Miscellany

A collection of bits and pieces that have been hovering around my brain. No thematic links, just some random stuff...

What's good for the gander...
Andy Murray's finacee, Kim Sears, got an awful lot of covergae in the press because she swore when watching her other half win in the semi-final of the Australian Tennis Open. Had the tone of the articles been that swearing in public places such as tennis matches is perhaps to be frowned upon, I could just about understand it. Instead, the reproting seemed to fixate on either a) Kim is a woman publicly swearing during the course of a sporting event or b) referring to the opponent's nationality in one of her rather excellent swears was somehow 'racist'. In the case of the 'racism' charge, I think "Fuck you, you Czech fuck!" hardly constitutes a slur on the fellow's nationality, let alone his 'race' (there was no mention of his being a "Caucasian fuck"). We don't tend to have any offensive slang terms for the Czech in the way we do for the French, Germans, Italians and so forth. This meant that Kim was left with only one option which was to call him 'Czech' which cannot really be offensive as the player is...Czech. On the first point, however, had this been a male spectator saying these things, eyebrows would not have been raised and it would have been acknowledged to be a normal occurrence during a tense sporting event. It may not be polite and it may not be appropriate, but it is no worse because a woman has said those things. I think we can all agree that we have moved on a little from the days of the ladies being the 'gentle sex'. Equality means women being able to behave in the same way as men in showing their support at a sporting event without triggering acres of newsprint debating the rights and wrongs of the issue.

Whiplash
What a top film! I can completely understand why J.K. Simmons has been nominated for an Oscar as his performance is a masterclass in portaying the bullying manipulation meted out by his music teacher character. Miles Teller playing the pupil at the centre of the story is also excellent. It is a nice study of what lengths we will go to, what sacrifices we are prepared to make in order to achieve greatness (and I don't mean the kind that comes from winning X Factor or The Voice) and what constitutes legitimate encouragement: can a constant stream of haranguing belittlement be acceptable/successful as a training method? The final showdown and the last couple of shots are priceless! Oh - the music is pretty good too! Do yourself a favour and see this film.

Murray (slight return)
There is nothing we do better in this country than making snide little attacks on those who, ten minutes ago, we were building up to be the best thing since the proverbial loaf separated into manageable portions. Andy Murray is a case in point. Yet again, the media has lapped up his performance throughout the Aussie Open and hailed the "British' player's success. However, once he crashed out in the semi-final, he had reverted to being "the beaten Scot" (the BBC no less!). This is pretty low, guys and needs to be sorted soon. Either he is British in victory and defeat or he is a Scot in both cases: it is unfair to cherry-pick only the good times on behalf of the wider country. Sometimes I can understand why the Scots are frustrated with (euphemism for 'dislike') the English...