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Today is Australia Day. For those of you who don't live in Australia, that's the day where Australian citizens get in more drunken fights than on any other day of the year.
I've never considered myself particularly patriotic, but Australia is responsible for some good things, like Vegemite, boomerangs and WiFi. We've also made some pretty important contributions to the arts, including animation.
What does that have to do with Japanese anime, you ask? Probably more than one would think. Animation is international, but most anime fans have a myopic interest in Japanese animation. This myopia is perhaps one of the main reasons why anime still struggles to gain recognition among animation scholars. If, as Tamerlane argued, even the most knowledgeable anime fans are ignorant about world animation, why should we expect animation fans outside our insular bubble to care about anime?
I can't claim to know much about world animation myself (yet), but I would like to showcase some of Australia's most memorable works of animation in this post. Of course, I can only scratch the surface here, because there's over 100 years of history to get through. However, I've included some handy links at the end of this post for those of you who want to do your own research.
Australia's First Animator
Australian animation has its roots in the silent era of the 1910s and 20s. In those days, animation was produced using stop-motion and cutout techniques. Basically, the animator would draw the characters on paper or some other flat material and then cut them out and move them around like puppets against a screen. Each frame is photographed one at a time, which creates the illusion of movement when put together. You can see this technique employed by Harry Julius, who is generally acknowledged as Australia's first animator:
The above clip comes from Cartoons of the Moment (1915). As you can see, the early use for animation was for political commentary. In order to keep up with the daily news cycle, the animation made use of shortcuts like cutout animation and filming the artist as he drew.
Harry Julius was a well-known cartoonist and satiricist at the time, and his animations quickly became popular around the country. Unfortunately, only a handful of his cartoons have survived over the years. And even though we credit Julius as the first Australian animator, a smattering of animated advertisements predate his work. Unfortunately, those ads have not survived.
Australian Animation Sells Itself… And Other Products
When we think of animation, we tend to think of television shows and movies, but actually the primary function of animation in Australia, especially in the early days of the medium, was for advertisements. This was especially the case during the 1940s and 1950s, when animation production was dominated by American studios.
As it turns out, advertisements actually encouraged artists to flex their creative muscles. This period of Australian animation is defined by its experimentation. For example, the renowned surrealist artist Dusan Marek ran an animation studio that churned out a bunch of ads.
However, the most significant animator during this period was undoubtedly Eric Porter, who founded Australia's first professional animation production company. Porter created Australia's first feature length animated film, Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon (1972), an entirely hand-drawn production that took 21 months and over 70 animators to complete. But for everyone who grew up in the 40s and 50s, Porter's most iconic work is undoubtedly the Aeroplane Jelly ad.
A year before Porter died, he was presented with the AFI Raymond Longford Life Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the Australian film and television industry. You can listen to a recording of an interview with him here. (At 23:00, he mentions the state of the Japanese animation industry in the 70s. You may find this short segment interesting.)
Freddo the Frog: Australia's First Television Cartoon
From their experience in advertising, Australian animators quickly worked out that animated mascots helped make products sell. So it should come as no surprise that even Australia's first television cartoon was essentially a glorified advertisement.
The character of Freddo the Frog was created in 1930 by a MacRobertson Chocolates employee. Since then, Freddo has constantly evolved. Even during the production of the TV series, his appearance underwent change. For the first four episodes, he was drawn with teeth, until it was pointed out that frogs don't have teeth, at which point they were removed.
While the Freddo TV series is a little-known work these days (I can't even find clips of it online), more than 50 five-minute episodes were made. The production was gruelling work. Cameraman Victor Anastasi describes the process as follows:
You'd start with a storyboard and a script, which was recorded, then transferred from quarter-inch to 17.5mm magnetic tape. You'd have to run it forwards very slowly so you could transcribe words down the side of the exposure sheet with a chinagraph pencil.
I'd shoot the pencil drawings on paper on an illuminated desk, then it would go to clean-up, then it would be retraced by pencil at the ink and paint department. They'd draw the outline with a very thin brush, then that sheet would go to the painters who would paint on the reverse side. Then it would come to me as a cameraman and I'd shoot it and hold my breath at the same time – it just wasn't easy. That would be shot on 35mm then reduced to 16mm, and then it would be ready to be shown.
These days, Freddo the Frog is widely recognised and devoured by children everywhere, so the hard work of these animators evidently counted for something in the long run.
Other Notable TV Productions
The world of Australian animation quickly became known for its cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism. Australia formerly adopted multiculturalism as government policy in the 1970s, which likely had a strong influence on the art scene, animation included.
King Arthur and the Square Knights of the Round Table was produced in the 1960s. The director, Zoran Janjic, immigrated to Australia from Croatia in 1960. The script was written by a team of comics, most notably the Australian playwright and writer Alex Buzo and Rod Hull, who went on to become a well-known British entertainer. The latter probably helped contribute to the "British" sort of sensibility of the humour.
The Adventures of Blinky Bill was produced in the 1990s. Yoram Gross, a Polish-born Jewish Australian, founded the studio which created Blinky Bill along with other other children's films and television shows. When Australians think about Blinky Bill today, they usually think of Gross's Blinky Bill rather than the original children's book character created in the 1930s by Dorothy Wall. The TV series is also notable for containing an opening theme that is longer than an anime OP.
Receiving Recognition on the World Stage
Some Australian animated films have received awards and recognition on the international stage. Leisure (1976) was the first Australian animated film to receive an Oscar. It was produced using cartoons by the Australian newspaper cartoonist Bruce Petty, who also directed the film and created the storyboards.
Source: National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
Another short film worthy of your time and attention is Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing (2010), based on the picture book by the same name. He was involved in the project as a director, writer, designer and artist, working with a small team of four other creators in a Melbourne-based studio. Although it was animated with CG technology, almost every frame was essentially hand-painted using non-digital materials: acrylic paint, pencil, oils and collage. The result is a film with a very unique sense of ambiance.
(Anyone who is interested in sequential art should also check out Shaun Tan's graphic novel The Arrival, which nails how it feels to be a new immigrant in a foreign country. Tan has also mentioned that he drew inspiration from the sense of visual timing in manga.)
No article about Australian animation should go without mentioning Adam Elliot, one of the most innovative Australian animators working today. His two most well-known films, Harvie Krumpet (2003) and Mary and Max (2009), utilise stop-motion claymation. In order to capture the mundane yet wistful nature of his subjects, Elliot cleverly uses digital technology to replicate the look and feel of a very old-fashioned style of animation.
Some other noteworthy animated feature films include Grendel Grendel Grendel (1981), Dot and the Kangaroo (1977), The Magic Pudding (2000), Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010), and, of course, the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet (2006).
I personally think that Happy Feet was pretty mediocre story-wise, but the animation really is something to behold, even if it does look a bit dated ten years on. The level of detail that went into the dancing scenes is impressive.
The studio used motion capture technology to record the movements of dancers and directly translated them into the movements of the animated penguins. It's a lot of work because it requires setting up many cameras from different directions in order to capture information from a bunch of small reflectors attached to the moving object. It's akin to rotoscoping (as in the infamous Aku no Hana) in the sense that it's a technique used to blend live action film with animation, although motion capture relies on digital technology to work, whereas rotoscoping has been around for as long as animation itself.
In the case of Happy Feet, the technology they adopted was groundbreaking for its time. George Miller directed multiple performers while their penguin characters appeared on a computer screen in real time. The studio would later outdo itself in the sequel, but by that point, nobody gave a shit about Happy Feet anymore, because motion capture is the new normal.
The rise of digital animation and easily accessible software such as Flash has brought about a new wave of home grown animation. You can see some really good indie works at Ozanimate, a website dedicated to showcasing Australian animation and providing support to those who work in the industry.
The popularity of animation these days has created more demand for local talent. As the animation industries have become ever more global and internationalised, it's not uncommon for many Australian animators to work overseas, though.
For further reading, here is a more detailed overview of animation in Australia. See here for notes about the history and techniques of animation.
While this post was simply a brief overview of some of the more important titles in Australian animation history, I hope it manages to stimulate some interest in animation outside Japanese or American cartoons. I'm sure that the animation traditions in your own country include some interesting gems as well. In the meantime, Happy Australia Day!
Posted on January 26, 2016, in Editorials and tagged aeroplane jelly, aku no hana, australian animation, blinky bill, dot and the kangaroo, freddo the frog, grendel grendel grendel, happy feet, harvie krumpet, king arthur and the square knights of the round table, legend of the guardians the owls of ga'hoole, leisure, Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon, mary and max, the arrival, the lost thing, the magic pudding. Bookmark the permalink.	13 Comments.
Artemis | January 26, 2016 at 10:47 am
I could leave a snarky comment about Marmite being superior in every way to Vegemite, but I won't. (Mostly because I haven't had Marmite in years and suspect I've now developed more of a taste for Vegemite instead.)
Frog-kun | January 26, 2016 at 12:52 pm
tbh I don't even like Vegemite, but it's probably better than Marmite because I say so
iblessall | January 26, 2016 at 10:53 am
Man, you really can see that you're a researcher in this post (assuming you didn't just know all of this right off the top of your head). Thanks for putting this together—it's nice to have an "expert" (of sorts, because you're from Australia) share this kind of thing.
I definitely didn't know any of this off the top of my head lol. And tbh, most Australians don't know a thing about Australian animation. While I did watch some of these cartoons as a kid (like Blinky Bill, for instance), but I would never have been able to tell you who made the cartoons or even what country they originated from. Researching for this post has been a very enlightening experience for me, and I'm glad you got something out of it too.
John Samuel | January 26, 2016 at 12:05 pm
Great post. Nice to know some of the history.
Frog-kun | January 26, 2016 at 1:04 pm
Thanks! It was very instructive for me too. Hope you're having a good Australia Day :)
John Samuel | January 26, 2016 at 2:11 pm
Quiet at home for the moment. Boardgames and BBQ later. :)
fireminer | January 26, 2016 at 12:29 pm
You're Filipino or Malaysian, remind me again?
Anyway, after the few last articles, this is a fresh change of air!
Frog-kun | January 27, 2016 at 8:57 am
I'm half-Filipino. I was born and raised in Australia, so I would consider myself an Australian first and foremost, though.
arbitrary_greay | January 27, 2016 at 3:34 am
And so your frog origins go even deeper than we thought…Verrrry suspicious. How far does the conspiracy go!?
subterraneantales | January 27, 2016 at 6:35 am
Wow, these days I was just thinking about media from other countries, realizing that I don't know anything other than the usual stuff from Japan and America, so this is exactly what I was searching for lol. Ozanimate is also a very interesting site, I'm all for watching free stuff online.
If anyone here is from a country which also has interesting animation projects or anything like that, please think about writing about it, I sure will!
Thanks for making this post, now I want Aeroplane Jelly.
Glad this post has made you piqued your interest in world animation. If you wrote about animation in your own country, I'd be very interested in reading it!
Also, fun fact: The Aeroplane Jelly jingle is the longest-running jingle in Australia. It still appears in ads even today!
Okay, more seriously, do you think anime had an influence on Australian animation productions, and do you think anime's influence is a good thing? Anime is the standout in having a distinct branding for an entire nation's animation style, and that's resulted in some brilliant things, but is that something other nations should be pursuing?
So far, it seems that anime's had more of an influence on live action media, (as live action SFX/CG could start replicating the things that used to be under animation's purview) but more in content than aesthetic. Notable cinematography tends to be that which is shared with live action camerawork achievements.
Anime's international animation influence has been much less as the relatively more "realist" action cartoon has waned.
Consider the Sailor Moon replication project, where the participants were encouraged to make each cut their own, and the results don't feel anime-esque at all, outside of their "fanart" content. Most of them more closely match the flatter, more grotesque-prone and twitchy-paced styles dominating cartoons today. (influence of digital animation forms?)
There's a subtext of inferiority when a western artist's art style is "too anime," as if they couldn't find their own unique artistic voice after being inspired by the anime style. The fun in the "anime screenshot re-draw" results largely stems from the strong differences the re-draws have.
So I guess anime's primary contribution has been inspiring the creative juices in general, than explicit influences in the visual styles.


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Vilhjálmur Bjarnason (* 20. April 1952 in Reykjavík) ist ein isländischer Politiker (Unabhängigkeitspartei).

Vilhjálmur ist Betriebswirt (cand.oecon. der Universität Island, 1977) und hat einen MBA von der Rutgers University, New Jersey (1997). Unter anderem war er bei isländischen Banken und als Lehrer an der Gewerbeschule von Reykjavík tätig. Seit 1998 war er Lehrbeauftragter für Betriebswirtschafts- und Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Universität Island.

Seit der isländischen Parlamentswahl vom 27. April 2013 war Vilhjálmur Abgeordneter des isländischen Parlaments Althing für den Südwestlichen Wahlkreis. Er gehörte dem parlamentarischen Ausschuss für Wirtschaftsangelegenheiten und Handel sowie dem Ausschuss für auswärtige Angelegenheiten an. Darüber hinaus war Vilhjálmur Bjarnason Mitglied der isländischen Delegation bei den Parlamentarierkomitees der EFTA- und EWR-Staaten sowie Mitglied des gemeinsamen parlamentarischen Komitees EU-Island.

2015 war Vilhjálmur Bjarnason der einzige Abgeordnete im Althing, der gegen die Legalisierung von Blasphemie in Island stimmte.

Bei der Parlamentswahl vom 28. Oktober 2017 verlor Vilhjálmur Bjarnason seinen Sitz im Althing.

Anmerkungen

Weblinks
 Profil auf der Homepage des isländischen Parlaments (isl.)
 Kurzprofil auf der Homepage des isländischen Parlaments (engl.)

Abgeordneter des Althing
Mitglied der Unabhängigkeitspartei (Island)
Isländer
Geboren 1952
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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        root.appendChild(slot);

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  runTests('div');
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});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Finn & Porter in downtown Austin recently added a number of new dishes to its weekly Happy Hour offering, as well as extending the program to Saturday evenings. Now running Monday through Saturday from 5 – 7pm, specials include half off Finn & Porter's bestselling signature sushi rolls, Chef's tasting plates and select wines by the glass.
A variety of dishes – ranging from fresh sushi made with traditional and modern ingredients to creative small plates – satisfy a range of palettes. Sushi rolls available during Happy Hour include Lobsteryaki, a roll made with vanilla butter poached lobster tail, cucumber and dried cranberry rolled in saffron rice and topped with seared foie gras and truffle balsamic teriyaki; the always-popular Fire Roll, made with shrimp tempura and avocado, topped with spicy assorted fish, tempura flakes, tobiko, green onion, and spicy mayo; Sea Dragon, a roll made with tuna, macadamia nut, Serrano, tobiko and topped with green apple and shiso pesto; and Nangoku, a spicy salmon and avocado roll wrapped in soybean paper that is fried tempura-style.
A variety of small plates, listed as Chef's Tastings, include Grilled artichoke paired with parmesan panna cotta and upland cress; Grilled asparagus with truffle poached egg, chorizo and arugula; Pan-seared scallops with shaved Brussel sprouts and warm bacon dressing; Thai-spiced jumbo lump crab cake paired with jicama and red pepper slaw and mango coulis; Gulf shrimp on a bed of creamy orzo, chive, corn and chervil; Soy-glazed pork belly with Asian pear and celery salad and balsamic teriyaki sauce; Lockhart quail with heirloom tomatoes two ways, pistachio and eggplant purée; and goat cheese ravioli with hen of the woods mushroom ragout.


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Last Chance saloon for Compton but time for Ball and Vince to shine on the International stage
Jake Ball (centre) was the surprise call-up to the England Squad,
England's recent squad announcement was not as far fetched as it could have been – the rumoured call-up for Nick Browne didn't materialise but the inclusion of Jake Ball and James Vince did raise eyebrows. Along with that pair, Nick Compton has retained his position from the tour to South Africa despite not setting the world alight either then, or this season in the County Championship. Let's have a look at these three, and what they can bring to the England team.
Nick Compton has had a poor start to the season, the Middlesex man averages only 20 and is yet to make a fifty. It is no question he offers solidarity at number three and at times during the South Africa tour he steadied ship and rode out the innings' against a difficult attack to face – attritional to say the least. But it would be fair to say that with the poor form Compton has shown this season that he did not deserve this call-up – one only has to look at the top of Middlesex order to see another England candidate showing the selectors what they want. Sam Robson has scored a double century and two other centuries and has really put his teammate to shame. Nonetheless, Compton can be a handy number three – with the stroke playing of Alex Hales often not bearing fruit Compton's battling style can really impress. He has faced serious criticism for his style, however, scoring slowly and perhaps letting the team fall behind the game at times – and who wouldn't prefer to see Kevin Pietersen walk out, all guns blazing and send countless drives to the boundary. Hopefully, we see the best of Compton against Sri Lanka, and it would be safe to say that some decent performances may not even be enough to cement his place.
James Vince's long-awaited call-up did not come as a shock to many; at times for Hampshire, it has seemed a one man team, he has had to dig his side out of a hole created by the early loss of wickets. But the grit he has seemed to show this season will be in fine place when he strides his way out to the crease at Headingley. Vince has all the attributes, a swanky array of shot play matched with the determination and guile that a number five needs to be a success at Test level. Vince's inclusion is definitely the least surprising out of the three eyebrow raising call-ups. While the Hampshire skipper has been lamented before for his tendency to get in and get out, he looks to have settled for a calmer approach to batting – which can see him accumulate scores rather than blasting his way to a quick 30. This season so far his strike rate is at only 46 is down from 60 last season and perhaps shows what steps Vince has taken to ensure he gets his England berth, and while that will be at his less favoured number five – his prospects surely are in good check for the summer ahead.
Jake Ball is the most shocking of the three "surprise" call-ups – his hard work at Nottinghamshire often falls under the radar, although clearly not with Trevor Bayliss. 2015 was an important year for Ball, he sealed his place in the Nottinghamshire first-class team and became a regular in the limited overs squads for the Outlaws, too. His potential had always been monitored, after several selections for England Lions squads, and his performances for the Lions must also have contributed to this selection. Ball is tall, but not Steven Finn – has a good action which leads to a repeatable line and length and enough pace to put to use at international level. His real breakthrough into the minds of England selectors must surely have come this season, he has been in fine form for Nottinghamshire. His 19 wickets have come at 21 and have included one five-for. His recent performance versus Yorkshire where he took the wickets of England capped Gary Ballance and then the man of the moment Joe Root in consecutive balls as well as forgotten man Adam Lyth with the first ball of the innings. Ball almost single-handedly turned that match in Nottinghamshire's favour – falling one wicket short of what would have been an impressive victory. And if there was a question over who should take that last remaining spot in the England squad at that point, Ball had made it his own. Hopefully, we get to see what Ball can bring to this team at Headingley – and we don't see the same fate that has befallen others before him; Chris Woakes, the unfortunate Mark Wood and Finn but to name a few. A hopefully injury-free Jake Ball can add something to this England team.
It will be an interesting series for the Three Lions' with fresh new faces set to tackle a Sri Lankan side that lacks the star players of yester-year this really acts as an opportunity for a Ball, a Vince or a Compton to really cement their place as an England regular.
Written by Charlie Jennings (@AVCJX)
A Case For The Underdogs - Who can topple Yorkshire?
Can Keith Barker (Pictured) lead Warwickshire to success?
There are indeed plenty of cases to make for Yorkshire to be the favourites for this year's County Championship title, however not much has been spoken about the outsiders; those who are less favoured to go all the way and topple the reigning champions. There are plenty of strong squads spread out across this year's Division One – Middlesex, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire all look set to contend and the recently promoted teams in Surrey and Lancashire will be sure to provide healthy challenge.
Let's first have a look at these contenders to the throne.
Middlesex certainly look set to be there or thereabouts this season – the addition of James Fuller from Division Two Gloucestershire looks shrewd, a man who has offered up genuine pace for Gloucestershire for the last five seasons, taking 89 wickets at 35, a very handy average to say the least. His pace offers Middlesex some decent options – although bowling has never really been a problem, the addition of Fuller adds yet more beef to their often injury affected pace attack. One problem Middlesex may face, especially during the early season – is the new toss (or not) rule put in place to give away teams the option of bowling first. During April and possibly May this advantage may do them some harm – everybody knows that conditions tend to favour swing bowling during the early season matches at Lord's. This offers up some interesting contests, with matches at home to Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire at HQ in early Spring, who both possess very strong bowling attacks.
Warwickshire have somewhat dwindled over the past couple of seasons, injuries and international call-ups have to an extent prevented the Bears from really putting in a full season's effort which has led to the club petering out come September. Hopefully, this season that will be put right, with Ian Bell and Chris Woakes currently not in the England team, but sure to be challenging for places – Warwickshire might just be the beneficiary of some early season performances to put their names in the hat. This could, however, lead to problems later on in the season – the management of their seam attack is crucial. It has some serious depth but sometimes seeing off the tail end of the opposition has caused a problem, not least in the first match of this campaign, versus Hampshire. Rikki Clarke, Keith Barker, Chris Wright, Boyd Rankin and Woakes himself look like an attack that many will envy. The batting also looks strong – Bell, Jonathan Trott, Sam Hain and Varun Chopra are all batsmen with a good reputation in the county game, Hain himself gains English citizenship after this County Championship season and could, with some good runs behind him, throw his name into the hat for an England call up.
Nottinghamshire always seem to put in a performance in the Championship, strength in their batting department is usually followed up with some decent bowling performances at the often swing-friendly Trent Bridge. One looks at their bowling attack and thinks perhaps they are lacking a little experience, Harry Gurney, Jake Ball and Brett Hutton do lack some experience – but raw talent is definitely on show and should hopefully come to the fore this season. Results can often be expected at Trent Bridge, and Nottinghamshire boast some real match winners in their team – Samit Patel's batting and useful left-arm spin often turns the screw; and while James Taylor's recent shock retirement will weaken their batting – the experience in their batting line-up provides the backbone to what should be a good campaign. The addition of Australian test-capped paceman Jackson Bird should prove a real capture too, at county level he should provide a real threat. Expect another decent season from Nottinghamshire.
Durham are my outside bet for this year's Championship; a very decent bowling attack supported by some very experienced and level-headed county professionals with the right mix of young talent could just provide Durham with the perfect balance to mount a challenge this season. Young Keaton Jennings has had a barnstorming start to the season with centuries in both innings versus Somerset, and this definitely could be the season he makes that opening position his own. Chris Rushworth and Graham Onions are a quality new ball pair – Rushworth will look to push on from his 83 wickets last term. While the Northerner's batting can be unreliable players like Jennings, Scott Borthwick – once capped by England, and the young up and coming Jack Burnham on their day can produce the goods that can propel Durham to what could be an unlikely success story. Again home comforts may be harder to come by for Durham this term due to the amended toss but one must surely back their bowling attack as one that should be looking to take 20 wickets regularly at home. After two seasons of consolidation since their glory year of 2013, Durham should be looking to push on and despite suffering financial constriction since that success, their young talent should be looking up rather than down this season.
This year's County Championship, to me, looks more unpredictable than some are touting. Yorkshire will certainly face a tough task to make it a hat-trick of titles, and with the competition certainly looking stronger than ever this we should have an exciting campaign in store. Here's to some fantastic cricket this season.
By Charlie Jennings - (@AVCJX)
Cricket Archives: 1985? Those were the days my friend.
Essex celebrate their NatWest Trophy Final success.
When my son asked me to write something for the website I confess I scratched my head a bit. This may be explained by the fact that I am of a certain age that entitles me to grumble a lot about anything and everything (it's one of the few perks of getting older), including the state of modern cricket. Having said that I'm not about to bore you with my opinions on any of that and I can almost hear the sighs of relief as I type this!
Having looked at the season preview I was struck by the baffling array of different players for different competitions over different time periods in the season. So instead I'm going to take you back dear readers to a view from the outfield in 1985, where my immediate thoughts are that cricket was so much simpler then. We'll see I suppose. Straight off, let me come clean. My county team are Essex – there, I've said it - so forgive if my ramblings are from that perspective.
So let's go back in time. For those of younger years, domestic cricket in 1985 comprised four competitions:
The County Championship, Still one division of seventeen counties (no Durham back then) playing 24 three-day matches.
The John Player Special League – again one division comprising the seventeen counties playing 16 forty-over a side matches on a Sunday afternoon.
The Benson & Hedges Cup, a competition of 55-overs a side.
The NatWest Trophy. A straight knock out competition of 60-overs a side.
All of this could, if a county had a good season add up to a lot of cricket. In 1985 for example, Essex played 52 matches across the four competitions – more of this later. There were few breaks in the schedule and it was the norm for JPS Sunday games to be shoehorned into the middle of a county game.
Counties also took the game out to people in their county by holding festival weeks, a concept today fast disappearing sadly. Back then, Essex played at Ilford, Southend, and Colchester in addition to their Headquarters at Chelmsford. Typically a festival week comprised of two 3 day County Championship matches plus a Sunday League game. Of course facilities at many out grounds weren't great and sometimes neither were the pitches so perhaps players didn't enjoy these weeks as much as us spectators but they attracted excellent crowds and were very popular. My friends and I would usually take a week's holiday to watch Essex down in dear old Southend on Sea. "Tides comin' in off the estuary, ball 'll start doing a bit" some old sage would remark, and they were usually right! As the esteemed Editor of this site has pointed out previously, Southend was where he got his cricket baptism and love for the game.
Travelling for players and officials – most of whom to my recollection drove themselves to matches, would today simply be seen as plain daft and not necessarily conducive to top performance. Here's one week in the 1985 season to illustrate the point.
On Saturday June 8th, Essex commenced a County Championship game against Lancashire at Ilford. For those of you not familiar Ilford was a small club ground situated in a public park, in effectively east London although then it was still technically in Essex. The small dressing rooms were immediately either side of the clubhouse bar which was always rammed with people enjoying their day out, and not averse to giving advice or opinion to players trying to get some peace and quiet a few feet away! Anyway, I digress. On the following day, Sunday 9th the two teams played a John Player Special league game. Day two of the county championship game resumed on the 10th finishing on Tuesday 11th.
On the following three days 12th – 14th Essex hosted Northants in a championship game at Ilford. The match would have concluded at around 5.30 – 6.00 pm on the 14th whereupon the Essex players would have duly jumped in their cars to drive to Swansea (remember this is a Friday in the rush hour in London) for an 11.00 am start the following morning. The three-day game against Glamorgan finished on the 18th June, interspersed on the Sunday of course with a JPS league game. Time for a rest? Not a chance. At the conclusion of the game at Swansea it was straight back down the M4 and beyond in time for a 10.30 am start the next morning at Chelmsford for the small matter of a Benson & Hedges Cup semi final against Middlesex. I'm tired just thinking about it, Lord knows how the players felt and there wasn't really such a thing as squad rotation in those days either.
The County Championship remained the premier competition to win, a summer long marathon to determine the best team of the purist form of cricket. This was the era before central contracts for test players, so counties continued to have the use of players who were selected for their country. In addition to playing 6 Ashes tests and 3 ODIs Graham Gooch also played 35 matches for Essex during the summer of the 1985 season. Don't think the Yorkshire public will see Joe Root too often!
The two cup competitions were considered prestigious trophies, especially the NatWest Trophy which was pretty much cricket's equivalent of the FA Cup. Finals of both these competitions provided a great day out at Lords for supporters and finals were played to packed houses.
The JPS Sunday league had been around for years in one guise or another, and my recollection was it was something to be enjoyed but many thought it 'not proper' cricket at only 40-overs per side. At least back then players all had to wear whites even in the one-day competitions – the ghastly pyjama strips hadn't quite arrived. What some of those naysayers would make of T20 is anybody's guess! The problem with the 40-over game was that it wasn't quite long enough to warrant a paced innings and not short enough to encourage explosive hitting. As a result quite often it could be a bit tedious in my opinion. Run rates were nowhere near what the are today in one-day cricket and batsmen rarely improvised – no ramps, scoops or reverse sweeping back then!
So, what of Essex and 1985? You will not be surprised dear reader to learn that it was a fairly miserable English summer! Essex lost 16 days to the weather including an early stop to play on the opening day of the county championship at Chelmsford due to a snowstorm – poor old Northants lost 25 days. Middlesex, the eventual county champions unsurprisingly fared better losing only 9.
Following Essex has always been a roller coaster ride and 1985 captured that perfectly.
Essex went into the 1985 season as defending champions of both the County Championship and the JPS Sunday competition. By the middle of July they were bottom of one and second bottom of the other championship. They had however shown decent form in the Benson and Hedges and reached the final. The B & H final was played in July so optimism reigned that we could salvage something from the season. Sadly it proved to be a false hope as Leicestershire and David Gower won a fairly mundane contest comfortably. The wheels had truly come off.
However, cricket being the game that it is, the B&H final proved to be a turning point for Essex. After that defeat the team didn't lose another game for the rest of the season. A mixed run of draws and wins in their final 11 matches saw them climb the County Championship table to finish 4th.
In the NatWest Trophy they reached their second final at Lords of the summer. Now, the NatWest final, being the showpiece of the county season was played in September. One hundred and twenty overs in the day, with intervals meant these finals could well finish at best in fading light or at worst stygian gloom. That was certainly the case as this time they triumphed beating Nottinghamshire – Clive Rice, Richard Hadlee, Derek Randall et al in one the great one day finals, winning by one run as Randall was caught off the last ball of the innings needing two to win.
Winning the NatWest salvaged the season of that there was no doubt. However the season, for so long a damp squib until the triumph at Lords was not quite done. Having amassed only one win from their first 7 John Player Special matches, Essex went on a run in July of winning 7 out of 8 in the competition. They went into the final game of the season needing to win at Chelmsford against Yorkshire to be crowned JPS champions again and thwart Sussex at the last.
Naturally, being Essex they did it by testing the cardiac robustness of their supporters all the way, squeezing the win off the penultimate ball off the day.
So a season that for so long promised little, in the end delivered much. It seemed to be the catalyst for change at the County at a time when stability and constancy of personnel seemed commonplace at most counties. Keith Fletcher decided to step down a skipper after 11 years at the helm. Having led Essex to their first trophies in 1979 (after a pot-less 104 years!) and after a decade of unprecedented success it was a shock to think 'Gnome' would no longer be scheming and pulling strings. There was continuity though as Graham Gooch, another Essex 'lifer' stepped into the void. Other change took place with the departure of two overseas stars. Today, I look at the list of overseas players for the forthcoming season – overseas, 'foreign' UK passport holders, Kolpaks etc. and can't keep pace of who will be playing what and when or for how long! At the end of 1985, Ken McEwan and Norbert 'Nobby' Phillip departed Essex after 12 and 7 years respectively. McEwan was an elegant, classical South African batsman deprived of a Test career due to South Africa's exclusion from international cricket. International cricket's loss was Essex's gain for many years. Nobby Phillip was a lively, fastish medium pacer from the West Indies. Wayward at times, destructive with the bat when in the mood, Essex supporters held him in great affection.
All this felt like the end of an era. Other players were getting older. Some younger players were coming through although few had a real lasting impact. One who would, in 1985 had won the U19 player of the year. A mop of curly hair (you'll find this hard to believe) and with a reputation for arrogance, a certain young Nasser Hussein was waiting in the wings.
So things were changing, slowly at first, but little did we unsuspecting supports and cricket following know that off into the not too distant future massive change was on the horizon.
At the beginning of this ramble, I said I wouldn't get into a today v yesterday rant, and I won't. What I would say, is that back in 1985 it felt simpler, there was a sense of stability, a sense of calm in the County scene. And maybe, ultimately that's where the problem lay.
Written by Bob Bowden - Follow him on Twitter @54bobb.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Popular White Wine Varietals
Episode #7 of the course Introduction to red and white wine by Paul Kalemkiarian
Today, we're going to look at the most popular white wine varietals from around the world and what makes each one special.
One of the quietest revolutions in modern winemaking has taken place in the vineyard itself. Just as 21st-century humanity has mastered the way in which the most successful beef herds should be bred and apples grown, so too have they developed completely new vines, which have at last made it possible for winegrowers to make successful—and more reasonably priced—wines.
The key to all the effort lies not only in the choice of the right grape for the particular piece of soil and climate but also in knowing how best to turn that particular grape into wine. With the exception of California, where a living can be made as a grower selling to wineries, most of the world's winegrowers have to be winemakers too or vice versa. This is a little like a farmer having to harvest their corn, grind it into flour, and then bake that flour into perfect bread. It's no wonder that the French vigneron wryly looks at their cattle-tending neighbor and envies such an easy life.
Making wine is hard work, undoubtedly, but it's also driven by passion. Those tending the vineyard put great care and passion into planting and nurturing the right grapes for their terroir. (Determining the microclimates and micro-terroirs within vineyards has become an art in itself!) Those engaged in the vinifying process must have a passion to create wines that have balanced and beautiful expressions of the grapes. Sometimes, winemakers do this by blending and other times, by letting a single varietal take the stage—and then there are all the ways that wine can be processed and aged. Through it all, certain red wine grapes have risen to the top of wine lovers' lists around the world for good reason.
Trebbiano/Ugni Blanc
Italy and southern France are awash with this. If you find yourself saying, "But I don't remember any very tasty whites from those areas," you get full marks. This vine is the mainstay of white French "plonk" and Italian whites like Soave and Frascati. That it's high in acidity and "neutral" is often the kindest thing to say about its flavor.
By a whisker, Chardonnay is the greatest white wine grape—and absolutely the trendiest. It's the grape that gives white Burgundy its marvelous dryness combined with honeyed lusciousness. It also gives a stony, nutty bite to Chablis and lends the light, yeasty fragrance to the blanc de blancs, Champagne. The Americans and Australians have not been slow to emulate wines from the Burgundian regions of Meursault and Puligny Montrachet, sometimes with stunning, if richly flavored, results. More recently, New Zealand and northern Italy have begun to produce piercingly fresh Chardonnays.
Riesling is Chardonnay's only rival as the world's top white grape. Certainly, it is more versatile because it manages to make some of the world's sweetest wines, as well as some of the driest. In Germany, nearly all the greatest wines, from dry to sweet, are Riesling. It is also beginning to be seen in northern Italy and Austria to some effect.
Elsewhere, Australia is the most successful grower, making an individual green-fresh wine. Riesling's great ability is to preserve acidity while building up grapey, honeyed ripeness. As it ages, the wine is marked by a unique and surprisingly pleasant "petrol" flavor.
The most obvious spicy, fruit salad grape of them all is Gewürztraminer. Until recently, hardly anyone outside Alsace grew it. Due to its exotic, tropical-fruit taste, it's now popping up in Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, and even Spain. In New World countries, Australia uses it and New Zealand has produced some of her finest wines from this mouthful of a variety.
Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris
Known as Pinot Grigio in Italy and as Pinot Gris in Alsace, the grape is thought to be a mutant clone of Pinot Noir. It gets its name from the Italian and French terms for "grey," as the grape is more grey in color than Pinot Noir. And while it is not technically a white grape, it is used to make extremely popular white wine. It is now extensively grown in New World countries, and its flavors vary widely by region—from crisp, light-bodied acidic wines to more full-bodied, "spicy" wines, often with tropical fruit notes.
Sauvignon Blanc grapes make wine with the greenest flavor of them all. At its best in the Loire villages of Sancerre and Pouilly, it makes a dry but not tart wine. It is tremendously refreshing and tastes of all things green: nettles, newly mown grass, gooseberries, etc. In Bordeaux, it softens, and in California, winemakers tend to make it rather heavy and butter-oaky. It's better in New Zealand and most recently, South Africa. It is often used in France and Italy to add acidity to their hotter-climate whites.
Generally one of the world's versatile grapes, Chenin Blanc is, for that matter, very widely planted. It ripens late and has a great deal of acidity, matched by a fresh taste. In the Loire, it usually makes iconic fruit-driven wines and is best as a high-acid base for sparkling wine. Chenin is one of the few grapes that can make interesting dry wines, sparkling wine, and viscous dessert wine.
Muscat is the grape varietal that can make a wine that actually tastes of grapes. In Alsace, it is very dry but as perfumed and crunchy-fresh as a bunch of the best from the hothouse in high summer. Elsewhere, it is usually sweet and often fortified. Piedmont in Italy makes it into the delicious "playpen fizz" of Asti Spumante.
That's the round-up of the world's most popular white wines. Now that you know more about them, maybe the names are no longer quite so intimidating. Next time, we'll look at how white wine is made.
Oz Clarke's World of Wine: A Grand Tour of the Great Wine Regions by Oz Clarke


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The 2021 Independence Bowl Is A Saturday Game On ABC Network
Greg Atoms Published: May 27, 2021
Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images
The 2021 Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl is going to be a splash return for Shreveport's college bowl game! After missing 2020, due to various issues that can all be tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indy Bowl will get a prime date, time slot, and network for 2021.
This year's Indy Bowl will be played on Saturday, December 18th, at 2:30pm on ABC Network. That's right, a pre-Christmas Saturday on ABC.
For 2021, the Indy Bowl is set to have BYU take on a team from Conference USA. Of course, BYU has to become bowl-eligible, and Conference USA would need to be able to fill their commitment as well.
Independence Bowl Executive Director Missy Setters said in a release:
"This game date and time allows us to not only showcase Radiance Technologies, our city and region to millions of viewers across the country, but also gives us the flexibility to plan a great bowl week lineup of events that will appeal to both fans traveling in to follow their teams and locals looking for entertainment options for the whole family in mid-December."
The 2021 Indy Bowl will mark the first Saturday date for the game since 2015. That year's edition of the game saw Virginia Tech play the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, which was the final career game for legendary Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer. This year's return to ABC will also be the first time the game has been featured on the national broadcast network since the 2014 matchup of the Miami Hurricanes and South Carolina Gamecocks, a game that would mark the final Bowl Game in legendary coach Steve Spurrier's career.
Geek'd Con Lineup 2021: August 13th-15th
After a year off, Geek'd Con is back and we have an amazing lineup! Here's our guest line up for this year's show. If you want to go, you can buy your tickets here.
Legendary Musicians Who Rocked The Hirsch In Shreveport
Here's a sample of the legendary musical acts who have played Shreveport's Memorial Coliseum over the last 60 years. The Hirsch was basically the homefield for bands like Van Halen and ZZ Top, who regularly put the Hirsch near the top of their tours. For that reason, we're actually not going to feature them on this list, because they were basically "house bands" for Shreveport...and that's NOT a bad thing.
Filed Under: independence bowl
Categories: National News, Shreveport News, Sports


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Vancouver baby becomes first person to have three parents named on birth certificate in B.C.
A Vancouver baby has three parents named on her birth certificate, the first under new B.C. legislation that allows up to four legal parents.
Della Wolf Kangro Wiley Richards, three months old, became the legal daughter of a lesbian couple and their male friend after finalizing the registration process last week.
They are among the first Canadians to achieve this without using litigation, under British Columbia's new Family Law Act passed last year.
When they decided to have a child, Anna Richards and wife Danielle Wiley both agreed that they wanted a father figure, rather than an anonymous donor.
Family photoShawn Kangro, left, and Danielle Wiley, with three-month-old daughter Della Wolf Kangro Wiley Richards. The Vancouver baby has just become the first child in British Columbia with three parents listed on a birth certificate.
"We wanted our kids to know where they came from biologically and actually liked the idea of having an extended family," Ms. Richards says. "It didn't threaten us to have another person's involvement so long as it was the right person."
Ms. Richards had gone to university with the father, Shawn Kangro, a close friend with whom she had informally joked about having kids together.
"Almost instantly, I knew I was going to be considering it really well," Mr. Kangro says, adding that he consulted with his mother, sister and friends before making a decision. "It naturally felt very right."
Read more from this shitty story here
Posted in: anti gay,Anti Zog Media,USA


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Seventeen-year-old Joe sits hunched in a dark closet rocking back and forth in a puddle of pee as his stepfather terrorizes his brothers and sisters trying to find out where Joe is hiding. He then turns to his wife and decides to beat an answer out of her. Joe, frozen in fear, covers his ears to muffle the screams from his mother and siblings.
Joe waits for his stepfather to leave the house. When he comes out, he finds his bloodied mother curled up in a corner. As he tends to her, calmness takes hold. He resolves never to let his stepfather hurt them again. He takes a dull butcher knife to his bedroom and waits. Sometime later that night, Joe is startled awake as the bedroom door is kicked off its hinges. The rage of battle between the two burns hot before Joe runs out of the house hoping to have killed his stepfather. Joe runs to a vineyard close by and hides under the canopy of vines for three days.
With increasing thirst and hunger affecting his mental state, Joe, the oldest of eleven children, vividly relives his life through a colorful series of flashbacks and memories, both good and bad. He reflects on a childhood of migrant farm work, traumas of family abuse and trips into foster care. Thoughts of the times his stepfather sold him to an older woman for beer money haunt him. Anger over his stepfather's cruelty towards his mother, a school bus driver, and more tragically, to an unsuspecting black man who stopped in a bar for a drink, grips him. Tears subside as he recalls his first sweet kiss from Trish to singing country songs with his sister Judy while waiting for the mailman and the welfare check. He finds out he has three daddies.
Joe finally gathers enough courage and leaves the vineyard to seek help. He finishes his senior year of high school in foster care. After graduation, Joe boards a greyhound bus for a one-way trip out of town, hopeful and determined to find purpose in life.
"Writing a memoir takes more motivation than being voted 'most likely to succeed as a writer' by your high school classmates."
-Joe Rice
As an adolescent, I poured an abundance of sadness, pain, hopes and dreams into poems and short stories. I wrote to give words to feelings, but tore them into tiny pieces once I had penciled them onto the backs of used paper sacks. Just the expression was enough.
As an educator, I wrote daily lessons for my students. As a public school principal and later as head of an independent private school, I wrote to lead and inspire my teachers, parents, and our community to reinvent the notion of what constitutes education, teaching and learning. I wrote a lot, but I don't think I was ever labeled or recognized as a "writer" by anyone.
My wife encouraged me to write about what I knew. She often said my life sounded like a country western song of struggle, love, heartbreak, longing, drinking, fighting, getting even, double-crossing, lying and cheating. Although I'd admit it would be interesting to write songs like this, I felt I needed to write a book.
I began to write "Not Your Ordinary Joe" after an article about me appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser entitled "Life of Misery Becomes a Valuable Lesson," by Lee Cataluna.
After a rural public school teacher read the article and shared it with her students she invited me to visit her class. Her reluctant and slightly hostile group of middle schoolers had seen and heard many stories about how life was a peach waiting for them to pick and enjoy. Few, if any, bought into this vision of the future. It didn't help that I drove into their school in my fairly new Lexus right as they filed by into the library for a miraculous dose of inspiration. I felt the hostility as soon as I was introduced by the teacher and turned to greet the class. I introduced myself as President and CEO of Mid-Pacific Institute, a highly influential independent private school with nearly 1500 students.
A few days after my visit to the school, I received a large envelope with thank-you cards stuffed inside. There were notes that said, "Please write a book about your life so other kids can read it. It will help them to know that it is possible to start with nothing, but end with something, if you believe you can and are willing to take help when it's offered."
I thought about it, and began to write my own story.


Perfectionism often leads to the opposite outcome of what you were fighting so hard to achieve. This is because perfectionists tend to worry so much about failure that they either never get started on or they get stuck halfway into their endeavours. They are constantly undermining themselves and getting in their own way—not exactly a fertile ground for creative growth.
This game of comparison is one you'll never win. The best and quickest way to shift these destructive thought patterns is to practice gratitude. Think of all of the amazing things you have in your life and hold your focus there. Try this every morning before you get out of bed to start your day on a positive note. You may just find that practising gratitude on a regular basis leads to more abundance than you ever thought possible.
Think about your favourite author. Is every one of his or her books the best book you've ever read? No. Some are better than others, some missed the mark, and many are hovering right around the middle.
Imagine that you set a goal to eat more healthfully. You begin scrutinising every single morsel of food you put into your mouth; you beat yourself up over eating that cookie at work; and you feel guilty about the way your sweet potatoes were prepared (who doesn't like sweet potato fries?). In other words, there is no balance, and because this is an impossible way to live, you give up, thinking that you're never going to eat healthier.


"This work first appeared as the second half of the 1865 printing of A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus. Wright's extended essay on Phallic worship is distinguished by much better scholarship and writing than some of the other works of this genre. Along with the usual suspects (ancient and modern phallic objects, fertility rituals and so on) Wright devotes the longest section of this text to exploring what would become known as the 'Witch Cult'. Wright lays out a compelling case for the survival of ancient fertility rituals in the otherwise puzzling accounts of the Witches' Sabbath."
"Thomas Wright (21 April 1810 - 23 December 1877) was an English antiquarian and writer.
Wright was born near Ludlow, in Shropshire, descended from a Quaker family formerly living at Bradford, Yorkshire. He was educated at the old grammar school, Ludlow, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1834."