Saturday, 25 August 2012

Serie A Returns


Calcio lovers rejoice, Serie A is back today! The Italian league usually starts after most of the other big European leagues have kicked off, which is quite annoying for those of us eager to get underway. However, it always feels like the football season has started properly once Serie A is off and running.


This term Serie A feels quite strange. Firstly there's the matchfixing scandal that has been running all summer, with a large amount of players and teams charged and punished. These charges have led to points deductions, player bans, and the strange sight of champions Juventus having their coach Antonio Conte suspended for pretty much the whole of this season, although bizarrely he will be training the team on a day to day basis, he just won't be allowed to sit on the bench or give instructions during matches. For that a member of his coaching staff, Massimo Carrera, is standing in.


The second reason Serie A feels strange this season is because of the global economic situation. A lack of money has meant that there have been no big transfer signings by Italian clubs, with many having to sell their stars, the best example being Milan with Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva. Italian clubs have been forced to make signings on the cheap, mostly using loans and co-ownership agreements. Milan fans expecting a big name to replace Ibrahimovic have so far had to make do only with Giampaolo Pazzini, gained by swapping Antonio Cassano and 7m with Inter, although Kaka has been linked with a return all summer. This transfer drought means that many clubs will start with no recognised world class players, a shocking development for a league that used to be graced with the best players in the world.

This financial situation has contributed to make this look like what will be the most open and unpredictable season for a long time. Juventus start as favourites for the title, as current champions, and also with probably the strongest team as a whole. The Old Lady will still have to deal with their coaching situation though, as well as juggling European football commitments in their return to the Champions League. Behind Juventus, there's a wide field of several teams that could challenge; Milan may not have had the best transfer window ever, but they are still a big team. Inter had a poor last season and have reacted by trying to rebuild, with several new signings, and attempts to move on players like Maicon, Julio Cesar, and Lucio. As an Inter fan I believe this season could go either way, with either a title challenge, or another poor season as the new signings fail to gel. A lot will also depend on how rookie coach Andrea Stramaccioni does in his first full Serie A season. Another possible challenger is Roma, who hired coach Zdenek Zeman, known for wanting nothing less than spectacular attacking football, that can be beautiful but which also sometimes leads to his sides being stung in defence. Possible outsiders for a title challenge are probably Udinese, who qualified for the Champions League for the second season in a row, but who sell some of their best players every summer, and Lazio, who had a surprisingly good last season behind the goals of Miroslav Klose.

Serie A has had a difficult summer, with all the scandal and its financial situation, but this season promises to be exciting and open in a way not seen for a while. I can't wait to see what happens.

Monday, 13 August 2012

London Olympics Love-in


After years of build up and 17 sport-filled days the world's athletes are on their way home, and the 2012 London Olympics are over. I must confess to feeling a twinge of sadness, which has entirely caught me by surprise, because like many people I started out as a cynic. For a long time I felt no connection with the games, they were just an event I had nothing to do with, going on in another part of town. Also, with all the money spent on them, the gloomy economic situation, and the typically British pre-event media pessimism, I expected a spectacular cock-up or at the very least to be extremely bored. Then, I sat down to watch the opening ceremony and cynicism died and I became a believer.

I hurried back from the pub with a group of friends to catch the opening ceremony. I think we were expecting nothing more than a slightly scaled up school disco, with some coloured lights and a couple of the sort of fireworks you could find in the back of a corner shop; nothing to compete with the growing financial muscle of China. Salute to Mr Boyle though, he amazed the world and exceeded all expectations, leading to a scene where a group of lads in their 20s gathered in our living room cheering Mr Bean, the Queen's skydiving skills, and the good old NHS. It was beautiful.

From then I felt the stirrings of pride in London, the city I grew up in and have lived for most of my life, and an eagerness to watch as much of the games as possible, best expressed as the thought "Might as well, its the Olympics".

If nothing else, the Olympics are an opportunity to watch sports that never usually would get the time of day on mainstream channels. Handball, water polo, archery, fencing, the list goes on. I tried to dip in and out to see what was going on in different parts of the games and really experience it all. Luckily, the BBC's coverage was formidably comprehensive, with all of its channels including BBC Three and Four putting in overtime. Most of my watching however was done through the amazingly efficient BBC Olympic schedule website. A website laid out for users to choose any sport to watch live, or to catch up if you missed things, that marked each stream with highlights so you could rewind and find them easily; this brought it home to me that we are truly living in the future. Much congratulations to the BBC; this is why it needs to be defended at all costs, so we don't end up with an #NBCfail situation where we have advert breaks in the middle of events and broadcasters making us wait till primetime to see things, instead of watching live.

I also have to comment on the 100m final, aka the most electric 9.63 seconds I can remember. It is amazing how much you can enjoy something that is just so basic and natural as running; enjoying seeing a person go as fast as they can is just human nature, even from childhood seeing who can run fastest in the playground or down the street. Watching the race was my undoubted sporting highlight of the games, with all the anticipation, the absolute silence in the stadium before the starting gun, and then seeing the athletes powering up and going, with Usain Bolt pulling away in the end. Amazing.

So that was the Olympics. I was so proud; seeing how excited everyone was about which big events were scheduled each day, seeing Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park and Big Ben and countless other historic landmarks as the backdrop of events, reading media reports by journalists from other countries on how welcoming the city and the country were and how impressed they were. The only dip was probably the closing ceremony, although could it ever have lived up to our newly raised expectations? Besides, getting absolutely everything perfect is not the British way. Regardless; well done London, you did it.

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

6 Star Albums


Part 3: The Blueprint – Jay-Z



Ah Jay-Z. Who can fail to love the Jigga Man? For years he's been one of the most respected artists anywhere; hugely popular in the hip hop community, but also with the mainstream. He was the first hip hop artist to headline at Glastonbury, headlined the 2012 Hackney Weekend festival, and is half of one of the biggest power couples in entertainment.

The Blueprint is probably where Jay-Z's road to international superstardom began. Although his two previous albums both reached number 1 in the US charts, The Blueprint was the first to chart in countries such as France and the Netherlands, and the first to make the top 40 chart in the UK. The album was also awarded hip hop magazine The Source's highly coveted 5 mics award, and has been named in top album lists by everyone from Entertainment Weekly, to Rolling Stone, to NME. Something else interesting to note is that The Blueprint also probably marks the beginning of Kanye West's rise, with him becoming known as one of hip hop's leading producers for his work on this album.

Musically, the album has an extremely soulful sound, created through its use of samples on most of its tracks. Some of my favourite songs such as 'Girls, Girls, Girls', 'Never Change', and the excellent 'Heart of the City' stand out for me precisely because of their 70s style soul instrumentals. Another standout song, 'Song Cry', is an emotional track where Jay-Z uses the soulful beat to discus past relationships and regrets.

Another landmark for this album is its place as part of the first major rap feud since the East Coast vs West Coast battles of the mid-1990s, which ended with the death of 2pac and the Notorious B.I.G. The track 'Takeover' was aimed by Jay-Z at Nas, at a time when they were the two most respected rappers in New York, battling to be best in the city, a title left behind by B.I.G. 'Takeover' is a powerful statement to Jay-Z's rivals, delivered with a driving beat. It was a song that many hip hop listeners thought would leave Nas unable to respond and possibly end his career. This was until Nas came back with the explosively aggressive 'Ether', from his own classic album Stillmatic; a response that surprised listeners and increased Nas' reputation hugely.

Other notable songs that make The Blueprint are 'Hola Hovito', with one of my favourite beats and its singalong chorus, 'Izzo', one of Jay-Z's most popular singles ever, and 'Renegade', featuring Eminem. Renegade was used by Nas to insult Jay-Z in 'Ether', with the line "Eminem murdered you on your own shit". This is a line I've heard many hip hop fans agree with, but me? I'll just say Eminem's flow on the track is amazing and contrasts with Jay's less spectacular lines.

The Blueprint is a damn good listen, and a cultural milestone, with its links to the rise of Jay-Z, Kanye West, and even Nas to an extent. Its legacy has allowed Jay-Z to become the biggest star in hip-hop, make a fortune of over $450 million, and gain a reputation as one of the greatest rappers of all time.