Simon's Blog

Nefertiti as the wronged woman

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Guthlac

The papers are full of the liaisons of the French President and whilst I’m as prurient as the next person this whole affair does seem just a little silly. You wonder what is just so attractive about this man – perhaps power is the best aphrodisiac after all – I really can’t see anything else. And that, of course, is the what all of the great unwashed, i.e us, know about the breakdown of this relationship other than the woman scorned here isn’t some hapless maiden but a rather savvy media creature – perhaps she encouraged the media to go after her partner – after all hell hath no furry like a woman scorned. If she did then all power to her but there is one thing to remember. She did exactly the same thing a few years ago to the mother of Hollande’s children so we perhaps shouldn’t be too sympathetic. But it does make a great read for the rest of us.

So why Nefertiti? Well I’ve been watching the wonderful Art of Ancient Egypt by the ever watchable Alastair Sooke. This week he was discussing the wonders of the Middle Kingdom and of course Nefertiti came up. Suddenly this morning the two melded together and I just wondered what she would have looked like. Of course this is a ridicules notion as the Akhenaten would have had many woman – even though she was his Queen. However, I like ridicules notions.

I just want to dance the night away…

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Some Liverpool Images

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Guthlac

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Doodling for fun

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Guthlac

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Can’t get my arse in gear

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Guthlac

It has been one of those days today…can’t get excited about anything and equally have no motivation to finish the work I’ve already started…oh it’s so unfair…boo hoo…still I’m now old enough to know these things happen and tomorrow I’ll fell a whole lot different. Even the Mac is on a go slow.

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So everything is now Rosie in the garden

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Guthlac

Well I’ve slept on things and I still can’t see how the professional rugby union fault lines can be sealed. I have just read the comments of Mark Souster in the Times and according to him the intervention of the International Rugby Board (IRB) will finally ‘knock heads together’ to come up with a solution. The only problem with this is that any solution without the English clubs is no solution at all and they have the BT Sports money to cushion them.

So if the IRB solution is some form of Heineken 2 this still doesn’t seem to answer the problems of the Welsh regions for the basic reason that the English won’t be there and nor will the French or at least in any real meaningful way. What this all means is that you are stuck with a competition which no sponsor will want to touch for the money being asked and so the whole thing will slowly wilt and die.

I really do feel I’m repeating myself but if the English clubs do not take part the European competition has no future and it doesn’t matter how many fine words are issued by national Rugby boards it is just the hard brutal fact. I really don’t like writing those words because they do seem at the very least very patronising to the Irish and Scots but neither have the financial firepower to support their professional set ups – which probably explains why they are so adamant about the continued success of the current set up. But things have changed and unfortunately that will deeply effect professional rugby in their countries.

I guess the whole thing could be decided not by the IRB but by the High Court in London should the Welsh regions carry out their threat to sue for restraint of trade. It might just be worth remembering that the last time something like this was tested, the Bosnan case in professional football, the sporting authorities lost and there is a good chance that that would be the outcome here. The only solution will be found when it addresses the interests of the English clubs so that they are happy to join the European competition. At the moment the solutions on the table don’t come close to that.

I hope that sane heads will prevail and some form of a solution can be found rather than something that will fall apart within six months and that, I’m afraid, includes recognising that the world of professional rugby has changed and this really has to be addressed. Trying to force the clubs into a straight jacket designed not to serve their interests won’t be that solution.

Simon Marchini
http://www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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The one issue that was not talked about was who would have the TV rights…

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Guthlac

So the cavalry has come charging over the hill, in the form of the International Rugby Board (IRB), and everything has changed in the clash of money v tradition in professional Rugby. To read the articles about this it would seem that everything will be sorted out but the Guardian put their finger on it…TV rights – what the whole dispute has really been about. BT Sports wants to kick Sky Sports out of the Rugby arena. Now we’ll see just how much BT Sports wants to do this as they do have the money to do a Kerry Packer on the whole world of Professional Rugby and blow everything apart.

Over the weekend I have read a number of commentators trying to get their head around what is happening. Many seem to think that the pinnacle of the modern professional rugby player’s career is play for their country. Perhaps that is still true to an extent but nowadays it may seem fair to suggest it might also be to maximise their earnings in the short and brutal career window they have. If this is the case then it doesn’t matter how many caps you get when compared to the amount of money in your account. These men are willing to suffer terribly for the sport they love and now expect to be paid very well for the privilege. Clubs want to do that but to do so they have to generate income – if they don’t then the payers will move to where the money is. The latest example is Toby Flood who has given up on international rugby for the chance of earning serious money.

In many respects Flood’s decision is the shape of things to come and if this is the case then what the IRB says matters very little. In fact the French professional teams have made it quite clear they are not that interested in the international arena – winning the domestic championship is all that counts and since they have just signed a new and very lucrative TV deal they are quite happy to sit this one out whilst hoovering up all the talent they can get their hands on.

So what happens next? Perhaps the English Clubs will blink or perhaps the Welsh region’s resolve will melt away or perhaps some form of compromise between BT Sports and Sky Sports will be found. Or perhaps some one will press the nuclear button and the whole world of International Rugby will collapse in very short order – along with it the 2015 World Cup, which probably would have been the last anyway given the outrageous amount of money that the RFU have promised to deliver to the IRB. There is only one Rugby nation who can match that and they sit 22 miles across the English Channel.

Time and again we see the old guard not understanding how things have changed. I mentioned Kerry Packer but his modern equivalent is the Indian Premier League (IPL) who don’t give a hoot about any other form of cricket and are quite happy as long as they are getting more and more money coming to them. There is no greater cricketing market in the world and if we are brutally honest that is the same for English and French professional rugby.

I have no idea how this whole mess will resolve itself other than to think that some International Sports body can sort things out is stretching credulity. I have also learnt over the past few weeks that most of the rugby journalists have no real idea what is going to happen and they are too wedded to the image of the rugby world of when they played. This mess is very very sad and won’t be truly resolved until the market has sorted itself out. To quote Rod Tidwell…”…show me the money…”

Simon Marchini
www.simonmarchini.co.uk

Posted in General | Tagged BT Sports, English Rugby Union, French Rugby Union, Indian Premier League Cricket, International Rugby Board, Kerry Packer, Rugby Union, Sky Sports, Welsh Regional Rugby | Leave a comment

Woman of Ireland – Rhythms of LIfe

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Guthlac

My consciousness is subsumed in the rhythms of life. I can’t stop think about them. Now this is going to sound morbid but please just bare with me for a short while. You see for some time I’ve been slowly writing up my research findings to be published on my website. The research is all about the Iron Age in England and I have started to try and construct some picture of who the world would work based on the knowledge we actually have as opposed to to archaeologists speculation. I know that this is exactly what I’m doing but I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t contrary.

This is where the rhythms of life come in. The Iron Age economy was based upon agricultural production and these have clear cycles. The first is the orbit of the earth around the sun and it’s four marker posts of the solstice and equinox. The second is lunar, which doesn’t quite fit with the solar but the two are linked to the third – the cycle of life – just how long is the gestation of the farm creatures and when is the best time to, well, let nature take it’s course and also when is the best time to slaughter the creatures. Linked to all of this is the growing season for not only cultivated crops such as wheat but for when is the best time to put the animals out into the pastures and which animal should go in when. You see cows are a lot less efficient at eating grass than sheep who are quite capable to eat the grass right down to the ground, the cows on the other hand leave a cm or so – thus allowing the grass to regrow much quicker.

Then you have the questions of hooves. Cattle are much heavier and so cut up the ground far more than sheep so if you are managing the water meadows you must be aware of this. And so the rhythms start to inter mingle in such a away as to be able to plan how an agrarian economy would function with out having to resort to ritual or ancestor worship or, please help me, druidism.

In the end it is just as speculative as all the rest of archaeological flights of fancy one reads from time to time should you venture into the dry and interesting world of archaeological dig reports. What a strange world I live in!