of the recent road national championships in Ballarat.

The viewing ratings for SBS''s breakthrough live coverage exceeded expectations and the names that graced our TV screens on that occasion reminded us how fortunate Australia is on the professional road circuit.

Why can't the same marketing and promotion be prioritised for the track nationals?

Do national authorities constantly need to be reminded that Australia's track heritage is filled with rich history dating back some 100 years? I shouldn't think so.

Ticket sales for the UCI Track World Championships in Melbourne over Easter already suggest a sell-out, vocal crowds will attend.

Adelaide will host the Australian Swimming Championships which double for Olympic qualification and although they are still six weeks there's already an air of anticipation.

Come on Cycling Australia lift the profile of your event and your sport!

Raise the awareness of the talent you have at your disposal, it's in the interest of Australia's sporting public and the cyclists who do the hard yards.

Shout it out loud, tell the mainstream media and make aware to the casual cycling fan what you have on offer.

There would be nothing more cringe-worthy than turning up to a half-empty Superdrome at a time when our track athletes deserve much, much more.

Cycling Central will have LIVE coverage of the final two nights of the Cycling Australia Track National Championships on 28 and 29 January from 7:30pm, SBS TWO and online.

Casting Aspersions: Cumberbatch, Joon-ho & Jones

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:30:51 +1100

Benedict Cumberbatch shows class, Bong Joon-ho trains up, and Tommy Lee Jones goes to war.

“Being a posh actor in England, you can’t escape class-typing, from whatever side you look at it. I realised quite early on that, although I wasn’t trying to make a career speciality of it, I was playing slightly asexual, sociopathic intellectuals,” the actor Benedict Cumberbatch recently remarked to the Radio Times. “I was brought up in a world of privilege. It can ostracise you from normal codes of conduct in society.” If that’s the case, the 35-year-old isn’t faring that badly. Cumberbatch is currently on cinema screens in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Tomas Alfredson’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, providing a nuanced, vulnerable foil to Gary Oldman in the latter, and he stars as a modern day Sherlock Holmes on the successful BBC television series Sherlock.

And his forthcoming roles suggest that his aristocratic demeanour is being put to unexpected use by some filmmakers. In Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, Cumberbatch will not only provide the voice of Smaug the dragon, but with motion capture technology he’ll also lay the foundations of the nefarious beast’s performance. He’s also been cast in another blockbuster, 2013’s 3D Star Trek reboot sequel. The role returning director JJ Abrams has earmarked Cumberbatch for isn’t confirmed, although there are obsessives who swear that the timelines match perfectly for Cumberbatch to play a younger version of Star Trek’s most revered villain, Ricardo Montalban’s Khan from 1982’s The Wrath of Khan.

Should Cumberbatch worry? Unless he has his heart set on getting a call from Mike Leigh, probably not. As he knows, for every role the British class divide denies to him, there’s an actor who can’t get a look in for the parts Cumberbatch does get. You don’t hear Eddie Marsan or Ray Winstone complaining, and the only real risk for Cumberbatch is in allowing his background to become a kind of cinematic shorthand that pigeonholes him. That’s called doing a Hugh Grant.

South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, who has enjoyed considerable attention outside his homeland thanks to 2006’s The Host and 2009’s Mother, appears to be assembling an international cast for his next project. Based on a French comic book, Snow Piercer is set on a train in a post-apocalyptic ice age, with those on board forcefully separated by class and privilege. The actors Bong is looking to cast include Chris Evans (Captain America: The First Avenger), Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin).

And, finally, should actors worry about a character they’re portraying having previously fared badly? In The Emperor Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) will play General Douglas McArthur, the controversial American soldier who was head of the occupying forces in Japan after World War II ended and had to decide whether the nation’s deified Emperor Hirohito would be tried as a war criminal. McArthur already has an infamous place in movie history, with Sir Laurence Olivier portraying the character in the disastrously bad 1982 Korean War epic Inchon. The film was an expensive bomb, with the ageing Olivier telling reporters he took the part for the $US1 million fee. “I’m almost used up now and I can feel the end coming,” he told reporters. “That’s why I’m taking money now.” Hopefully Tommy Lee Jones has somewhat better intentions.

From Ricardo, to Richard, to Ricardo

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:40:31 +1100

SBS presenter Ricardo Goncalves grew up in Wollongong speaking Portuguese. When he hit primary school the nuns made him 'Richard', but at SBS he became Ricardo again.

Thirty-one years ago today I was born to a wonderful Portuguese immigrant family in a hospital in Wollongong on the South Coast of New South Wales, with a full birth name of Ricardo Jorge Goncalves (Jorge, pronounced George, not Hor-hay).

But, despite the very, very Portuguese name, I’m as Aussie as they come.

As we approach Australia Day, it got me wondering what being Australian really means. What is the Australian culture? What does a typical Australian look like these days? Is Australia truly multicultural?

Last night, in his Australia Day address, neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo spoke of the racism he endured and, more recently, his daughter, despite their obvious Australian accents. They have Asian backgrounds.

Growing up in Wollongong I spent the first five years of my life speaking Portuguese as my first language. It wasn’t really until I hit primary school when English was really introduced, and it was in my first year, when the nuns anointed me “Richard”.

Neither I nor my family really questioned it or made a big deal about it. It kind of just happened. Instead of being called Ricardo at school, I was Richard. The bizarre thing was that I probably went to one of the most ethnically diverse Catholic primary schools in Wollongong, so surely it wasn’t because of my cultural background or an attempt to anglicise me.

So, throughout my schooling life I was Richard Goncalves (Gone-karlves). I excelled at school, even topping my English classes culminating in 3 unit English at high school (I never want to hear about Utopias and Anti-Utopias again) and was the College Captain at my high school, Edmund Rice College. At the same time I worked hard to earn a bit of cash, respected my family and contributed to the local Portuguese community dancing at my local folk group and Wollongong community at large through various endeavours.

I was your typical Aussie kid growing up, I just happened to have a Portuguese family who worked tremendously hard and ate lots of espetada and on the odd occasion, milho. Look them up.

Did I ever feel a sense of racism directly aimed at me? Not really, but in my early adulthood, I was told by a nightclub bouncer in Wollongong that I was refused entry into a club because my hair was too dark. It was a common excuse.

Richard stuck with me for 24 years, even as I started work on air as a journalist. Again, I didn’t question it and I didn’t think much about it to be honest. My birth certificate and official documents said Ricardo, everything else, Richard. Even my parents were calling me Richard.

But when given the chance to work at SBS, it was suggested that maybe I’d like to return to my birth name. What a great opportunity to return to really help define what it is to be Australian.

So I have a woggy name. It’s actually not that woggy. But hey, that’s who I am, and that’s what it is to be Australian. (And a chance to get some publicity and attention for myself for the name change, I do have a marketing degree after all).

Australia is a melting pot of different nationalities, respecting each other to help live the Australian way. What is the Australian way? Ignore the stereotypes, it’s not about throwing a shrimp on the BBQ or slapping Vegemite on some burnt toast.

Nor, to the other extent is it about cultural exclusion.

It’s about people that live in Australia who come from different backgrounds simply respect each other, to help each other strive to be the best they can be and the best this young country can be.

It’s as simple as that.

I’m Ricardo Goncalves, I’m Australian, I just happen to have a Portuguese background. It doesn’t define me. What does is the way I treat and respect my fellow Aussies.

Phong Nguyen has told Michael Kenny he believes the government should have pushed ahead with its original plans.

Oh, and it’s my birthday today, two days before Australia Day. That’s pretty Aussie hey?

Sundance: The Discomfort Zone

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:24:45 +1100

Re-invention is emerging as the true theme of this year's Sundance Film Festival.

In his opening day press conference, Robert Redford told a less-than-full house (blizzardy weather delayed many on their way in to Park City) that Sundance is the only “purely independent” film festival that also runs a filmmaking lab all year round. The first part of that description seemed designed to get the crowd wagging: For almost a decade now, debates over Sundance’s indie credibility have nagged at the festival, which has become a hotspot for marketers—“leveragers” in Redford’s words—and big studios hoping to manufacture a low-budget hit. In recent years the discussion about the year’s program has been framed by a kind of accusation: Is Sundance really independent? This year, a new question is taking shape: What does independent even mean anymore?

In that same opening press conference Sundance Institute director John Cooper deflected a question about the overall theme of this year’s program. “Independent film is the theme,” he said. In fact, there is a slogan for the 26th annual gathering in Park City: “Look Again.” It’s written everywhere, most prominently in the animated bumpers that precede each film. Because I am professionally programmed to look for unifying themes, I would say that after a few days here in Park City, “Look Again” could have doubled as a mantra for many of this year’s films. A large number of them involve artists stepping out of their comfort zones and into new capacities, with the hope that audiences will accept the shift. Filmmakers and distributors are also taking some risks, thinking more independently and encouraging audiences to do the same. It’s like Park City is a snow-cloaked, Shakespearean forest, and all who enter hope to emerge transformed.

It’s fitting that Stephen Soderbergh’s new film, Haywire, was released over Sundance’s opening weekend. The film, one of indie lodestar Soderbergh’s romps into glossy genre territory, features mixed martial arts superstar Gina Carano in her first acting role. Many of the festival’s high profile films have at least one foot in the discomfort zone, including Wish You Were Here, which was written by actors Felicity Price and Kieran Darcy-Smith and directed by Darcy-Smith. Actress Rashida Jones co-wrote the script for the acrid relationship comedy Celeste and Jesse Forever, comedian Mike Birbiglia tried his hand at feature filmmaking with Sleepwalk with Me, and actor Mark Webber has written and directed The End of Love, a film about single fatherhood that stars his real-life toddler.

Some directors are switching it up as well: Nicholas Jarecki, of the Jarecki documentary dynasty (his brother Eugene’s film The House I Live In, is playing in the doc competition), is receiving very warm reviews for his first feature film, Arbitrage (pictured), a finance thriller starring Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere. James Marsh, who won an Academy Award for the documentary Man on Wire in 2009 and directed Project Nim this past year, is also entering the feature arena with Shadow Dancer, an IRA-era thriller set in Belfast that stars Clive Owen and W.E. star Andrea Riseborough. Both are hoping the Sundance seal will calm skittish viewers about the switch.

Mumblecore lynchpin Joe Swanberg brought his Uncle Kent to last year’s Sundance; this year he is not an official part of the program, but admits he timed the online release of his new film to coincide with the festival. Marriage Material is available for free for the week that Sundance is taking place. Swanberg’s move is in keeping with a festival drawn more and more toward digital platforms and filmmaker-driven channels of distribution. Just as directors (like Detropia contenders Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady) now routinely seek funding on sites like Kickstarter and Goodfilm.org, this year I have noticed it is the filmmakers themselves who stop to chat you up, not the publicists, and buyers talk as heatedly about VOD rights as they used to about splashy numbers for theatrical exhibition. After resisting this move for the better part of a decade, the movie industry finally feels ready to think about new ways to get eyes onto the films. Just before the festival began the Sundance Institute’s “Artist Services” program announced a partnership with online distribution agency New Video. As of this year all Sundance films, past and present, are eligible to sign a deal for digital distribution—a godsend especially for older films that fell through the cracks.

This year Sundance has also teamed up with YouTube to provide a showcase for their short film selections, nine of which are available for viewing online. One of those, called Henley, directed by Craig MacNeill, is a snippet of a young boy’s lonely world living at his father’s roadside motel. Its biggest asset may be the beguiling face of young actor Hale Lytle, but Henley is well shot and sharply edited—a tonal exercise with a startlingly dark ending. Sundance shorts often function as calling cards, or teasers for feature versions of the same story. This year, by virtue of being instantly available around the world, the selections also provide a glimpse of the future of independent film.

Attack ads of the Republican bloodbath

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:50:11 +1100

The most interesting thing about the array of Republican attack ads is that in the end, these guys are supposed to be on the same team.

For those readers who enjoy blood sports, Newt Gingrich’s emphatic victory in the South Carolina Republican Primary should be welcomed.

Gingrich not only won the support of Republicans in South Carolina, he won with over 40 per cent of the vote. Huge. Mitt Romney, the supposed sure thing, limped across the line humiliated in collecting only 27 per cent of the vote.

This shows South Carolina’s Republicans don’t care for several things. They don’t care about Gingrich’s infidelities, they don’t care about ethics violations that saw him flung from the Senate, they don’t care about his connections to lobby groups and profiteering from companies that played a role in the economic collapse.

They also don’t care much about Romney.

News last week that Rick Santorum had actually won Iowa – and not Romney – was also a major blow to Romney’s ambition. The supposed favourite is now not universally liked – even by Republicans.

The race is now genuinely wide open and will provoke brutal blood letting before the party decides which candidate it considers – in its wisdom – the best to beat President Obama.

Remember him?

So what are the candidates to do? Certainly not discuss their plans for a potential Presidency or flag solutions to fix the economy. Beside general rhetoric about small government, low taxes, and moral values, the candidates have taken a similar path – beat the other guys over the head. Viciously and angrily.

Here’s Mitt Romney’s latest attack ad on Newt Gingrich. Theme: “After being sanctioned for ethics violations and resigning in disgrace, Newt Gingrich cashed in as a D.C. insider.”

Here’s an attack on Newt Gingrich from Ron Paul supporters. Theme: Gingrich is dangerous and must not win Florida.

Here’s Newt Gingrich attacking Romney for apparently being pro-abortion. Theme: Romney can’t be trusted.

Romney gets it from Rick Santorum too. Theme: If you vote for Mitt, you’re a sheep endorsing what the “establishment” wants. Oh, and by the way, did you know Romney’s for abortion (he’s not)?

Here’s another ad attacking Newt Gingrich funded by Mitt Romney supporters, a so-called “Political Action Group” called Restore Our Future.

It’s important to note that these guys are all supposed to be on the same team. The battle against President Obama has yet to begin. If any candidate is still alive by then.

The black, white and grey of racism

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:56:37 +1100

While we should never forget that racism exists in Australian society, we should also put our country's experience into its proper context.

It seems everyone has an opinion on racism.

Dr Charlie Teo's Australia Day speech claiming that it still exists in our society, got enough coverage and sparked enough reaction to attest to that.

People seem to fall into the following four camps: either you agree, disagree, think the debate is exaggerated, or believe reverse discrimination is just as prevalent.

I think all are valid. Which is why this is such a messy debate.

As a fourth generation Australian (who has inherited more of my father's Malay-Indonesian genes than my mother's Irish-Australian) I've copped my fair share of racist comments over the years.

But taking offence depends on who's saying it.

I have plenty of ethnic friends who happily banter among themselves and with white Australians - usually at the expense of a stereotype.

They'll argue that it's the 'Australian way' to be self depreciating, cheeky, and to push the boundaries through humour.

They're among friends and know the intent is good.

But if it comes from the mouth of a stranger, it's labelled a racist remark.

A contradiction, you say?

This debate is full of them.

I remember my girlfriend (who is half Asian), advertising her car in the paper.

"I'm going to put lots of 8s in the price to attract the Chinese; it’s perfect for them," she told our friends.

Exactly why was it perfect?

"It's small, safe and pretty much drives itself," she declared.

Some might find her connotation of Asians and their standard of driving to be crude.

Others may find it amusing.

But this is the whole point about the racism debate.

Some migrants have looked me in the eye and vowed there’s no racism in Australia.

On the other end of the scale, ethnics themselves can be racist.

Racism isn't just confined to our shores. It's happening all around the world and in more serious circumstances.

Let there be no doubt that some on this planet are paying a heavy price for being a minority.

You only have to turn on World News Australia at night to witness some of the atrocities in other countries, where racism leads to displacement, violence and death.

For Australia, the race debate is always going to be a part of us.

Ever since the First Fleet, then decades of the White Australia policy, followed by Hansonism and now the struggles with new arrivals - undertones of racism have been here long before any of us were born.

The country's dark chapters can be perfectly summarized on four programs recently aired on SBS: The First Australians, Immigration Nation, Go Back to Where You Came From, and Once Upon A Time In Cabramatta.

It's clear we have much to be ashamed of.

But at the same time, we shouldn't use our past as the only basis to debate the future of our wonderful country.

I used to feel a little squeamish talking about racism in the same way some people talk about multiculturalism.

Often, these two topics attract great big sweeping motherhood statements about how our country should be.

But with one in four of us now born overseas, surely we can do better than this?

We mustn't forget the countless success stories of ethnic migration, or the fact that our country is incredibly peaceful given the number of flags we have living under the Australian one.

As the topic of racism rears its head again this Australia day week, let's remind ourselves that somehow, we are doing a better job than most countries around the world.

That's something to be proud of.

Japanese filmmakers tackle the 3/11 tragedy

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:31:02 +1100

Three films focusing on Japan’s nuclear plant meltdown and the aftermath will be unveiled next month. 

“If one was to be poisoned by radiation, if he or she did so out of their own will and conviction I believe it to be perfectly fine. But you can’t force that onto the children. The children, you must distance them from the poisoned areas.”

So says Koide Hiroaki, Associate Professor at Kyoto University’s Nuclear Test Facility and a prominent anti-nuclear campaigner, in the documentary Friends After 3.11, which will have its international premiere at next month’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Also being unveiled at the festival are two other Japanese films dealing with the March 11, 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power station and ensuing tsunami.

Funahashi Atsushi’s Nuclear Nation: The Fukushima Refugees Story, will have its world premiere in Berlin. Produced by Documentary Japan, it’s described as a portrait of a mayor without a town who tries desperately to keep together a community scattered across various emergency shelters in the Tokyo suburbs. In the process, he questions old certainties.

The New York-based Atsushi’s last movie was 2009’s Deep in the Valley, which combined a contemporary romance set in the old section of downtown Tokyo with a period drama based on Five-Story Pagoda, a classic literary work by Rohan Koda.

Atsushi has said, “My films aspire to present a universal ‘visual’ language of human emotions, which essentially highlights not the differences in people but the commonalities in them.”

Toshifumi Fujiwara’s No Man’s Zone (Mujin chitai, pictured) delves into the contaminated zone around the nuclear reactors and is said to evoke “images of an invisible apocalypse.”

The film premiered at Tokyo FILMeX in November. In a laudatory review, JFilmPowWow’s Nicholas Vroman observed that Fujiawara’s journey “takes him within the 50 kilometer no man’s zone surrounding the crippled and leaking Fukushima Nuclear plant. The journey is not merely the usual disaster sightseeing trip, but a serious questioning of how it was and is being mediated, along with a healthy dose of asides and commentary, interviews with a handful of holdouts living with the zone and scenes of destruction countered with things like blooming cherry trees and flowers. For a film about one of the major disasters that ever hit Japan, it’s surprisingly beautiful.”

Directed by Iwai Shunji, Friends After 3.11 screened on Japanese broadcasters Sky Perfect TV and Asahi News Star in November. “After 3.11, I noticed I’d made new friends. After this East Japan Earthquake, we all bore a deep wound,” said Shunji.

“Countless lives, treasures were taken from us. And the nuclear accident at Fukushima Plant became a catastrophe worse than Chernobyl. From now on, both Japan and the world will have to live with this burden. Speaking with many people, I made new friends. The realities of the disaster as told by these ‘friends,’ the days following, and then today. I want to portray the present and future of Japan, with all of its problems and obstacles.”

During the filming of an earlier doco on the subject, Tatsuya Mori’s 311, some survivors reacted angrily when they were approached by the film crew. People expressed horror and fury when they saw the cameras, the China Post reported when the film premiered in October at the Busan festival.

“We felt we had a duty to record what had happened and there is certainly a degree of egoism to filmmaking,” said Mori. “But we were constantly asking ourselves 'how do we approach this, what do we do to help those who survived and those who are dead?' In the end I think that became the theme of the whole film — how do we react to such a thing?”

Show them the money

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +1100

The time is ripe for corporate Australia to show GreenEDGE the money, writes Anthony Tan in Adelaide.

Gerry Ryan says his investment in GreenEDGE is “the biggest commitment I’ve ever made in sports”.

Following Simon Gerrans’ victory at the 2012 Santos Tour Down Under, his investment has, at least metaphorically speaking, turned a profit.

“For us, as an Aussie team to win here, it’s huge … it’s huge,” GreenEDGE sport director at the TDU Matthew White said.

“It’s great for Gerry, great for everyone. We’re looking for a sponsor. It’s one thing selling an idea – now we’ve become a team. And now we’re a successful team.”

There could have been no other winner. Gerrans was the best rider in the race.
Afterwards, he told me that never has he been in such good condition at this time of year. He understood the importance of not just securing the national road championship, but also the first WorldTour race on home soil – then established a game plan to give himself the best possible chance of winning both.

Those unforgiving, unrelenting kilometres he accrued in the off-season, rain, hail or shine, paid off big-time.

Last Saturday, when we saw him ascend like an angel with the unrepentant Alejandro Valverde up Old Willunga Hill, perhaps he was the only one not surprised at his climbing prowess, going toe-to-toe with someone who once beat Lance Armstrong to the ski resort of Courchevel at the 2005 Tour de France.

Coupled with selfless teamwork and clever tactics by White, GreenEDGE now head to Europe with two out of two boxes ticked and a not insignificant weight of expectation off their shoulders.

It’s therefore now time for prospective Australian sponsors to step up.

In their maiden voyage, there will only be one year, one time, and one place, where they can become part of this intoxicatingly stirring history-making process, as the GreenEDGE posse head inexorably closer to the month of July and a ground-breaking start at La Grande Boucle.

Said Ryan: “One thing about Australians… That Aussie spirit – even though we’re an international team, Australian licence – you can’t beat that Aussie spirit and guts.”

Surely, that counts for something. Surely, that’s worth backing.

C’mon, corporate Australia, we need you, because now more than ever, it’s time to lend GreenEDGE a helping hand.

“I’m sure I will get the success (from my investment) long-term,” said Ryan.
Let’s hope he’s right.

Twitter: @anthony_tan

Laotian pork laap salad

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +1100

Given my druthers, I could quite easily live on salad. Not nasty, limp little side salads, but big butch ones with lots of ingredients, crunchy bits and plenty of protein to keep me feeling satisfied. I love them in all their forms and, whenever I visit the US, I love a bit of downmarket-diner dining for the Cobb salads, Chinese chicken and everything in between. So it was no contest when it came to cooking something for the blog – a main course salad. The only decision was which one to make.

As much as I love the orderliness of the Cobb salad (“Ingredients! Attenshun!”), I decided to go with the fresh flavours of the Laotian pork laap. It contains one of those mysterious ingredients that tastes horrible by itself, but wonderful when combined with other ingredients – fish sauce. Fish sauce is most commonly made from fermented anchovies, but other varieties can be used as well – I’m certainly no connoisseur, but I love the tang it adds to dressings and curries. The only unusual ingredient in this salad was the pickled krachai – a finger-like rhizome that’s less pungent than ginger or galangal. Rather than a smell, this odd-looking ingredient actually has a perfume – divine! I’ve included a photo of it here so you know what to look for.

Now back to the task at hand: chopping was the main thing and a good reminder that my knives need sharpening. They do the job, but I’m sure it could be better – Feast’s food editor, Ange, gave me the name of a knife sharpener who comes to your house on his motorbike and does it right there. Fabulous!

I toasted the glutinous rice and started pounding it in my mortar and pestle, but not much seemed to be happening except for small bits of rice flying everywhere, so I put it in my spice grinder for a quick whizz. I’m not exactly what the texture is supposed to be, but I got a range from coarse powder to a few full grains.

Pork mince cooked – easy. I saved a bowl by putting the dressing ingredients (lime juice, fish sauce and white pepper) straight in with the eschalots, chillies, krachai, etc. Seemed to work okay and doing so meant one less thing to wash up. I let the pork cool a little and then mixed it all together. Topped with a little ground rice and some fresh herbs and this was delicious. The recipe claims it serves four, but I’d say it serves one Alix (with possibly some leftovers for lunch). Yes, it was that good. Lucky for me, Mr Ed is not of the chilli persuasion, so I didn’t have to share this at all. Score!

What’s your favourite main course salad? And what do I do with the rest of the jar of krachai? I feel a food fix coming on.

Editor, Feast

Warnie versus the TDU

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +1100

Watching the Will Clarke show in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, The Broom Wagon found itself struggling to fully enjoy the Tour Down Under.

It was not because it was into its second bottle of Wagon O'Broomshine and therefore several sheets to the wind, and not because this year's race is yet to feature a cameo by the Minsk missile, FDJ sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich. It was not even out of mourning for the new yellow Wiggle.

It was Shane Warne's fault. Recently Warne used his Twitter account to call for cyclists to be forced to ride single file, and for riders over 18 to be registered. It's the sort of thing often spouted by people with a beef against cyclists, and can usually be safely ignored (the case for registering cyclists is demolished here). However, Warne has 636,000 followers and is therefore more influential than your average Szubanski. Then on Tuesday, the champion leg-spinner tweeted a long (for twitter) account of a run-in with a cyclist while he was driving back from a training session at the MCG.

Warne's story is here. The cyclist's is here. On Friday an anonymous witness contacted The Age with a story matching the cyclist's. Much debate ensued, plenty of it perpetuating an 'us versus them' dynamic that, if you ride on the roads, is enough to put you off leaving the house.

What makes these confrontations between drivers and cyclists especially volatile is the unequal nature of the interaction. If we take Warne's version of Tuesday's incident to be true, the impact on Warne amounted to inconvenience: a thump on his car's bonnet and a few seconds' delay. In the cyclist's version he was knocked off his bike, which was damaged to the point where he could not ride it home.

We can all agree that road users – whether drivers, cyclists or whatever they call people who ride mopeds – share a responsibility to stick to the rules. However, when cyclists behave badly the consequences are for the most part minor.

When car drivers behave aggressively, or become distracted, or swerve into a bike lane, the consequences are frequently worse. Emma Johansson, Sweden's current national champion and Olympic silver medallist, broke both her collarbones while training in the Canary Islands last weekend. The accident was caused by an oncoming car which attempted to illegally overtake another car on a bend with poor visibility. Had Johansson and the driver not managed to swerve at the last second, the accident could have been fatal.

No one should need reminding why the Amy Gillett foundation exists. Least of all, you would think, a professional athlete.

Dispatches from the Twitterverse

This 43 degrees spoiled defenitly all the work I did on my tan in these last 8 days #italian #TDU - @manuelquinziato

My conclusion of todays stage is that hot sports drink tastes like ... you know what! - @mickrogers

The week in ...

... eBay

Here's something that distinguishes the internet from real life. On eBay, Michael Creed has 100 per cent positive feedback.

Creed, a former rider with Lance Armstrong's Discovery Channel team, twattled a link (subsequently deleted) to an eBay auction for a 'pre-owned' pair of Ted King's Liquigas team shorts apparently swiped when King left them behind after a training session with Creed. The auction featured a picture of the crumpled bib set laid out on somebody's mattress. The product description confirmed the shorts had "no holes or poo stains, which means he didn't use them when training with me" and painted King as a skinflint who wouldn't stop talking about riding in Italy.

"100 per cent of the profit from these shorts goes to replacing the gas he stole by using my car and not replacing it," the description continued, before veering into a universe of Creed's making.

"I've talked to ted about this and he personally promised that if you buy these shorts for over 50 bucks you can have his tour of California race bike. HE PROMISED THAT TO YOU, i didn't. See him and not me about that offer. If he doesn't pay up he's a scumbag liar and you can call him that in person with his shorts on."

"What the F is wrong with you @Michael_Creed?" King replied.

The shorts sold after 20 bids for $124.49.

... slight delays

Clenbuterol latest -- The Court of Arbitration for Sport noted with great disappointment that some media have been reporting "certain rumours" in relation to Alberto Contador's case. Tapping its gavel for emphasis, CAS took the opportunity to ask all parties involved in the case whether they wanted to challenge the make-up of its ruling panel of three attorneys. Nobody did.

"Unfortunately, this regrettable incident has slightly delayed the work of the panel," the court said in a statement. Publication of the court's final decision is now scheduled for the week of January 31. CAS even confirmed this refers to this year's January 31. Set your watches!

... YouTube

Ivan Basso gets a massage. Assuming the US Congress has not yet shut down the internet, this should be set to a soundtrack of wah-wah guitars by Monday.

Sundance: To Market, To Market

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:08:22 +1100

The window between yearly awards seasons is practically non-existent nowadays.

If you lean in closely you can see where one year’s award season ends and the next one begins. A publicist’s job is never done, as I was reminded last week as the awards dinner held by the New York Film Critics Circle. Before the ceremony began business cards cut the air and party invitations were dangled, all in anticipation of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The festival, held in Park City, Utah from January 19-29, is full of hopeful debuts like last year’s Margin Call, whose director, JC Chandor, accepted the award for best first film at the NYFCC event. Jessica Chastain was also honored for her performance in Take Shelter, another Sundance breakout. I felt a little bad for Chastain, though: It’s hard to milk the ingénue thing when the wife of another of the evening’s winners, Brad Pitt, is on the premises.

It’s also hard not to feel like a hanger on with Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the room, even if you belong there too. It was my first time attending the dinner, a lower key kick-off to a season of dresses and cocktails and acceptance speeches of wildly varying quality. The dinner was filled with publicists and producers, critics and talent, many with their minds already on what was happening next, which is to say Sundance. Those ten days in Park City begin a year of awards buzz; they can also be the beginning of a career.

I was reminded of this while speaking to a woman who joined me in trying not to stare at Jolie. It turned out the woman is a filmmaker, though she expressed hesitation in using the word. It has been a while since she completed a film—life had intervened, as it often does. I asked her if she had been to Sundance and her face darkened. Her last film had been accepted almost a decade ago, she said, but it turned out she was scheduled to give birth on the night of the premiere; she was unable to oversee the delivery of her other baby. What she described next was a series of botches that were out of her control—publicity fails, technical glitches, unmotivated salespeople.

It sounds like the plot of a plucky Sundance movie, I thought—a Sophie’s Choice for the modern mom—but something in her expression stopped me from making the joke. The film didn’t get picked up for distribution, and she told me that with Sundance, leaving without a distributor is worse than not getting in at all.

I thought of a friend of mine, another independent filmmaker, whose first film had just been rejected. He was crushed, but we tried to convince each other this wasn’t the end. Hell, Drugstore Cowboy was rejected from Sundance. And this year, every one of the twenty-six premieres showing out of competition is also seek a buyer—including Lay the Favorite (pictured), a new a new film by Stephen Frears starring Bruce Willis and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Red Hook Summer, a Brooklyn tale being hailed as a return to form for Spike Lee. Old school stars like Sean Penn—who plays an ex-goth rocker looking for his father in This Must Be The Place—and Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon—costars in Nicholas Jarecki’s feature directing debut Arbitrage—are lending their cachet to smaller films. The A-list’s reverse exodus into indie territory seems to confirm the fact that finding the right project and actually getting it made is tougher than ever.

And yet the far side of that mountain looks a little brighter this year. 2011, as was widely noted, was a record year in sales at Sundance. High profile deals were made for comedies like Our Idiot Brother and Win Win and awards fodder like Take Shelter and Martha Marcy May Marlene, along with a long list of documentaries. Though the box office numbers were ultimately disappointing for most of those films, in the last year the video on demand and television markets have only grown—theater box office may no longer be the primary measure of success. Both the filmmakers and the distributors are embracing new distribution models, which means more people leave happy—the grim predicament the filmmaker at the NYFCC dinner described is no longer inevitable.

On my ride into Park City I sat beside a friend of the filmmakers behind a documentary about internet sensation Chris Crocker (the “leave Britney alone” guy) and internet sensations in general called Me @ The Zoo. He was practically bouncing with happiness for his pals, co-directors Valerie Veatch and Chris Moukarbel. Playing in the documentary competition over the coming weekend, it’s one of the first of the 117 feature-length films screening at this year’s festival to snag a buyer: HBO bought the television broadcast rights in a preemptive deal.

He wasn’t supposed to tell me that, he said—the news wasn’t public yet—but he just couldn’t contain himself. Me @ The Zoo was already on my list of things to see, and now news of its deal is out. I’d like to think having some sense at the filmmakers’ excitement and relief wouldn’t influence me one way or the other, but the truth is one of the most heartening things about Sundance is the feeling of participating in both a creative and a democratic process. Films that have been labored over for months and years are not truly finished until they are watched, and once they are anything can happen. This year, the tendency toward hype feels tamed—maybe even humbled—by the mystery of that process. To the screening rooms!

Hacking spree could dent the copyright fight

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 10:21:22 +1100

Amusing as they might be, attacks on the websites of supporters of tougher copyright legislation could tarnish the legitimate protests of Wikipedia and others.

"TANGO DOWN #Megaupload Fight for Internet Freedom!” went the tweet from the LulzSecITALY account, and it was like the heady days of last year when the hacking group had every newsroom around the world wondering which organisation's website was to go down next.

At the time of writing, the shutting of the Megaupload video hosting site by US officials is causing quite a storm off the back of protests over the much-debated Stop Online Piracy Act.

We all saw how much of a fuss there was when US legislators threatened to implement SOPA and its sister-act in the Senate. The Stop Online Piracy Act aims to tighten up anti-piracy laws, by forcing internet service providers to block access to overseas sites which offer material in breach of US copyright laws.

Headlines told us how Wikipedia had gone dark (well, the English-language part, and you could still get around that), as well as oodles of other sites, in response to the perceived attack on internet freedoms. That was one form of protest.

The next day, the founders of Megaupload were charged by US officials of violating piracy laws, accused of costing copyright holders over US$500m.

For those who don't know, Megaupload.com was basically a place to upload large files to let others watch - vis streaming - and download.

You may remember it as the place that let you watch a movie until the 74 minute mark, at which point you were confronted with a request for some kind of premium payment, resulting in utter fury from the end user.

The founder is very, very rich, according to his indictment. Very rich, presumeably, because the site could charge for premium services, without paying anything for the bulk of the content people wanted to watch.

While some sites chose to go down in protest at SOPA, the Megaupload case has triggered good old 2011-style attacks on some of those most keen on enacting tougher legislation, with the usual loose-knit band of LulzSec/Anonymous-linked Twitter accounts gloating about their success using the #stopSOPA hashtag.

One victim seems to be the US Department of Justice site, which is struggling to load, very slowly, after reportedly going down, most likely due to a Denial of Service attack.

The websites of high-profile copyright supporters such as the Motion Picture Association of America, Universal Music Group and the Recording Industry Association of America were also taken down.

“It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org,” supposed Anonymous operative Barrett told Russia Today.

Now, far from supporting overly stringent and arguably poorly considered legislation, I'm an advocate of an Internet which remains as free as reasonably possible. There are dinosaurs in the music and motion picture industry that must innovate, and it's not the job of the state to do their work for them by enacting laws like SOPA.

But I'm not sure this latest round of attacks is going to help this cause at all - in the minds of US legislators the arguments of a legitimate cause could well end up severely tarnished.

Follow @billcode

Strong Will

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +1100

It’s no wonder William Clarke came out of his neo-pro season feeling like a piece of meat, because that’s exactly how he was treated, writes Anthony Tan in Victor Harbor.

Comment of the day was, ‘the 20 million-dollar teams are chasing the kid without a contract’ – ABC Grandstand The ABC wasn’t quite correct. William Clarke does have a contract for 2012, with China-based team, Champion Systems.

But it’s not in the WorldTour (Champions Systems has this year been awarded a Pro Continental licence), which, after the 26-year-old’s captivating ride to Stirling Wednesday, it’s a place he clearly deserves to be. ‘Do you see your performance as some sort of affirmation that you should be in the WorldTour?’ I asked him, post-race.

He replied: “I didn’t really think about it much [during the race]. But I think I’ve got the strength to be in the WorldTour, and I think today, I showed I can ride at this level, definitely.”

‘Do you think the bunch underestimated you, particularly after you lost almost two minutes the previous day?’

“I really struggled yesterday [Tuesday],” admitted Clarke. “I think it was to do with the heat, and sometimes on the first stage [of a tour] I don’t have the best legs; it takes a while to open up. I was getting better towards the end of the [first] stage but today I had good legs and, yeah… I kept going,” he said, smiling.

‘How have you pulled up today?’ I asked him in Unley this morning.

“I’ll probably find out pretty soon when I start riding. It’s a pretty hard start, straight up a pretty nasty little climb… but hopefully I get over that okay.”

‘Now, tell me what happened with Leopard-Trek,’ I then said to him. ‘Did the team look after you properly – did you race enough?’

“No, no, I raced probably too much last year. I did about 85 race starts,” said Clarke. “So… I think I may be stronger [now], but I was tired for most of the year, my first professional year, racing a lot.”

‘Did you tell your sport directors you were feeling over-raced and fatigued?’

“I was sort of going from race to race, so it did make it hard. Because it’s your [first pro] team, you sort of… go to which races they tell you [to do].”

‘What about Stuey O’Grady, who, by way of recommendation, helped get you onto the team in the first place – couldn’t he have said something?’

“Well, it’s not really up to Stuey or anything – it’s up to the team, as to which races I do. I was always happy to race; probably as a first-year, I was a bit inexperienced as to how many races I can handle. And I think that was about as much as I can handle.”

Clarke’s too polite to say it, but it was more than he – or virtually any other neo-pro, for that matter – could handle. To me, what is clear is that Leopard-Trek treated him like a piece of meat; had he not been so strong-willed, it may have spelled the end of his career.

Because when you keep flogging a piece of meat, it no longer serves its purpose. It becomes a piece of crap.

When the Leopard merger happened with RadioShack, management decided it was then opportune to throw the ‘crap’ in the bin. And so, in September, he was discarded.

“It was kind of late, but I wasn’t the only one in that situation. A lot of teams had stopped and fallen apart. That’s just the way it happened.”

In early October, when a deal with another ProTeam looked unlikely (but why GreenEDGE did not sign this man with a not insignificant degree of talent perplexes me), he approached Champion Systems.

Long-time sport-director turned team manager, Ed Beamon (previously with Navigators and Team Type 1), saw the potential. “I signed with them soon after that,” said Clarke.

“He’s [Beamon] got a lot of experience, and I think, being on a smaller team is sometimes better for your development. It gives you a bit more time, and less pressure to do something.”

Heading over to Champion Systems’ team HQ in China next week to meet the team (which includes another Australian, Aaron Kemps) and map out a race program, Clarke is, more than ever, ready to prove his worth.

Will’s already shown it once this year. And so long as he’s properly looked after, he’ll show it again.

Twitter: @anthony_tan

Casting Aspersions: Anderson, Garrone & Dahan

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:09:37 +1100

Wes Anderson goes to camp, Matteo Garrone gets real, and Olivier Dahan seeks Grace.

It is five years since Wes Anderson last made a live-action movie, although his personal stamp was certainly on 2009’s stop-motion animation adaptation of Fantastic Mr. Fox he directed. If there was a sense that his latter films, such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Darjeeling Limited, had become sealed off and lost the brio of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, then the test will be the forthcoming Moonrise Kingdom. Set in 1965 America, it’s the story of a pair of lovestruck 12-year-olds, played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, who run away together from their respective summer camps.

The supporting cast of adults pursuing them features a mix of Anderson veterans and intriguing newcomers. The former includes the talismanic Bill Murray and Jason Schwartman, while those new to Anderson’s intricately designed adventures number Ed Norton, Bruce Willis (as the local sheriff) and Frances McDormand. The filmmaker’s writing foil, a position once held by Owen Wilson, now belongs to Roman Coppola, although as the trailer indicates this is still undeniably Wes’ world: a vintage record player, children’s theatre productions, some slow motion, precocious kids, and Bill Murray announcing that he is off to chop down a tree.

Italian director Matteo Garrone (pictured) made one of 2008’s best pictures with Gomorrah, his multi-layered take on a contemporary Naples where organised crime is not so much a contributing element as a way of life. The filmmaker is now preparing for the release of his follow-up, also set in Naples but looking at a very different influence. Big House will examine how reality shows and changed perceptions of reality have had an impact on the Italian psyche. His cast includes Claudia Gerini (Don’t Move, The Unknown Woman) and Nunzia Schiano (Welcome to the South).

The absence of strong leading roles for women has long, and correctly, been commented on, but one flourishing genre appears to be offering a measure of compensation. Audience interest in stories concerned with famous 20th century women is currently being measured by the success of Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, while next month sees the local release of My Week with Marilyn, where Michelle Williams inhabits the doomed glamour of a screen legend.

La Vie en Rose director Olivier Dahan, who helped augment the trend with his casting of Marion Cotillard as singing great Edith Piaf, will now film Grace of Monaco. Set in 1962, it details the role former Hollywood star Grace Kelly played as the wife of Monaco’s ruler Prince Rainier when the tiny Mediterranean principality came into conflict with the French government of Charles De Gaulle over the question being a tax haven. The script posits Kelly’s Princess Grace, then a glamorous 33-year-old, as the key negotiator behind the scenes. Dahan and his casting team just need to find an actress who resembles a Hitchcock blonde and has the technique to embody a diplomat trying to save her husband’s domain.

Jobs still a big worry

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:29:25 +1100

While Australia's headline unemployment rate, at 5.2 per cent for December, looks solid, things are looking very shaky if you delve into the figures.

Even Shane Oliver from AMP Capital said that today's numbers are confusing, so it would seem you'd need someone with an economics degree to explain it all, and the good news is, I hold one.

For the month of December, total employment fell by just over 29,000 jobs, and that's the biggest decline in 8 months.

While full-time jobs rose by 24,500 last month, it slumped by close to 40,000 in November, and was outweighed by the near 54,000 part-time jobs lost in December.

Why is that interesting? Well the decline in part-time jobs comes in a month, where shoppers traditionally spend in the lead up to Christmas. So, does that mean retailers didn't put on more staff during this time?

Of those people already working, they're working more hours with the number of hours worked up by 0.3 per cent. That makes sense, because employers would rather ask existing wokers to stay longer instead of hire new staff.

But what's concerning is the participation rate. Of all of the people that are able to work in Australia, the participation rate measures those that are in employment, and those that are actively seeking work. Well that rate fell from 65.5 per cent to 65.2, the lowest since May 2010.

What this means is that there's more people that are giving up looking for work, effectively adding to the dole queue. Why? It's usually a sign that there's no attractive jobs out there, and a falling participation rate is usually a sign of an economy going backwards. While it's not in danger territory yet, the fear is that it may be.

We're already being warned of slashes to white collar jobs around the country. ANZ has embarked on a cost cutting strategy, which already involves the loss of 130 jobs and there's reports in the Fairfax press, that Westpac too may cut as many as 600 jobs this year.

Furthermore, the ANZ job ads series released earlier this week showed a fall in the number of jobs advertised online and in newspapers across the country, forcing the bank to revise upwards its forecast for unemployment to 5.5 per cent by the middle of this year.

Westpac today has gone one better, predicting the national unemployment rate to peak at 5.75 per cent by July.

What this all means is that the Reserve Bank will need to stimulate the economy to keep it chugging along, and the good news is, with Australian interest rates at relatively high levels compared with the rest of the world, the RBA has plenty of breathing room to cut rates if so needed.

And it seems many economists think that's exactly what the Reserve will do.

CommSec is tipping today that given the ongoing concerns in Europe and no clear resolution to the debt crisis, it's likely that the Reserve Bank will cut rates once again in February.

Economist, Stephen Koukoulas is even suggesting the RBA may go by 50 basis points next month.

But to keep things in perspective, despite the World Bank dire warning of a global recession worse than 2008, it is still predicting China's economy will grow above 8 per cent this year, almost 3 times more than Australia.

That should keep demand strong for our commodities and aid our economy.

Casting Aspersions: Ferrera, O’Connor & Jolie

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:37:57 +1100

Cult American director Abel Ferrera re-emerges, Frances O’Connor goes Lumpy, and Angelina Jolie teams up Luc Besson.

“He’s healthy.” That was Willem Dafoe’s understated way, when he was in Australia in October to promote The Hunter, of noting the return to productive filmmaking of Abel Ferrara. The one-time bad boy of New York independent filmmaking, who started out making exploitation flicks in the late 1970s and graduated to the uncompromising likes of 1990’s King of New York and 1992’s Bad Lieutenant, Ferrara was only an intermittent presence in cinemas over the last decade: 2001’s ‘R Xmas felt like a movie cut off mid-sentence.

Lifestyle issues were a problem for Ferrara (pictured), but in recent years there has been a creative renewal, with documentaries and short films signaling Ferrara’s re-engagement with the camera. Dafoe, along with Paz de la Huerta (Boardwalk Empire) and Natasha Lyonne (Blade: Trinity), starred in 4.44 Last Day on Earth, Ferrara’s idiosyncratic take on a couple’s reaction to the planet’s imminent demise which debuted at the Venice Film Festival this year.

Now Ferrara and intermittent collaborator screenwriter Christ Zois (they did 1997’s The Blackout and 1998’s New Rose Hotel together) are at work on a film inspired by the international scandal created by the arrest of International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid. The film will reportedly examine addiction and politics, but it won’t be biographical. Ferrara and producers are talking to two leading French actors for the roles based on Strauss-Kahn and his wife, Anne Sinclair, with Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani considering parts that will draw a huge focus in France, where Strauss-Kahn was a presidential hopeful and his wife is a leading journalist.

Dafoe’s co-star in The Hunter, Frances O’Connor, will also be busy in the coming year. The Los Angeles-based Australian actress has a trio of new titles scheduled, including the inspirational children’s tale Little Red Wagon, the independent romantic comedy Lumpy with Justin Long (Die Hard 4.0) and Billy Bob Thornton’s Jayne Mansfield’s Car. As a filmmaker Thornton remains best known for 1996’s Sling Blade, and the actor hasn’t helmed a feature since 2001’s Daddy and Them. But for his new film, the story of a cultural clash between two families in the 1960s, he has a serious cast, with O’Connor being joined by Kevin Bacon, John Hurt, Robert Duvall and Ray Stevenson.

Both Luc Besson and Angelina Jolie have politically focused dramas they’ve directed due for release in 2012 – the Aung San Suu Kyi biopic The Lady for the former and the 1990s Balkans War set In the Land of Blood and Honey for the latter – but the French director and the American actress are getting back to what they’re each best known for, teaming up for a currently untitled dramatic thriller. The two should be a potent fit, given that Besson’s La Femme Nikita in 1990 kick-started the female-driven action flick genre that Jolie took to blockbusting ends with the likes of Wanted and Salt.

Prudhomme impressed

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +1100

A lightning three-day visit by Tour de France race director Christian Prudhomme to South Australia this week has further guaranteed the future of the Tour Down Under.

Monsieur Prudhomme arrived at midday Wednesday and was immediately ushered from Adelaide International Airport directly to the stage two finish in Stirling where he was impressed with what he saw.

The excitement of the huge crowds that gathered under the South Australian summer sunshine, the infrastructure by the organisation and the quality of racing on the roads caught the TdF's highest honcho by surprise.

"This is bigger than many races in Europe and there are cartainly more people here than stage finishes at the Tour of California," Prudhomme said.

It was a glowing endorsment for Australia's only UCI World Tour event.

The main reason for Prudhomme's visit is to tap in on the TDU's television distribution to international markets.

In the not too distant future, the plan is to take the race to every corner of the globe through a variety of TV deals.

Ans at this time of year when the nothern hemisphere is in winter hibernation, there's nothing better for cycling-starved fans on the other side of the world than to sit in front of a fire on a couch and take in some quality competition.

This is a step in the right direction and virtually guarantees the growth of the Santos Tour Down Under.

The relationship SBS has enjoyed with Tour de France owners ASO has been rock-solid for 22 years, and although the network does not have the TV rights for the TDU in 2012, Prudhomme has always expessed his adoration for the network's coverage with international cycling.

Although the TdF is a major sporting event, Prudhomme appreciates how SBS complements the coverage as a "cultural experience".

It's no secret SBS has the Tour de France TV and online rights in Australia until 2017, and given the warm reunion between both parties at an exlcusive Adelaide restaurant last night, I'd be surprised if the "marriage made in TV heaven" didn't continue thereafter.

Twitter: @miketomalaris

The Devil Inside stuns Hollywood

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:03:52 +1100

A micro-budget, no-stars horror movie looks likely to spark another spate of similar films.

Just when it seemed the era of no-budget, faux-documentary style horror movies may be fading after three editions of Paranormal Activity, a surprise US hit looks certain to spawn a bunch of copycat movies.

Shot for less than $US1 million, exorcism tale The Devil Inside stunned the US film industry when it opened at No. 1, raking in $33.7 million.

That was despite a terrible mauling from the critics – reflected in its 6 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes – and a rare F grading from CinemaScore, the market research company which polls patrons as they exit cinemas on the opening night.

Normally a C grading signifies a failure and only five films had been tagged with an F – the George Clooney bomb Solaris and horror movies The Box, Wolf Creek (that’s a bit harsh!), Darkness and Bug.

Paramount picked up the rights to the movie, directed and co-written by William Brent Bell, and it’ll open here on March 1, a market where horror movies historically don’t perform as strongly as in the US.

Featuring a no-name cast of Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth and Suzan Crowley, it follows a young American woman as she tries to find out why her mother was committed to a hospital for the criminally insane in Italy two decades earlier.

The Hollywood Reporter’s review accused the filmmakers of “trotting out the same predictable twisting heads and psycho-babble without a whiff of originality or discernible visual flair” and opined the “would-be thriller proves as scary and unsettling as a slab of devil’s food cake — only considerably less satisfying.”

The Los Angeles Times cruelly observed, “The story doesn't climax or resolve so much as just stop — a recruited audience member at a local premiere/critics preview was overheard saying, ‘That was it?’"

Predictably word-of-mouth has been dire and the film was projected to have dropped by as much as 77 per cent over the four-day Martin Luther King holiday weekend, which would bring its tally to a more than respectable $47.3 million.

However, the US studios and independent producers sit up and take notice when any movie earns more than 30 times its production cost on the opening weekend.

Warner Bros. is fast tracking The Vatican, a conspiracy thriller to be directed by Bell, which will feature some of the same “found-footage techniques”.

Bell and his Devil Inside co-writer/producer Matthew Peterman also have set up a horror movie with Sierra/Affinity and Incentive Filmed Entertainment to be shot in Romania starting in April, again in a pseudo-documentary style.

Last week, Universal Pictures gave the greenlight to Vigilandia, a low-budget futuristic thriller written and directed by James DeMonaco, produced by Paranormal Activity’s Jason Blum and Platinum Dunes’ partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.

Bell is a firm advocate of the “found footage” technique, telling MTV, “We love this whole space, because you can work with really talented people and aren't beholden to a great deal of money and take more chances. There are only so many stories you can tell, so to be able to tell a story in a unique way, this kind of documentary style allows us to do that. We certainly want to continue down that path. It gives audiences something different.”

Deadline.com’s Mike Fleming sees a danger in the studios’ increasing appetite for cheaply-produced material, declaring, “While the Paranormal Activity films and Insidious have been highly profitable crowd pleasers, if studios refocus their attention on these down and dirty films, don’t expect the quality of movie making to get any better in 2012 than it was last year.”

China's soft landing

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:37:17 +1100

One of the big fears the market holds for 2012, is that of a hard landing of the Chinese economy.

But so far, it has failed to eventuate.

Official numbers today, show that China's economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the December quarter.

While that's down on the 9.1 per cent from the previous three months, and is the slowest annual growth rate in two-and-a-half years, it's still much better than what many economists were expecting.

In fact, the result saw Australian shares surge today, and the Australian dollar climb to its highest level in around two-and-a-half months.

In a note, Commsec's Craig James said that the latest Chienese economic data is supportive for Australia's mining, energy and agricultural sectors and that China's economy is arguably faring much better than many of the gloomier economists had expected.

Australian economists are also fairly upbeat about the medium term outlook for Chinese economic growth.

ANZ is forecasting China's economy to grow at 9 per cent in 2012 which is higher than market consensous.

But much of that is dependant on lower Chinese interest rates.

Shane Oliver from AMP Capital says one of the key risks for 2012 is if China eases monetary policy too late to prevent a property crash and hard landing in growth.

Craig James believes the People's Bank of China will ease bank reserve requirements (similar to interest rates) by 50 basis points within the next fortnight.

He also expects the Reserve Bank of Australia to cut the official cash rate by 25 basis points next month.

An historic day to quit the race

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:02:48 +1100

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman quit his bid for the Republican Party’s Presidential nomination on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr Day in the United States.

“This race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks not worthy of the American people and not worthy of this critical time in our nation’s history,” he told a room full of cameras and media.

Huntsman then announced he was endorsing Mitt Romney as his choice for the Republican nomination and the Presidency. The same Romney who Huntsman had previously claimed “enjoyed firing people”, was a flip-flopper for changing his positions on certain issues, a “pretzel candidate” and, my favourite, a “perfectly lubricated weather vane”.

Huntsman’s views on Romney were splashed across his website on videos minutes before his withdrawal speech. Then, as the New York Times reported, the attack videos quickly began disappearing from Huntsman websites.

The New York Times also reported that the Democratic National Committee’s Rapid Response Unit (there’s such a thing) promptly distributed a list of Huntsman’s tastiest attacks on Romney: “Tonight, Jon Huntsman announced he is ending his candidacy for president and on Monday, he will endorse Mitt Romney — the same Mitt Romney that Huntsman said lacked a core, couldn’t be trusted, was a ‘weathervane’ and was making himself ‘unelectable…”

Ah, politics. Huntsman’s comments on negativity, and perhaps respect, were apt if not apparently sincere on this particular day honouring one of the more significant figures in American history and one of its greatest modern civil leaders.

King was a great orator, famous for speeches that included “I Have A Dream” in 1963 and “I Have Been to the Mountain Top” delivered in Memphis the night before his assassination in 1968. Unlike many of today’s leaders, King was not a man of no can do. He was an aggressive change agent, unhappy with the status quo, and an advocate for the disenfranchised.

King’s death, at the age of 39, was cloaked in conspiracy theories. Similarly, establishing his birthday as a national holiday was controversial and hard-fought. Politicians, including former Presidential candidate John McCain, were against the introduction (McCain later changed his mind). Ronald Reagan eventually signed a bill in 1983 and in 1986 Martin Luther King Jr Day was observed for the first time.

The holiday was first celebrated in just 27 states. Arizona was one state that dragged its heels on adopting the holiday. That decision was confrontational enough for the National Football League, under pressure from its player’s union among others, to move the 1993 Super Bowl to California rather than have the state host the event as originally planned.

Much has changed for good in America since King and the 1960s. Still, the country heatedly divides on many issues, as demonstrated by candidate positions in the run up to this year’s election. It would be fascinating to know what an 83-year-old King would make of it all today.

Analysis: The first sprint

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:00:00 +1100

The Tour Down Under may not have started for real but after Sunday’s taste-tester there was plenty to ponder, muses Anthony Tan in Adelaide.

Yes, I know, I know, it was the first sprint at the first WorldTour race of the year – not even, actually, since it was not officially part of the Tour Down Under race per se. But it still told us plenty.

We learned that even though a number of the Aussie sprinters had begun racing at the Bay Cycling Classic two weeks ago, it didn’t make a skerrick of difference Sunday when up against German Juggernaut André Greipel, who already looked to be in Tour de France-stage-winning form.

We learned that Matthew Goss isn’t in the shape that almost won him the Tour Down Under last year – Cameron Meyer said as much about his team-mate at the press conference, the day of the Down Under Classic.

This means that for GreenEDGE, Meyer and Simon Gerrans are the leaders for GC, and Robbie McEwen, in 15th spot their best-placed rider Sunday, will be the team’s sprint leader, with Leigh Howard running as back-up. No doubt, team DS Matthew White has a challenge on his hands, if he’s to fulfil the Australian public’s – and their own – expectations for this race.

We learned that even though Mark Renshaw punctured with just on a lap to go, the final lead-out combination Rabobank will use from now on will be Michael Matthews, Graeme Brown, then Renshaw. Today, I had this confirmed to me by Renshaw himself.

It’s worth noting Marky Mark, after five years using Continental tyres, is now on Vittoria tubulars. Maybe he’s getting used to that, too, because watching these guys lay it on the line through the corners at 70 clicks an hour, they must be one with their machines… so grant him a little more time.

We learned just how important a lead-out man is, because Greg Henderson is perhaps now the old Mark Renshaw, fulfilling his duties to absolute perfection Sunday. “Did you see the sprint we did?” Greipel, smiling, told Cycling Central’s Sophie Smith, when she asked him post-race: ‘Do you think you’ve got the best team possible around you this season?’

How will this impact Mark Cavendish? this also makes me think. At Sky, Cav’ will win plenty, I’m sure – he is still the fastest, after all – but I’m not sure if he’ll be as prolific sans Renshaw.

After reading this, he’ll probably win 50 races this season…

This we already knew, but Edvald Boassen Hagen reaffirmed his precocious talent and versatility. Is there anything this man cannot do? Well, Grand Tours he can’t yet win – but at 24 and the cycling world his oyster, would you dare tell him he can’t attempt such a feat in the future?

For the next two to three years, however, EBH says he will focus on the Classics.

Especially ones that include those gnarled, deformed stones the devious organisers of races such as Flanders and Roubaix make the peloton slog over and over and over again. It’s purely for the masochistic of heart, and the sadistic of spectator. In other words, perfect for Eddy Bos.

Still, Boassen Hagen still has much to learn when sprinting; the timing of his launch is not the best, and in the sprints, he handles his Pinarello as if it were a wild bull in a Texas rodeo meet.

“He’s not a pure sprinter, he’s not the best at finding wheels, hiding from the wind or being in the right place at the right time,” Sean Yates, Team Sky DS at the TDU, told the Adelaide Advertiser this week. “It’s just his enormous capacity as an athlete.”

We learned that UniSA’s Steele Von Hoff (is there anyone who cannot get enough of this name?) and Jonathan Cantwell of Saxo Bank is competitive against the best. Competitive enough to win? I’ll reserve my judgement for a few more days.

The Tour Down Under proper hasn’t even started but already the signs are there that this season has the foundations to be a cracker.

To quote Julia Gillard to her political nemesis Tony Abbott in parliament last year: “Bring it on. Bring-it-on!”

Twitter: @anthony_tan

The price of fame

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +1100

Living in a goldfish bowl for the next 10 days, Anthony Tan asks: ‘What is the price of fame?’

I’m still blown away by the absurdities [of fame], from the inside now. As much as I’ve tried to stay an outsider I do know that I’m a recognisable face... it doesn't change my perspective on things but it does change people's perspective of me. Back in November last year, at the second NSW International Grand Prix criterium in Cronulla, and with SBS cameraman in tow, I remember approaching the women’s winner, Sue Forsyth, for a post-race interview, moments after she’d won.

“Oh my God!” she said to me.

Why did she say that? I thought. Was she so astounded at what she’d just accomplished, which, let’s face it, was rather impressive for an underdog, breaking away from a breakaway group to upstage her more fancied rivals?

“You’re famous!” said Forsyth.

“No, I’m not!” I demurred. “Forget about me, you’re the star today!”

A couple of weeks later, doing my Christmas shopping at Coles (I generally get a ham, cut it up into sixteenths and wrap ‘em up, handing them out as presents at our annual family barbeque), a stranger came up to me and said: “Are you Anthony Tan?”

Why did he ask that? I thought. Did he mean Anthony Tan of Cycling Central infamy or Anthony Tan, formerly New South Wales’ most wanted man, recently charged with murder?

Figuring it was the former, I replied: “No, I’m Mike Tomalaris.”

But despite Tomo and me looking uncannily similar (“brothers from a different mother,” Tomo keeps telling people), the stranger didn’t seem to buy it.

“I just wanted to say you were right about what you said about Mark Renshaw,” he said, shaking my hand vigorously.

“Oh… thanks,” I said, even though I’d forgotten what I’d said about Mark Renshaw.

We chatted a little longer, but not wishing for my ham to go off and those who ate it to catch Salmonella, I bid him adieu and walked off.

My mum, who works as a hospital pharmacist, has told me about some of her trips around the wards, where she’s met those who have fallen off their bikes, and asked them if they were serious cyclists.

Last week, the latest cycling inpatient must’ve looked at her name tag, because unprompted, he said to her, “Don’t tell me – you’re Anthony Tan’s mum?!”

What sort of a monster has Tomo turned me into? I thought to myself, as I was driving home that night after dinner with my folks. I want to live my life incognito!

Seriously, I get a bit of kick when someone comes up to me and says how much they like what I say (you never hear from your detractors, they reserve their vitriol for the comments sections and forums); or how much they love my Prussian Blue jacket; or how they just love everything about Cycling Central, which makes me all warm and fuzzy on the inside; or remark just how damn good-looking I am.

Okay, I made that last bit up.

But, as I call the Adelaide Hilton home for the next 10 days, and watch the highfalutin hotel turn into a veritable goldfish bowl as fans ogle their larger-than-life stars and incessantly ask for autographs, I think to myself, Geez, imagine copping this all the time… Would you still enjoy it?

Imagine being Ricky Gervais. Or Brad Pitt. Or Kate and William. Or Lance Armstrong. Or Cadel Evans. Or Stuart O’Grady. Or Julia Gillard. Or Barack Obama. Or any really big personality.

To be under the public spotlight. To be under constant scrutiny. Would I really want to be one of them?

Not I.

Despite my stints on Cycling Central, despite having my face plastered across a number of websites and print publications, I am an intensely private person, as I’m sure many other people who have a public profile of some sort are.

Yet sometimes, I feel like I know some of you better than some of my friends, because I reveal a part of myself I haven’t even told them. I’ve had no need to.

For me, writing has become a form of ongoing catharsis (plus it’s cheaper than seeing a shrink). So, during the cycling season, I’m happy to share some of my up and down thoughts and moments with you, because we share a common passion, or at least a mutual interest, even if we may disagree on things.

However, you shouldn’t let your perception or treatment of me or anyone else change simply because we’re public figures. There’s nothing special or otherworldly or immortal about any of us. (Except for Stuey, perhaps, who seems to have nine lives, he’s broken that many bones. Made of rubber, he is.)

The reality is most of us love talking crap. And there’s nothing better all of us like than for you to treat us as if we were one of your mates, sitting over a campfire or a barbie, knocking back a beer or two, talking about whatever’s on your mind.

So, if you’re here for the Tour Down Under, don’t be afraid; come ‘round and say hi. I don’t bite – unless you ask for it!

Twitter: @anthony_tan

Europe beats Hollywood

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:48:27 +1100

Indigenous films outscored US blockbusters in many parts of Europe last year.

Homegrown films topped the box offices in France, Spain, Italy, the UK and Poland in 2011, marking a generally stellar year for European cinema.

French productions racked up a domestic market share of 41.6 per cent, the highest since 1966. In Italy, national releases grabbed 36 per cent of the market while Hollywood’s share plunged from 60 per cent in 2010 to 48 per cent. Norwegian films posted the highest ticket sales in that territory in 36 years, accounting for nearly 25 per cent of the market.

In Germany, Teutonic films registered 18 per cent, led by Kokowaah, a romantic comedy starring, directed and co-written by Til Schweiger, which earned nearly $US43 million. It’s the tale of a struggling scriptwriter who gets the chance to co-author a best selling novel with his ex-girlfriend. However, the seemingly healthy market share was boosted by contributions from several co-productions including The Three Musketeers, Roman Polanski’s Carnage and David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method.

In France, Intouchable (pictured), a comedy about a quadriplegic aristocrat and his black, socially awkward servant, easily won the 2011 B.O. crown, earning $145.8 million according to Box Office Mojo.

In second spot was Nothing to Declare, a comedy directed by and starring Dany Boon, focusing on two customs officers, a Frenchman and a Belgian, who are forced to work together when border posts are closed, earning $74.5 million. Other strong local performers included Maïwenn’s Polisse (2.3 million tickets); Philippe Le Guay’s Service Entrance aka The Women on the 6th Floor (2.27 million); Thomas N'Gijol, Fabrice Eboué and Lionel Stekete’s comedy Back To Square One (1.8 million); Bibo Bergeron’s animated A Monster in Paris (1.63 million); and Christophe Barratier’s War of the Buttons (1.54 million).

Nine Italian films figured in the territory’s top 20, led by Gennaro Nunziante’s What a Beautiful Day, a comedy about a bumbling security officer, which grossed nearly $60 million.

Giulio Manfredonia’s comedy Qualunquemente (Whateverly) pocketed $22.8 million, Paolo Genovese’s thirtysomething comedy Immaturi (The Immature) scored $21.8 million and Fausto Brizzi’s sequel Femmine Contro Maschi (Women Vs Men) took $16.7 million.

The Italian production and exhibition industries were especially gratified by those results in a market that suffered an 8 per drop in admissions and a 10.6 per cent fall in grosses last year.

"A new audience has emerged that we don't know as well," Ricardo Tozzi, president of the cinema and audiovisual industry association ANICA, told Cineuropa.

The market leader in Spain was the latest edition in the franchise centred on Santiago Segura’s fumbling detective, Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis, which collected $29 million. However, the next highest local grossers ranked at No. 30 and 31, namely Carlos Therón’s romantic comedy Fuga de cerebros 2 (which stars David Hasselhoff, of all people) with $6.5 million and Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In with $6.2 million.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2reigned in the UK, amassing $117 million, ahead of The King’s Speech ($74.8 million) and The Inbetweeners Movie ($71.8 million).

In Poland, local romantic comedy Letters to St. Nicholas led the field with $11 million. Slovenian director Mitja Okorn’s film centres on five women and five men who are all lost in life.

Ranked second was another rom-com (the most popular genre in the territory), Piotr Wereśniak’s Och, Karol! 2, a remake of a 1985 hit about an incorrigible womaniser, which made $10.4 million.

In Norway, Morten Tyldum’s thriller Headhunters ranked second behind Potter, fetching $8.9 million.

All of the above, with the possible exception of Spain, makes Australian films’ market share of 3.5 per cent last year look rather pathetic.

That's entertainment!

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:00:00 +1100

For those just arriving back from Bonnie Doon with a station wagon full of empty tinnies and a head pounding with serenity, here is a quick recap of the past week or so.

The national championships offered genuinely thrilling racing, plus a welcome double for GreenEDGE courtesy of Simon Gerrans and Amanda Spratt. After the men's race, a Victoria police officer distinguished himself by apparently being surprised to discover that cycling championships involved a high number of cyclists, calling Michael Rogers "a stupid f@#$%*g bike rider". Matt Lloyd returned, in agreeable fuschia.

Luke Durbridge's win in the time-trial came with bonus intrigue after it was revealed GreenEDGE successfully 'pressured' the commissaires panel to overrule regulations and allow radios only hours before the race.

Rogers, who finished third, was at the centre of another controversy as vehicle traffic caused problems during the time-trial. Rogers was held up by cars on one section of the course. Jack Bobridge fared worse, and will miss the Tour Down Under after being blown off his bike during the TT by wind from a passing truck. In the women's under-23 road race, Rabobank newcomer Lauren Kitchen alleged collusion between the GreenEDGE and AIS squads.

Far from Ballarat and over the pond, Garmin found a new sponsor and simultaneously became the 2012 pro team most likely for fans to subconsciously associate with Sarah Palin. Garmin-Barracuda's new kit is pretty much the same as the old kit, except with a Barracuda logo. Saxo Bank, in other kit news, have brought back the policy under which all riders must agree to have their appendixes pecked out by the team eagle.

The team formerly known as RaShNiTreProCT but now as the monkishly austere RadioShack-Nissan-Trek had their 'rock and roll' launch party, and it was falsely advertised unless you count one of the blokes who used to be in Kraftwerk. The host broadcasters rated his performance so highly they cut the live stream before he was finished. Comedy duties were left to Andreas Kloden, who branded Andy Schleck "a little clown", although Johan Bruyneel's team did also provide chuckles by attempting to rebrand their domestiques as 'indispensables'.

Liquigas Cannondale didn't even try, holding their 2012 team presentation at the headquarters of a car company. That left Pro Continental outfit Farnese Vini to show how to do these things properly.

Remember when January used to be a quiet month?

Sky blue, Pope wears enormous hat, bear decides against travelling into town to use portaloo and opts for woods

You're going to want to sit down for this one. The decision on Alberto Contador's clenbuterol case might be delayed. The Court of Arbitration for Sport's final* ruling was expected this week, but according to the Spanish daily El Mundo could now be postponed until next week or beyond because of concerns by the three attorneys on CAS's ruling panel that their report is not yet watertight.

Thankfully for hankie-squeezing cycling fans still concerned that the whole thing might be concluded before we are all swept up in the Rapture, both parties have the right to appeal.

*not necessarily final

The week in ...

... announcements

The Vuelta a Espana is often regarded as the runt of the year's three grand tours, the Dean Waugh to the Tour de France's Steve and the Giro d'Italia's flashier Mark. So it's congratulations to Vuelta organisers for keeping pace with their colleagues in France and Italy by successfully leaking details of the 2012 race route. Full stage details for this year's Tour de France, you will recall, were revealed eight days ahead of launch after they were inadvertently published on the Tour's official website. The Giro route slipped out via an unprotected page on the site's English language section.

The Spanish daily AS was first with this year's Vuelta route, nicely torpedoing Wednesday's official announcement by publishing one day earlier. As for the route? Let's just say if you like your roads tilting upwards, it is right up your callejon.

... motivation

Marianne Vos has the Olympics to keep her interested this year, plus the World Championships on home soil, but Rabobank women's team manager Jeroen Bleijlevens is worried about the future. When 2013 rolls around, how will the rider who has won almost everything manage to compete without frequently drifting off the road, her eyes glazed like frosted window panes at the prospect of yet another humdrum victory?

Bleijlevens has the answer, and it is for Vos, 24, to race against men. Vos's object would "not be to win", he added, wisely foreseeing the kind of excitable Battle of the Sexes media coverage that was all well and interesting when it was Billie Jean King but was pushing it when it was Annika Sorenstam. "But she can improve herself, become even better."

Plan B, reportedly, involves a best-of-three series against a horse.

Dispatches from the Twitterverse

does gerro get a vintage cadillac now? - @Bridie_OD

How nice of the Drug Testers to give me an early morning Birthday present. - @cammeyercyclist

Schwag wagon

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +1100

The excitement for the Santos Tour Down Under is building and this years race looks to be the best ever.

In a race that has the reputation as a bit of a sprinters' paradise most teams are opting for a two-pronged attack of sprinter and roleur.

The mountain-top finish at Willunga appears set to decide the race unless one of the fast men can rack up enough wins and bonus seconds beforehand.

The race also has another serious edge to it in that most teams want to start the season successfully by putting some points on the board.

The UCI ProTeam ranking system is a beast that needs to be continually fed, and teams risk not making the top grade for the next season.

Jobs are on the line so the racing will be intense for what in the past would be a leg freshener for the season to come.

But what about GreenEDGE you ask? Unsurprisingly it dominates the off road conversation. Everyone wants a piece of the team. Word on the street is that Simon Gerrans is the man. I reckon he'll do it too, unless Movistar's Alejandro Valverde comes out to play.

While the riders fine tune their preparations the SBS team is on its game shooting, writing and photographing anything that moves ahead of the race to come, for online and Cycling Central on SBS ONE on Sunday at 5pm.

The highlight for me so far is a chat with Team Sky sports director Sean Yates, whom I always admired for his sartorial style on the bike in his heyday.

Who doesn't like the rolled up shorts look?

http://media.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/upload_media/7909_yates-500-.jpg

I also spent some time talking to Drapac Cycling rider Tom Palmer, who will be riding the Tour Down Under for the composite Uni-SA squad. To say he's jumping out of his skin is an understatement.

But Palmer is also wary of the speed and power of the ProTeam riders in what is his first WorldTour outing. A steep learning curve awaits one of our talented locals.

And of course there is a bit of schwag for the media reptiles including, wait for it, booze. No media centre runs without a bit of lubrication.

But for me the best item in the swag bag is a humble green spotted musette sporting the Skoda logo. This one will definately be added to my collection.

So that's it from me for now, keep hitting the refresh button on you browser for updates throughout the day from Cycling Central. We'll be pumping it out.

Twitter: @Philip_Gomes